Richard Dean Anderson Website - Stargate SG-1 Lexicon

HANK LANDRY

Major General Hank Landry was handpicked to command the SGC by his friend, General Jack O'Neill. When O'Neill's promotion and reassignment sent him to Washington, DC, he personally visited Landry at his home, informed him of the Stargate Program, and offered him the command of the facility in his place. Considered by O'Neill to be "the best of the best," Landry accepted the position and quickly earned the respect of those who serve under him.

Hank Landry is a highly decorated Air Force officer who has served in Vietnam and Kuwait. During his service in Vietnam, Landry was flying air support out of Bien Hoa when he caught some anti-aircraft artillery in the left engine and had to eject. He landed near the Laotian border well north of the DMZ, bleeding badly with a severely injured knee. Lost, alone, with no food or radio and half a battalion of North Vietnamese regulars following his blood trail and combing the jungle tracking him day and night, it took him eight days to reach safety. Looking back on the ordeal, he confesses that he never felt more alive, but such experiences strengthened his resolve as a leader and his admiration for those in the field. He is also a student of history and of military strategy, and he is fond of quoting military leaders whom he respects, including Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, Sun Tzu, and George Washington. When the occasion calls for it, he has been known to quote Dr. Phil as well.

Landry has demonstrated his abilities as a strong leader, an astute diplomat, a shrewd negotiator, and a keen judge of human nature. He continues to work closely by phone with O'Neill, a man with whom he shares a mutual admiration and respect. He considers SG-1 and the other teams under his command as family, and he has admitted that at first he found it hard to get used to how well everyone at the SGC did their jobs. He has little interest in administrivia, considering many of his meetings to be a waste of time and turning over many of his housekeeping duties to his administrative assistant, and he has little patience with political posturing in Washington by those he refers to as "idiot blow-hard politicians." However, in military matters he has demonstrated gritty determination and a savvy wit. He has stood up to the maneuverings of the IOA, always placing the interests of his own people above political expediency. He has confronted the rhetoric of the Priors and the arrogance of the Jaffa High Council with equal fortitude, and when negotiating with the Goa'uld Nerus he had the ability to achieve his goals exactly while allowing Nerus to believe he had been the more clever. Although Landry operates his command from the SGC, he has on occasion also traveled off-world. He confronted the Prior on the Sodan world of P9G-844, an encounter which left him stricken with the Prior plague. He joined Bra'tac in standing up to Se'tak of the Jaffa High Council on Dakara and barely escaped as Dakara was destroyed. He also joined O'Neill, Harriman, and SG-1 on the journey to P2C-106 for Mitchell's 200th trip through the stargate.

During his off hours, Landry enjoys spending time with nature, and he has been taking advantage of O'Neill's Minnesota cabin while O'Neill spends more time in Washington. He enjoys horticulture, and although he is not a fan of hunting as a form of recreation, he is an avid bird watcher who can effectively imitate a number of bird calls including the plaintive mating call of the very rare and endangered Fulvous Whistling Duck. He is fond of playing chess, has an interest in poker, and enjoys the occasional beer. He is also a firm believer in getting to know the people one works with socially, and he invited SG-1 to join him at O'Neill's cabin for some time away from the pressures of the SGC. Although the team was "ordered" to relax, the initially awkward situation became an enjoyable weekend of bonding.

The pressures of the military have had a negative impact on Landry's family life. He had been married to Kim for 12 years, and together they had had a daughter, Carolyn. Because of his job, Landry had missed many of the key moments in his daughter's life, a fact on which he looks back with regret, and young Carolyn grew resentful that her father could offer no explanation for why he would be away from home so often. The marriage had ended, and his daughter, who used the name Lam rather than Landry, grew to become a respected surgeon, though she remained distant and resentful toward her father. However, the two were reunited when General O'Neill offered Carolyn Lam the position of Chief Medical Officer at the SGC, neglecting to clarify that her father would be her commanding officer. Although their relationship was uncomfortable at first, Carolyn's experience at the SGC has given her an appreciation for the work her father does and has opened the door to a reconciliation between them. Landry also sought Carolyn's help to reopen a dialogue with his ex-wife. Although it had been over five years since he and Kim had last spoken, Kim agreed to meet with Landry and Carolyn for dinner as she was passing through Colorado Springs, and past wounds have begun to heal.

Landry continues to be a guiding force at the SGC, a respected leader who recognizes that, to paraphrase Douglas MacArthur, "a general is only as good as the people he commands."

Portrayed by: Beau Bridges