Daniel Anthony "Danny" Torrance is the main protagonist in the The Shining franchise. He is an orderly at Helen Rivington House hospice. He has the "shining", which allows him to detect spirits, thus making him a prime target of the Overlook Hotel. His ability also allows him to see past, present, and future events through his 'guide', Tony. Tony is, at first, a mere imaginary playmate. Tony then evolves into a source of fear, and finally a source of strength.
Biography[]
Personality[]
In the book, Danny appears to be a lonely, curious yet nervous boy who loves both his parents but has a particular love towards his father. Danny has terrifying visions of The Overlook Hotel which worry and disturb him.
The Shining (novel)[]
Background[]
When Danny was born, his father started to drink.
Main Events[]
While Danny is sitting outside waiting for his dad, she is inside cleaning their apartment to wait when Jack gets home. She sees him doing nothing so she goes outside to check on him, she tells him that he won’t be back in a long time. Danny then says a cuss word about their bug car and she scolds him. She then thinks about her son’s isolation ever sense they moved. Danny asks Wendy why Jack lost his teaching job, which she does. Danny asks if she actually wants to go to the hotel, which she does. Wendy goes back inside. Around 4, he goes back inside to eat milk and cookies while staring at the window the hugs his mother who is laying down. She says he should stay inside and watch TV, which he refuses and goes back outside. At 5, he sings. He then thinks about his parents relationship problems, calling it the "Bad Thing", and Tony. While thinking, he starts to fade but is conscious, seeing two kids. His shine makes him know Watson. After, Tony appears floating by a stop sign holding wasps, Danny fades even harder seeing a vision that appears to center around the Overlook Hotel, Tony is there with Danny scaring him. That’s when he sees the word "REDRUM" and a creature stalking him saying to take his medicine. After this, Tony stops and takes him back to reality. Jack finally arrives, with the car dying but is able to park. Danny runs to the car but sees a bloody mallet, it turns out it’s just groceries. They go inside.
He arrives with Wendy and Jack at The Overlook Hotel on Closing Day, where he finds the hotel is extremely busy with guests checking out and staff assisting guests leave as well as leaving themselves. Danny meets the chef Dick Hallorann, who gives Danny and his parents a tour of the kitchen. Dick telepathically talks to Danny, revealing he has the shining as well. Before leaving, Dick warns Danny to not enter Room 217 and to call him if he needs him. When Stuart Ullman gives Danny and his parents a tour of the hotel and upon entering The Presidential Suite sees brain matter and blood on the walls. Danny and his parents watch Bill Watson and Ullman leave and they are alone.
A month passes and Danny has no frightening visions until one night where he goes into a trance. Danny starts exploring the empty hotel, going down the hotel’s empty corridors. Out of curiosity, Danny finally enters Room 217 and is strangled by Lorraine Massey. A frightened Wendy accuses Jack of abusing Danny once again, but Jack hotly denies the allegations. Danny soon tells his parents about Lorraine and his shining. After more terrifying events, Danny realises that Jack is going to severely hurt Wendy and himself and calls Dick for help. Danny witnesses Jack physically abuse Wendy and helps Wendy lock Jack in the pantry.
Toward the end of the novel, Tony reveals himself to Danny: "'Danny ... you're in a place deep down in your own mind. The place where I am. I'm a part of you, Danny.'" More specifically, Tony is Danny from the future: "Tony was like looking into a magic mirror and seeing himself in ten years"; "Tony ... the Daniel Anthony Torrance that would someday be." Danny soon realises the hotel boiler wasn’t dumped and is going to blow. Danny, Wendy and Dick escape The Overlook just in time as the boiler explodes, destroying The Overlook completely and killing Jack.
In Autumn, Dick has booked Danny and Wendy a lakeside cabin until they can find a place. Danny has severe PTSD and misses his father but finds a father figure in Dick.
