Thomas Sawyer () is the titular character of the Mark Twain novel ''

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the town of St. Petersburg, which is based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the no ...

'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: ''

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...

'' (1884), '' Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and '' Tom Sawyer, Detective'' (1896). Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, ''Huck and Tom Among the Indians'', '' Schoolhouse Hill'', and ''Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy''. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only ''Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy'' has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters. It is set in the 1840s in the Mississippi.

Inspiration

The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant chief named Tom Sawyer, with whom Twain was acquainted in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, while Twain was employed as a reporter at ''

The San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...

''. Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth, " Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: ‘I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.’ ‘Go ahead, Sam,’ I said, ‘but don’t disgrace my name.’" Twain himself said the character sprang from three people, later identified as: John B. Briggs (who died in 1907), William Bowen (who died in 1893) and Twain; however Twain later changed his story saying Sawyer was fully formed solely from his imagination, but as Robert Graysmith says, "The great appropriator liked to pretend his characters sprang fully grown from his fertile mind."

Portrayals

Actors who have portrayed Tom Sawyer in films and TV: *

Jack Pickford John Charles Smith (August 18, 1896 – January 3, 1933), known professionally as Jack Pickford, was a Canadian-American actor, film director and producer. He was the younger brother of actresses Mary and Lottie Pickford. After their father ...

(1917) *

Gordon Griffith Gordon S. Griffith (July 4, 1907 – October 12, 1958) was an American assistant director, film producer, and one of the first child actors in the American movie industry. Griffith worked in the film industry for five decades, acting in ov ...

(1920) * Jackie Coogan (1930 and 1931) * Tommy Kelly (1938) * Billy Cook (1938) *Michael Miller (1944) *Robert Hyatt (1955, TV) *John Sharpe (1956, TV musical) * Kevin Schultz (1968 in the TV series '' The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'') *Roland Demongeot (1968 in the French/German TV series ''Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer''/''Tom Sawyers und Huckleberry Finns Abenteuer'') *

Johnny Whitaker John Orson Whitaker, Jr. (born December 13, 1959) is an American actor notable for several film and television performances during his childhood. The redheaded Whitaker played Jody Davis on ''Family Affair'' from 1966 to 1971. He also originated ...

(1973) *

Don Most Don Most (born August 8, 1953) is an American actor and singer, best known for his role as Ralph Malph on the television series ''Happy Days''. Early life Most was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. He lived in Flatbush, Brook ...

(1975) *

Sam Snyders Sam Snyders (also known as "Sammy Snyders"), is a former television and film child actor from Canada. He is best known for his role as Tom Sawyer in the 1979 Canadian television series, ''Huckleberry Finn and His Friends'', alongside Ian Tracey w ...

(1979) *Fyodor Stukov (1981, Soviet three-episode TV miniseries, ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn'') *Chris Ritchie (1985 in the film '' The Adventures of Mark Twain'') *Eugene Oakes (1986) *

Raphael Sbarge Raphael Sbarge (born February 12, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on ''The Guardian'' (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on ''Once Upon a Time'' (2011–18) and Insp ...

(1990 in '' Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn'') *

Jonathan Taylor Thomas Jonathan Taylor Thomas (born Jonathan Taylor Weiss; September 8, 1981) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Randy Taylor on ''Home Improvement'' and voicing young Simba in Disney's 1994 film ''The Lion King'' and Pinocch ...

(1995 in ''

Tom and Huck Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

'') *

Rhett Akins Thomas Rhett Akins Sr. (born October 13, 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. Signed to Decca Records between 1994 and 1997, he released two albums for that label (1995's '' A Thousand Memories'' and 1996's '' Somebody New''), followed by ...

(2000, voice) *

Grey Griffin Grey DeLisle (; born Erin Grey Van Oosbree; August 24, 1973), sometimes credited as Grey Griffin, is an American voice actress, comedian and singer-songwriter. DeLisle is known for various roles in animated productions and video games. On Sept ...

(2003 in ''

The Fairly Oddparents ''The Fairly OddParents'' is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda who grant him w ...

'', voice) *

Shane West Shannon Bruce Snaith (born June 10, 1978), better known as Shane West, is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He is known for his portrayal of Eli Sammler in the ABC family drama '' Once and Again'', Landon Carter in ''A Walk to Remember' ...

(2003 in ''

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (''LoEG'') is a comic book series (inspired by the 1960 British film ''The League of Gentlemen'') co-created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill which began in 1999. The series spans four volum ...

'') * Louis Hofmann (2011, German version of ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'') *Leon Seidel (2012, German version of ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'') *

Joel Courtney Joel Courtney (born January 31, 1996)Joel Courtney Bio
is an American actor known for his role in the 2011 ...

(2014) *Adam Nee (2015) *

Jeremy Shada Jeremy Shada () is an American actor, musician and singer. He is best known for his work as the voice of Finn the Human from the American animated television series ''Adventure Time'' and Lance in '' Voltron: Legendary Defender''. He is also know ...

(2015 in the 3DS game '' Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.'') *Reilly Jacob (2016 in the TV series ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in the ...

'')

References

External links

* *
''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' by Mark Twain
at Project Gutenberg
''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' by Mark Twain
at Archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Sawyer, Tom Mark Twain characters Adventure film characters Child characters in film Child characters in literature Child characters in musical theatre Fictional characters from Missouri Literary characters introduced in 1876 Male characters in literature Orphan characters in literature