Bonnie and Clyde Characters

Bonnie Parker

Bonnie is a beautiful young waitress in Dallas when the film begins, who has big dreams for herself in spite of her humble upbringing and normal life. When she meets Clyde, she is immediately taken in by his slick and mischievous attitude, and when he promises to make her life exciting and memorable, she cannot help but take him up on it. Bonnie is impressionable and innocent in many ways, but she is also self-sufficient, independent, and strong-minded, and she knows how to stand up for herself if need be. In addition to her penchant for bank robbery, Bonnie is a motivated writer, and she loves to write poems and dreams of being a great writer. Bonnie is alternately tough and vulnerable; one minute she is shooting cops and defending herself against the increasing threat of arrest, and the next she is begging for her mother's love. A complicated woman, Bonnie is the epitome of a confused and complicated young person on the brink of adulthood, searching for a purpose in the world.

Clyde Barrow

Clyde is the smooth-talking criminal that lures Bonnie into his racket, which is robbing banks. He is a handsome, charming, and hot-headed young man, almost innocent in his belief that he is entitled to commit his crimes and get away with it. At certain points, he frames his desire to break the law and take money from institutions as a kind of socially responsible project, a revolutionary resistance against institutional and state power. In this way, he fancies himself a kind of Robin Hood figure, stealing from those who have resources in order to provide for those who do not. Unfortunately, however, he also has a very chaotic relationship to his work, and often flies off the rails emotionally when he is threatened. His violent streak gets him into trouble time and time again, and although he is charming and well-intentioned in certain ways, he is also deeply troubled. He loves Bonnie, the first woman who loves and stands by him in spite of his criminal record, but he has trouble with impotence, which stalls their sex life and causes a rift between them for a portion of the film.

Buck Barrow

Buck is Clyde's loving and loyal brother. While he is not as badly behaved as his brother and has sought out a respectable married life with a preacher's daughter, he is easily lured into Clyde's schemes and takes a central role in the bank robberies once he meets up with his brother. He is jolly and good-natured and tries to get along with everyone, telling funny stories and making jokes whenever he can.

Blanche Barrow

Blanche is Buck's wife, an excitable, judgmental woman who gets embroiled in the Barrow gang without really meaning to. A preacher's daughter, she is haughty and disapproving of Bonnie and Clyde's attitudes when she first meets them. She is very sensitive and high-strung and often lets out a high-pitched squeal when the going gets tough. In contrast to Bonnie, who is cool and more confident, Blanche is twitchy and neurotic. Eventually, however, she accepts her position in the Barrow gang and wants to be considered a central member. At the end, she is shot in the eyes by the police and rendered blind. In a heartbreaking monologue about how difficult her life has been, she unwittingly tells Frank Hammer the name of C.W. Moss, a piece of information that eventually allows him to apprehend Bonnie and Clyde.

C.W. Moss

Moss is a young gas station attendant who gets pulled in to working with Bonnie and Clyde one day when he's filling their car with gas. He is young, impressionable, and misguided, and fits in well with the two criminals, relishing in the bank robberies. At the end, he accidentally betrays the duo by bringing them to the house of his father, who sets up a plot with the police to catch and kill them.

Frank Hammer

Frank Hammer is the sheriff who is most concerned with catching Bonnie and Clyde, especially after they handcuff him, take mocking pictures with him, and push him out to the middle of a pond in a small rowboat. After being humiliated by the gang, he is intent on capturing them, preferably dead.

Eugene

Eugene is a young man whose car the gang steals on their way down the road. At first he is very angry at them for stealing his car, then very frightened of the band of criminals, then amused by their lighthearted antics.