The Shining (film)[]
The Shining (miniseries)[]
Doctor Sleep (novel)[]
Thirty-Six years later after the events of Winter 1977, Danny (now going by "Dan") is still haunted by the events at the Overlook and tormented by his visions, and as such has become an alcoholic, just like his father. He drifts through the U.S. until he settles in Frazier, New Hampshire, where he quits drinking and joins Alcoholics Anonymous with the help of his friend and fellow alcoholic Billy Freeman. He gets a job tending to a miniature replica of the town and a small train running around it before eventually finding employment at a local hospice, where he uses his "shine" to comfort dying patients as they pass on. Aided by a cat, "Azzie," that can sense when someone is about to die, Dan acquires the nickname "Doctor Sleep".
He begins receiving messages from Abra Stone, a young girl with a "shine" of her own, who tells him of a group of vampiric creatures called The True Knot, who are killing children who "shine" and absorbing their power. When the True Knot targets Abra, she telepathically asks Dan for help.
Dan travels to Abra's home and convinces her family of the danger she faces after defeating members of the True Knot who try to kidnap her. After talking with Abra's great-grandmother, Concetta Reynolds, he learns that Lucy, Abra's mother, was in fact Jack Torrance's illegitimate child, making him Abra's uncle and Lucy's half-brother, which he reveals to the family. He and Abra telepathically bait the True Knot's leader, Rose the Hat, into following them to the former site of the Overlook. He engages Rose in a brutal battle, aided by Jack Torrance's ghost; together, they push her off an observation platform to her death. Before leaving, Dan sees Jack's ghost wave goodbye and disappear, finally at peace.
The novel ends with Dan celebrating 15 years of sobriety, having become close with Abra and her family as he attends her 15th birthday party. Dan tells Abra about his family's history of alcoholism and rage, warning her to avoid the same issues. Dan advises Abra on how to handle her "shine" whenever she feels upset, before returning to the hospice to comfort a patient, Fred Carling.
Doctor Sleep (film)[]
Death[]
Doctor Sleep (film)[]
After Abra leaves the room, Danny is able to overpower the influence of the hotel and gets to the boiler room to unrelease the pressure from the boiler, the hotel tries to take over him again to save itself but fails. As he sits and watches as the hotel burn, his mother (as a ghost) and him can look each other in the eyes for the first time in over 30 years. He sacrifices himself, killing him and destroying the Overlook.
Murders committed by Danny Torrance[]
Doctor Sleep (2013)[]
Doctor Sleep (2019)[]
- Barry Smith/The Chink - Shot by Danny and Billy with hunting rifles.
- Short Eddie - Shot by Danny and Billy with hunting rifles.
- Apron Annie - Shot by Danny and Billy with hunting rifles.
- Sarah Carter/Silent Sarey - Shot by Danny and Billy with hunting rifles.
- Diesel Doug - Shot by Danny and Billy with hunting rifles.
- Henry Rothman/Crow Daddy - Disintegrated shortly after Danny (in Abra’s body) caused his car to crash with his Shining powers.
- Overlook Hotel - Burned down.
Appearances[]
- The Shining (book)
- The Shining (film)
- The Shining (miniseries)
- Doctor Sleep (book)
- Doctor Sleep (film)
Trivia[]
- In the Doctor Sleep book, Danny doesn't die while in the movie, he does.
- Unlike Jack and Wendy in the 1980 film where Stephen King disliked, he did like Danny Lloyd's performance as Danny.
- In the Doctor Sleep film, Danny is told by Dick Hallorann that, "Ka is a wheel." This refers to the concept of Ka (Fate) in The Dark Tower.
| Characters | |
| Main | Jack Torrance • Wendy Torrance • Danny Torrance • Stuart Ullman • Dick Hallorann |
| Minor | Albert Shockley • Bill Watson • Delbert Grady • Doctor • Grady Twins • Horace M. Derwent • Jack's Mother • Lorraine Massey • Mark Torrance • Robert Townley Watson • Roger • Suzie • Tony • List of characters in The Shining (book) |
| Doctor Sleep | Abra Stone • Concetta Reynolds • Lucy Stone • Sandy Reynolds |
| Other | Andrew Pomeroy (Misery) |
| Category:Characters | |