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."