The best known blind characters include Daredevil, Toph Beifong, Geordi La Forge, Mr Rochester, Zatoichi and Murphy Mason. They come from books, films, TV shows, comics and cartoons, and they became blind in very different ways.
This guide lists 12 famous blind characters. Each entry says who created or played the character, whether the character was born blind or lost sight, and where the source states it, whether the actor is blind or sighted. For real people who are blind, see the list of famous blind people.
Famous Blind Characters in Books and Literature
Mr Rochester, Jane Eyre
Edward Rochester is the master of Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, published in 1847. He loses his sight in the fire at Thornfield, which also costs him a hand and one eye.
Later in the story he partly regains his sight, enough to see his firstborn son. His story is an early example of a character who becomes blind as an adult.
Blind Pew, Treasure Island
Blind Pew is a blind beggar and former pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, published as a book in 1883. He delivers the black spot to Billy Bones and leads a pirate attack on the Admiral Benbow Inn.
The novel does not say how he lost his sight.
Tiresias, Greek Mythology
Tiresias is a blind prophet who appears in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex and in Homer’s Odyssey. Ancient sources give three different reasons for his blindness: he revealed the gods’ secrets, he saw Athena bathing, or he sided with women in a dispute between Hera and Zeus.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus calls up his spirit to ask for advice. In Oedipus Rex, Tiresias tells the king that he is the criminal he is hunting. In each version his loss of sight comes with the gift of prophecy.
Famous Blind Characters in Movies
Frank Slade, Scent of a Woman
Frank Slade is a retired Army lieutenant colonel played by Al Pacino in the 1992 film directed by Martin Brest. The film reveals that he was not blinded in heroic combat but in an accident.
Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1993, after four earlier nominations in that category. He prepared by meeting clients of New York’s Associated Blind and learning techniques from The Lighthouse.
Susy Hendrix, Wait Until Dark
Susy Hendrix is a blind housewife in Greenwich Village who becomes the target of three con artists searching for heroin hidden in a doll. Wait Until Dark opened on Broadway on 2 February 1966 and became a film in 1967.
Audrey Hepburn played the role in the film and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Zatoichi
Zatoichi is a blind swordsman created by the Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa, who introduced him in 1948. Shintaro Katsu played him in 26 films between 1962 and 1989 and in a television series that ran from 1974 to 1979.
Takeshi Kitano directed and starred in a 2003 film, which won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival.
Norman Nordstrom, Don’t Breathe
Norman Nordstrom, called the Blind Man, is a Gulf War veteran played by Stephen Lang in the 2016 horror film Don’t Breathe, directed by Fede Alvarez. He lost his sight when shrapnel from a grenade injured both eyes in Iraq.
Famous Blind Characters on TV
Geordi La Forge, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Geordi La Forge is the chief engineer in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which first aired in 1987. He was born blind and uses a VISOR that feeds visual input to his brain through the optic nerves. LeVar Burton plays him.
Later films and Star Trek: Picard replace the VISOR with ocular implants.
Murphy Mason, In the Dark
Murphy Mason is a blind woman in her twenties who investigates the death of a friend in the CW series In the Dark, which ran for four seasons from April 2019 to September 2022. Perry Mattfeld plays her.
Critics objected to casting a sighted actor in the role. The executive producer said the team auditioned blind actors but chose Mattfeld as the best fit.
Baba Voss, See
Baba Voss is a warrior played by Jason Momoa in See, an Apple TV+ series that premiered on 1 November 2019 and ended in October 2022. It is set centuries after a virus has left humanity blind.
The mostly sighted cast completed a month of blindness training with the coach Joe Strechay, who later became a co producer. Several blind and low sighted actors were cast in supporting roles, including Adam Morse, who is blind and played Frye in the second season.
Famous Blind Cartoon and Comic Characters
Daredevil
Daredevil first appeared in Daredevil #1 in April 1964, created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett. As a boy, Matt Murdock pushes a man out of the path of a truck carrying chemicals, and a radioactive substance blinds him.
His other senses become far stronger and give him a radar sense. Charlie Cox has played him in live action since the Netflix series Daredevil in 2015. In the screen version, he is blinded in a car accident. The scholar Jose Alaniz called the series a landmark for the depiction of disability in a genre he described as notoriously ableist.
Toph Beifong, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Toph Beifong was born blind and first appeared in the Nickelodeon episode The Blind Bandit in 2006. Her parents treated her blindness as a weakness and kept her hidden, while she learned earthbending from badgermoles, which are blind creatures.
She uses a technique called seismic sense, feeling vibrations through her bare feet to perceive her surroundings. Michaela Jill Murphy voiced her in the original series.
Is Mr Magoo Blind?
No. Mr Magoo is shown as extremely nearsighted and refuses to admit it. He first appeared in the 1949 short The Ragtime Bear. The 1997 live action film drew objections from disability groups, including the National Federation of the Blind.
How Blind Characters Are Portrayed on Screen
Three patterns come up again and again. The first is how the character became blind. Rochester, Daredevil, Slade and Nordstrom lost sight through an injury or accident, while Geordi and Toph were born blind. Real blind people include both groups, as the guide on whether blind people dream explains.
The second is the idea that blindness comes with extra powers. Daredevil’s radar sense and Toph’s seismic sense are fiction. Stan Lee himself worried that blind readers might be offended by how much he exaggerated their senses, though letters from the Lighthouse for the Blind said blind people enjoyed having the comics read to them.
The third is casting. Critics of In the Dark objected to a sighted actor playing the blind lead, and the producer said blind actors were auditioned. Bruce Horak, a blind actor featured in the list of famous blind people, played the engineer Hemmer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2022.
For more on how blind people actually enjoy films and television, see the guide to hobbies for blind people.
Frequently Asked Questions About Blind Characters
Who are some famous blind characters in movies?
Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman, Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark, Zatoichi and Norman Nordstrom in Don’t Breathe are well known examples. Al Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Slade.
Are there blind superheroes?
Yes. Daredevil is the best known blind superhero. He first appeared in Marvel’s Daredevil #1 in April 1964 and was blinded by a radioactive substance.
Is Mr Magoo blind?
No. Mr Magoo is extremely nearsighted but does not admit it. He first appeared in 1949.
Which famous blind characters were born blind?
Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Toph Beifong in Avatar: The Last Airbender were both born blind.
Are blind characters usually played by blind actors?
Often they are not. Critics of In the Dark objected to casting a sighted actor as Murphy Mason. See cast several blind and low sighted actors in supporting roles, and Bruce Horak is a blind actor who played Hemmer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Who are famous blind cartoon characters?
Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender is the best known blind cartoon character. Daredevil is a blind character who first appeared in comics.
