Here is a list of characters from Blue Velvet.
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Jeffrey Beaumont
Played By: Kyle Maclachlan
A college student returning home to take over the family hardware store for his father, who has recently been badly injured. He quickly develops a mutual crush on Sandy, a high school senior. After finding someone's ear in the grass, he dives into a mystery hidden beyond the town's sparkly surface and gets in way over his head.
- Amateur Sleuth: Through his own curiosity, he stumbles upon a criminal conspiracy and decides to investigate it.
- Author Avatar: For Mr. Lynch himself, in how he behaves, looks and dresses.
- Determinator: He becomes fixated on finding out the mystery of the ear, which leads to Dorothy Vallens, who starts spying on.
- Easily Forgiven: By Sandy when his and Dorothy's affair is thrown out into the open.
- Nice Guy: He generally goes out of his way to be kind to people. He assures Dorothy he definitely doesn't hate her and quickly accepts Sandy's boyfriend's apology for trying to beat him up.
Dorothy Vallens
Played By: Isabella Rossellini
A mentally unhinged club singer who becomes a deranged man's virtual sex slave to protect her husband and son. She has an affair with Jeffrey.
- Betty and Veronica: A much darker version than usual but Dorothy is nonetheless the Veronica to Sandy's Betty.
- Broken Bird: She's already quite broken by the time the movie starts.
- The Chanteuse: She sings in a nightclub every night.
- Damsel in Distress: She is reduced to sex slavery by Frank. She is totally helpless. The film is about Jeffrey's attempt to help her.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Dark to Sandy's Light. It even shows in their hair colors.
- Sex Slave: Frank has forced her to be his by holding her husband and son's lives over her head.
Frank Booth
Played By: Dennis Hopper
Dubbed By: Patrick Floersheim (European French)
A depraved drug dealer who keeps Dorothy Vallens as his sex slave.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: He's a mob boss who deals in drug selling and is VERY aggressive.
- Ax-Crazy: Will murder, mutilate or batter at the slightest provocation. Merely being in the same room as him is a hazard in itself.
- Big Bad: He's the source of everything going wrong in the story.
- Boom, Headshot!: Jeffrey blows the back of his head off.
- Cloudcuckoolander: And far from the pleasant kind.
- Deadpan Snarker: Far from being deadpan but quite snarky.Raymond: Do you want me to pour it (the beer) ?Frank: No, I want you to fuck it !! Shit, yes, pour the fuckin' beer!
- Depraved Bisexual: A borderline Depraved Omnisexual, given he quite literally states he'll "fuck anything that moves!" at one point. He smears lipstick on to kiss Jeffrey all over the face with and calls his butt cute before trying to kill him. The original screenplay heavily implies that Frank raped Jeffrey during the aforementioned incident.
- The Dreaded: The scariest, craziest criminal and character of the story and all the people of Lumberton even Jeffrey are scared of him.
- Evil Wears Black: He always dress in black.
- Fetish: He has a thing for blue velvet, the song as well as the cloth. He likes to hear Dorothy sing the former and dress in the latter, he clearly gets a kick out of from sucking on velvet during sex, and he even carries around a small piece of velvet on his person.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: He's always seen in a black leather jacket except at the end where he dress in a business suit.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Raging at someone or something is practically his default state. It's easier to count the times he appears almost calm.
- I Have Your Wife: He holds Dorothy's husband and son hostage, and uses this to extorting her into having sadomasochistic sex with him, and even mutilates her husband to intimidate her further.
- Jerkass: And that's one of the nicest terms to describe him.
- Large Ham: The terrifying, psychotic variation.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: During some of his criminal operations, Frank wears a wig and adhesive mustache to avoid implicating someone matching his actual description. He usually keeps a distance from anyone but associates to hide what an obviously fake disguise this is, but when we the audience see him up close, we're meant to tell right away.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Not only is a sadistic psycho, he's also a violent, depraved rapist.
- Satanic Archetype: Possibly. Frank is either a symbolic representation of evil, or at least Satan incarnate. He's extremely evil, sadistic and psychopathic, commits acts of evil for fun, and disappears spontaneously in one scene, almost as if he's Ambiguously Human.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Frank's insanity is highlights by his colorful dialogue, which is full of f-bombs and just as unhinged as he is.
- The Sociopath: One of the most terrifying examples that cinema has given us. For him, committing acts of violence is as normal as breathing.
- Vader Breath: Frank breathes through a gas mask when he is about to make something evil.
- Villain Has a Point: You can't blame him for hating warm beer. It's quite distasteful.
- Villainous Breakdown: When he realizes Jeffrey has outwitted him, Frank loses what little sanity he has remaining, screaming like a wounded animal and firing his gun at nothing.
Sandy Williams
Played By: Laura Dern
Jeffrey's friend who falls in love with him and reluctantly (at first, anyway) agrees to help him solve the mystery.- Betty and Veronica: Wholesome, sweet Sandy is the Betty to Dorothy's dark, sexual Veronica.
- Break the Cutie: When she finds out Jeffrey has slept with Dorothy.
- Girl Next Door: Sandy is litteraly one for Jeffey. She is the "Betty" in the love triangle.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Light to Dorothy's Dark.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold
- Nice Girl:She's sweet and very quick to want to help Dorothy when Frank's badly hurt her.
Ben
Played By: Dean Stockwell
Frank's soft-spoken criminal associate, and possibly only friend, who helps hold Dorothy's son hostage.- Dissonant Serenity: Remains completely calm and collected even when Frank gets angry. Dean Stockwell confirmed in a 1990 interview
that he played Ben as being on heroin, which is the reason for his bizarre tranquility. - Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Wears far too much powder on his face, which gives him a ghostly appearance.
- Eyes Always Shut: His eyes are almost always either completely shut or open so little you can't see much of them beneath the lids, which makes the few times he fully opens his eyes very creepy.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He's always holding a cigarette holder, something usually associated with villains or snooty types.
- Oh, Crap!: Silently has this expression once he realizes his lip-synching "In Dreams" made Frank upset, and he immediately stops his routine as Frank shuts off the music. It goes to show just how well he knows Frank's mood swings.
- Precision F-Strike: The only other person in the movie to drop an F-bomb besides Frank, and he only does it at Frank's request.
- Sissy Villain: Ben may wear a lot of makeup and have a somewhat feminine demeanor, but considering Frank treats him as an equal, he is certainly not to be trifled with.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His total screentime is less than ten minutes, but his role as the one keeping Don Jr. along with his fleshed-out mannerisms make him deserve a folder.
