Rick Grimes/TV

This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page.

Overview

TV

Rick Grimes
Biographical Information
Real Name	Rick Grimes
Aliases	Officer Friendly
Home country	United States of America
Homeworld	Earth
Multiverse	Walking Dead Multiverse
Physical Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Chronological / Political Information
Citizenship	American
Base of Operations	King County Sheriff's Department Greene Family Farm West Georgia Correctional Facility Alexandria Safe-Zone
Fictional Information
Created by	Robert Kirkman Frank Darabont
Portrayed by	Andrew Lincoln
First Appearance	Days Gone Bye

“	Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there’s a place for us, but maybe it’s just another pipe dream. Maybe I’m fooling myself again. Why don’t you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on. There’s the door. You can do better. Lets see how far you get. No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight: You’re staying, this isn’t a democracy anymore.	”
–Rick Grimes, to his fellow survivors

Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes was an American police officer who worked for the King County Sheriff's Department. Following the zombie apocalypse he became the leader of a band of survivors and gradually grew into a benign dictator who struggled to rebuild society, while contending with rival factions who sought to destroy what he had built.

After taking a bullet in the line of duty, Grimes awoke from a coma to find King County overrun with the undead. After meeting with fellow survivor Morgan Jones, Grimes decided to head for Atlanta in the hopes of finding more survivors. There he encountered a band who took him in, where he reunited with his wife Lori and son Carl, as well as old friend and fellow former sheriff's deputy Shane Walsh. The group traveled to the Center for Disease Control, and barely escaped its destruction.

Grimes' group took up residence at the farm of Hershel Greene, but were eventually forced to leave after it was overrun by a herd of walkers. At the same time, Grimes was forced to kill Walsh to save his own life. The group took up residence in the deserted West Georgia Correctional Facility, from which they made contact with the residents of Woodbury, a fortified community commanded by the Governor. During this time, Rick suffered from hallucinations of his wife, who had died during a walker assault on the prison. Clashes and differences of opinion led to two wars between the communities, which resulted in the destruction of Woodbury and the prison, forcing Rick's group to scatter and attempt to regroup further north.

Grimes and his son Carl reunited with Daryl Dixon and Michonne Hawthorne when they encountered the Claimers, who attempted to rape both Hawthorne and Carl. This led to Grimes viciously murdering most of the Claimers personally. Rick's group later reunited and routed Terminus, a community of cannibals. Rick's group were granted sanctuary in the Alexandria Safe-Zone, where he gradually assumed power. They managed to fend off attacks from both a scavenger group called the Wolves and a massive herd of walkers.

The community was noticed by a larger group named the Saviors, run by the dictatorial Negan. Negan assumed control of Alexandria by forcing Grimes to pay homage to him. He however pushed Grimes too far, and Grimes began courting the support of neighbouring communities the Kingdom, Hilltop, and Oceanside. The four vassal states united in full-scale war against the Saviors, wiping them out and capturing Negan, ending his reign over Virginia. Grimes ordered that Negan be kept alive and imprisoned for life to prove their society was better than his, and so that he could be punished for his many crimes.

Grimes and the coalition would later attempt to rebuild a bridge that had been washed away, using partial Savior labour. A skirmish between the remaining Saviors and Oceanside brought the attention of a herd of walkers. Grimes was injured after being thrown off his horse onto exposed rebar, and spent several hours in a semi-delirious state while avoiding the undead hordes, before finally sacrificing himself by blowing up the bridge, taking himself and the walkers with it. Grimes was shortly after recovered by the Civic Republic Military, who took him away in a helicopter.

Six years later, Hawthorne would later recover Grimes' boots and an iPhone with an engraving of herself and her daughter Judith on Bloodsworth Island, and she would realise that Grimes had survived the explosion as a result.

Notes

Behind the Scenes

• Grimes was portrayed by English actor Andrew Lincoln.
• As early as the sixth season some had grown weary of the character, with a writer for Slate suggesting that Rick be moved out of the spotlight to allow focus on Michonne Hawthorne and for her to take his place as the leader. Grimes' departure was originally planned on occurring at the end of the eighth season, but was pushed back to allow for closure.
• Lincoln and Grimes' departure from the show was reacted to negatively by Vanity Fair, who criticised the fact that his long-advertised death had not occurred and that the episode had ended on a cliffhanger, referring to it as "equal parts infuriating and unsurprising," and referred to his being saved at the end as "both cowardly and manipulative", and comparing it to the treatment of Glenn Rhee, Beth Greene, and Sophia.
• The announcement that Grimes would return in a series of original films was met more receptively by a different writer for Vanity Fair, who referred to the choice as "ingenious". The length in time between Lincoln's departure of the show and the slow progress of the feature films led to speculation about possible audience apathy to the character's return. The plethora of other expected content and the delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic added to this in the opinion of a writer for Comic Book Resources.
• There was some speculation that some voices heard over the radio belonged to Alicia Clark and Dwight.
• Rick's aggressive leadership style lead to the term "Ricktatorship" being coined by the fandom.

References

• Actor Bruce Campbell once wrote a satirical rewritten script of "Days Gone Bye", in which Grimes awakens to find out that Ash Williams has ended the zombie apocalypse prior to Grimes' reawakening.

Trivia

• Seth Meyers joked in 2025 that Grimes had "zombie derangement syndrome".

Popular Culture

Appearances

Variants

The following list is of explicit appearances of Rick Grimes.

Year	Name	Appearance	Notes
2014	Rick Grimes	Epic Rap Battles of History, "Rick Grimes vs Walter White"	Grimes engages in a rap battle with Walter White.

Appearances

• The Walking Dead
  • Days Gone Bye (first appearance)
  • What Comes After (final appearance to date)
• Fear the Walking Dead
  • What's Your Story?

Links

• Rick Grimes on Wikipedia
• Rick Grimes on the Walking Dead Wiki