Will Truman

Infobox character
colour = blue
name = William Truman


first = "Pilot; Love and Marriage"
last = "Finale"
cause = Series End
nickname = Will, Wilma (Given to him by Karen)
age = 31 or 32 at series beginning, 39 or 40 by series end (Born c. October, 1966)
occupation = Attorney
title = William Truman, Esq.
family = George Truman (father; "deceased")
Marilyn Truman (mother)
Paul Truman (brother)
Sam Truman (brother)
Jordan Truman (nephew)
Casey Truman (adoptive niece)
spouse = Vince D'Angelo (partner)
children = Ben Truman (son)
Lila Markus (daughter-in-law)
residence = 155 Riverside Drive Apt 9C, New York, NY
episode = All of Series
portrayer = Eric McCormack
creator = Max Mutchnick

William "Will" Truman (born October 23, 1966) is a fictional character on the American sitcom "Will & Grace", portrayed by Eric McCormack. He is a gay lawyer living in New York City with his best friend, Grace Adler.

Fictional character history

Will was born on October 23, 1966 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to WASP parents Marilyn (Blythe Danner) and George (Sydney Pollack); he has two brothers, Paul and Sam. Will came out in 1985, during college, when he started to believe — after being told repeatedly by Jack McFarland — that his relationship with Grace masked his true sexuality.

After graduating from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, he worked for a big-time law firm on track to make partner but decided to quit and start his own practice. This fell through in the show's second season, and he began working for Doucette & Stein, a firm that he worked for until the end of the seventh season. His next job was working for the mysterious Malcolm (Alec Baldwin), but that came to an end when Malcolm revealed that he was an FBI agent. In the eighth season, Will took a job at the Coalition of Justice, a business providing legal support for people who cannot afford it, though he ultimately returned to Doucette & Stein, having taken back his old job after being offered a partnership by his new boss at the firm, played by Lily Tomlin. Will is usually the straight man of the show, being the most calm and down to earth in contrast to Grace's many neurotic tendencies, Jack's camp behavior, and Karen's drunken snobbery. He also has a wry sense of humor, often making jokes about the other three characters.

Relationships

Will's relationship with his parents was always prone to issues, particularly his father, who, though outwardly supportive of Will's lifestyle, was uncomfortable with his son's sexuality for years. In season eight, the two had a fight in which George confessed he wished Will weren't gay. A few days later, having not spoken with Will since the fight, George died of a heart attack.

Will has had romantic "relationships" with three women: Grace; his high-school girlfriend Claire (Megyn Price); and Diane (Mira Sorvino), the woman with whom he had a one-night stand after he and Grace broke up. Diane is the only woman with whom Will has ever had sex, and, coincidentally, was the only time Diane ever reached orgasm.

At the beginning of the series, Will's most successful relationship with a man was said to have been with long-term boyfriend Michael (Chris Potter), whom he was together with from 1989, to November, 1996. In the 2004-2005 season, however, he became involved in a serious relationship with a NYC police officer named Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale). Their relationship was put on hiatus after Vince, who lost two jobs in a row because he couldn't resist trying on gloves while on duty, needed to take some time off from the relationship. Towards the end of the final season (2006), the two reunited after Will's father's death. In the series finale, it was revealed that he and Vince were raising a son named Ben, who eventually marries Grace and Leo's daughter Lila. Thus, by the end of the series, Will and Vince's relationship has been strong for nearly 22 years.

Much of the comedy on the show is at Will's expense. Many of the characters (especially Jack), play off his many unsuccessful relationships between Michael (and sometimes including the failure of that relationship) and Vince. It was considered ironic and often displeasing to the fans that a show which was so prominently about homosexuality, the leading gay character only had two relationships throughout the course of the series. Jack also has a thing for calling Will "fat and bald" (which he clearly isn’t), also claiming in a Season 4 episode that Will is "strange looking" and has an "odd kind of shellacked look" about him.

Birthday and age

Throughout Will's life, every birthday has ended with someone - or everyone - else stealing the limelight. This is the plot of several episodes of the show, including "Will On Ice," "Gypsies, Tramps & Weed," and "Key Party." The conflicting nature of the air dates for these episodes puts his birthday somewhere between October and January, although October is the most probable. In one episode Will says that his Zodiac Sign is the Scorpio, which means that he was is born in either October, or November, but in two other episodes, Jack says that he is a Libra, which is September, and October. It is therefore the most correct to think that Will was born in October, but as said, it cannot be certain.

Although there are a lot of signs that Will is born in 1966, some episodes say different. In a late 2005 episode, Will says that he is 41, which means that would have been born in 1964. But if so, he and Grace wouldn’t have been in college together, due to a 3 years age difference, so it is therefore believed that Will was overexaggerating with his age. He also says that he came out when he was 19. Will came out in November, 1985, and if he was born in 1964, that wouldn’t be correct. It is therefore believed that Will was born in October, 1966

Children

Will almost donated sperm to his high school girlfriend Clarie (Megyn Price) so she could have a baby but Grace didn't want Claire to have a baby with Will because that would have ruined her "B-Plan". Ben only appeared in the series finale in 2006. He was raised by Will and Vince until he went to college and married Grace's daughter Lila. This reunites Will and Grace. He was played by actor Ben Newmark