Watch Mojo's Top 10 Walking Dead Characters

Daryl Dixon As A Parent

Great Old Cast Photo

Now the cast and the walkers eat separately according to Lauren Cohen.  

Shane Walsh

The character of Shane Walsh differs slightly from the television show and the graphic novel. Shane was Rick's partner in the sheriff's department and best friend since high school. When the apocalypse occurs while Rick is in a coma, Shane helps save Lori and Carl by fleeing with them toward Atlanta.

Shortly after the evacuation, Shane and Lori start an affair, something that Shane has long wanted. In the television show, Shane also is shown attempting to be a father figure to Carl. When Rick meets up with the group in Atlanta, Shane is initially happy, but increasingly became jealous of Rick and Lori getting back together.

Eventually, Lori brushes off Shane's advances using a violent scratch to firmly establish her mindset. Sent into an emotional meltdown by Lori siding with Rick.

Shane’s frustrations over Rick’s position bubble to the surface and create incredible tension between the partners, even despite the fact they are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. After one disagreement, Shane aims his rifle on Rick in the woods, but stops short of firing, but not before Dale witnesses the act.

Shane's relationship with Lori also quickly disintegrates and fuels his decent. “I have a few mistakes under my belt,” he tells her, explaining his plan to leave the group. Before he can go through with leaving, Carl is shot, and Shane sacrifices Otis to escape a walker attack.  Returning to the group with medication that save Carl’s life he is a hero, but the guilt over the murder makes him symbolically shave his head.

At the same time Shane then learns that Lori is pregnant and his decision to replace Rick as the group's leader, Lori's mate and father to Carl and the baby is solidified.

Believing himself to be the father, Shane pursues Lori again, telling her that he – not Rick – is the only one capable of protecting her and Carl, and arguing that “What we had, it was real.”

Shane tells Rick as much when the two are deciding what to do with a dangerous prisoner, Randall, which leads to a brutal fist-fight. “If you wanna kill me, you’re gonna have to do better,” Rick warns his partner afterward.

Shane gets his chance a few days later when he leads Rick into the forest to track down Randall, who’s apparently escaped. (Shane has in fact killed Randall and staged the escape.) Raising his gun at Rick, Shane asserts that “Lori and Carl, they’ll get over you.”

Rick slowly hands over his gun. As Shane momentarily looks down Rick stabs his partner in the heart. "Damn you for making me do this," Rick yells as Shane collapses to the ground. "This was you! Not me! You did this to us!"

Moments later, Shane rises as a walker and lumbers toward Rick. Carl, gun drawn, shoots Shane in the head.

In the comic, Shane attempts to lure him into the nearby woods to kill him in secrecy. However, Carl happens upon the scene and shoots Shane through the neck, causing him to die seconds later from choking on his own blood. Shane's body is buried in a makeshift grave, marked by a cross of twigs. Rick later returns to the grave site and finds that Shane has reanimated as a walker, and shoots him in the head in order to finally put him to rest.

Jon Bernthal brilliantly portrayed Shane in the television series, marking the actor's most high-profile role to date. It makes Shanes line from the first episode, "Would be kind of cool to get on one of them shows." very appropriate.  Bernthal and Andrew Lincoln, who was eventually cast as protagonist Rick Grimes, auditioned for the show together and were the first to be chosen for the regular cast. 

Series creator Frank Darabont originally had all actors audition for the role of Rick, including Bernthal, and then brought back the actors under close consideration to audition for Shane and other roles. Bernthal, however, wanted to play the part of Shane from early on and fought for the part, despite knowing that the character would die early in the series.

In Season 3, Shane makes a 

Rick Grimes

Rick Grimes is a sheriff's deputy from a small town outside of Atlanta who is wounded in the line of duty at the beginning of the Walking Dead story-line. When he wakes up, he discovers the world has become a zombie apocalypse.  Like the audience and reader, Rick is thrown headfirst into the Walking Dead's world.

