Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

Heathcliff
Wuthering Heights character
Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in 1939
Created by	Emily Brontë
Portrayed by	Laurence Olivier Richard Burton Timothy Dalton Tom Hardy Ralph Fiennes Cliff Richard Robert Cavanah James Howson
In-universe information
Occupation	Farm-owner
Spouse	Isabella Linton (wife)
Children	Linton Heathcliff (son)
Relatives	Hindley Earnshaw (foster brother) Catherine Earnshaw (foster sister and a significant other)
Nationality	English

Heathcliff is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.^[1] Owing to the novel's enduring fame and popularity, he is often regarded as an archetype of the tortured antihero whose all-consuming rage, jealousy and anger destroy both him and those around him; in short, the Byronic hero.

He is better known for being a romantic hero due to his youthful love for Catherine Earnshaw, than for his final years of vengeance in the second half of the novel, during which he grows into a bitter, haunted man, and for a number of incidents in his early life that suggest that he was an upset and sometimes malicious individual from the beginning. His complicated, mesmerizing, absorbing, and altogether bizarre nature makes him a rare character, incorporating elements of both the hero and villain. Actors who have portrayed Heathcliff on screen include Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and Tom Hardy.