While Rick in the coma, his best friend and partner Shane leaves Rick in the hospital during the chaos of the initial outbreak figuring he is dead.  Shane then takes up an affair with Rick's wife, Lori. Although Lori later admits to the affair after learning she’s pregnant, Rick tells Shane he had already figured out the truth on his own.

As the story's main protagonist (so far) Rick struggles to cling to the moral code he represents as a police officer. In the story of the Walking Dead, this is often easier said than done. At one point early in the story, Rick states, "We don't kill the living, only to subsequently realize that the philosophy does not necessarily play out when “the living tried to kill us.”

Becoming the group’s leader, Rick takes the responsibility upon himself of keeping everyone safe as well as finding them a safe refuge.

When his son Carl is accidentally shot by Otis, a man living in a secluded farmhouse with Hershel's family, Rick thinks he’s found a haven. But even the farm eventually proves to be unstoppable to a walker horde, and needs to be abandoned.

Meanwhile Shane's affair with Lori is not the only strain on Rick and Shane’s relationship.  Shane was the initial leader of the group when Rick met up with them outside of Atlanta.  Shane constantly questions and betrays Rick’s leadership as he struggles with his own demons, including the sacrificing of Otis to a walker herd to save himself.

The struggle for power among the living characters of the Walking Dead is a prevalent theme, and the corrupting influence of power and the path to get it are continually played out.

Shane accuses Rick of being unable to make the hard choices to keep people safe, like killing the walkers Hershel has hidden in his barn.   Shane plots to murder Rick, blame the murder on the "escaped captive" Randall, and assume leadership of the group. Rick, however, aware of what is happening is able to use his cunning to kill Shane first. “Damn you for making me do this,” Rick cries.

After escaping from the walker attack on Hershel's farm, his leadership is again questioned when he reveals that he’d been keeping a secret from the group.  Just before the group escaped the demolition of the Center For Disease control building, Dr. Jenner let Rick know that everyone is infected, and that when people die, they will become walkers, even if they are not bit.  Rick did not tell the group, possibly because he did not know if it was true, but when Shane turns soon after Rick killed him, the truth is confirmed.

“I didn’t ask for this,” Rick counters. He maintains there’s still a place where the group can fortify and build a new life, but invites anyone who wants to leave to do so. “If you’re staying,” he warns, “this isn’t a democracy any more.”

In The Walking Dead, Rick isn’t nearly as calm and collected as he is in the TV series. In fact, on the Hershel's farm, it is Rick that confronts Hershel and says the walkers in the barn must be put down. This is also due to the fact that Shane is not as much of a main character in the comic as in the TV series.

In The Walking Dead television series, Rick is played by British actor Andrew Lincoln.

Lincoln is the son of a civil engineer father and a South African mother, a nurse. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School in Bath, and then the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Lincoln's first big break came when he was cast as Edgar 'Egg' Cook in the popular UK drama series "This Life". Various roles followed including that of teacher Simon Casey in the Channel 4 series "Teachers", and as Mark in the hit film Love Actually. In 2010, he was cast in "The Walking Dead".

Discussing the character of Rick with Fangoria, Lincoln commented:

"I think his humanity is pretty intact but his ruthlessness, his decision making, has moved into a Shane point of view. There is an uncompromising nature that I think has happened over time to Rick. The other thing to bear in mind is that he is the most isolated, both in his group and in his relationship. I don't think he is in the most stable-certainly when I was playing it, I wanted it to be this instantaneous, almost Pavlovian reaction to the situation. Certainly, in season one and season two, I don't think he would have been so quick to make that judgment call. That's one of the joys of playing Rick. The moral ambiguity of the show is the most interesting part for me-certainly as an actor-because in any other world, any other situation that wasn't Hell you wouldn't make these kinds of calls. You wouldn't be pushed into this corner to make these calls. The thing that dignifies him and helps to justify the situation is the fact that he always has their safety as a priority, so it becomes this sort of selfless act even though it's incredibly evil. His humanity is never fully taken away from him, although as we go through this season it diminishes and diminishes and that's all I will say."

Maggie Loves Killing Walkers