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Alan Shore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan Shore is a fictional character on the ABC Network television series Boston Legal, portrayed by James Spader. The character first appeared in the final season of The Practice. Shore is one of the main characters in the series.
Alan was born in 1962 in Dedham, Massachusetts. His childhood friends were Paul Stewart, whom he first met in kindergarten, and Paul Dougan, who later became a priest. Alan slept with Paul Stewart's mother, Victoria, when he was 16. One of his neighbors was Catherine Piper, his future secretary. According to one of his courtroom speeches, Alan has a sister, although he might have made her up for the purposes of that speech. He was also married once, but his wife died.
At one point in his life, Alan had to seek the help of a sexual surrogate to help him deal with perhaps his most shocking paraphilia - an attraction of sorts to his mother, and the way she touched him (non-sexually) as a child.
In Boston Legal, Alan speaks about his dead wife, how she was able to accurately guess what he would think and do, he said it was frustrating "for people who strive to be original". He speaks of her in a loving way however and expresses the otherwise unseen emotion of regret, for her passing. It is noted that he is irritated at her uncommon ability to guess his every thought, even when he is trying to be unpredictable. Often, many of Alan's behaviors support this claim.
During the final season of The Practice, Alan was hired to be a lawyer at Young, Frutt & Berlutti. He brought in vast amounts of money to the firm (over $9 million by his count), but his highly unethical behavior eventually forced the firm to fire him with $15,000 in severance pay. Alan sued for more money, winning his case with a judgment of $2.3 million that resulted in financial hardships on Young, Frutt & Berlutti. He went on to work with Denny Crane at Crane, Poole & Schmidt.
The character of Alan Shore continued into Boston Legal, and displayed most of the same traits. Alan is considered to be an unethical attorney due to the sometimes questionable means he employs to help his clients. On the other hand, he seems to be able to help his clients and fellow attorneys when no one else can, due to his quick wit and apparent lack of fear for the consequences of his illegal actions. Alan once had an unlicensed doctor remove a bullet from one of Lori Colson's clients after the client refused to have it extracted in a hospital due to the fact it might convict him; Alan helped him out because the bullet might have had a life-threatening impact on the man. He also advised a client to flee the country after Jerry Espenson unintentionally ruined his trial.
Alan is pompous, arrogant, and conceited, with an insatiable sexual appetite that he usually takes out on professional women. Like his current boss Denny Crane, he is a womanizer. Alan has had relationships with Sally Heep and Tara Wilson, the latter having had a major effect on his psyche. His sexual harassment of Nora Jacobs, his former secretary (which mainly included him giving a score on a scale of one to five with regards to what kind of sweater she was wearing), drew a rebuke from Shirley Schmidt. Alan's ex-girlfriend once tried to run him over with a car, and he later served as her lawyer to get her out of the mental hospital she was in as a result.
Alan also has some strange quirks. He suffers regularly from dangerous sleepwalking associated with sleep terrors, has an irrational fear of clowns, and at least in one episode spoke in word salad, which was caused by anxiety. He was once charged with inciting a riot after he and Tara pretended to try and pick each other up at a college fraternity bar; Tara did this because she wanted to see how Alan tries to pick up women. During this chain of events, a rather large man tried to pick up Tara and eventually punched Alan, then condescendingly claimed that he was only reaching for his wallet; in response, Alan offered several bar patrons $300 to beat up his assailant. At trial, he was acquitted after giving a speech to the jury which (may have) convinced them that his seemingly cold and calculated incitement was simply a coward's way of avoiding the fight.
Alan also aided Shirley in keeping nude photographs taken of her in her youth from circulation by the simple expedient of buying them himself and keeping them at his home. More recently, he discouraged a predatory court conservator who had gotten himself appointed custodian of an old woman who was a friend of Catherine Piper's by having two large men break into the man's home, bind and gag him, and steal records.
Alan is a complex character. During The Practice, Ellenor Frutt, a close friend of Alan's, described him as a "self-loathing person, who breeds contempt from other people through his actions." During Season One of Boston Legal, Alan was again analyzed by Sally Heep. He had seemingly used her for purposes of blackmailing a witness, but Sally thought it was the reverse at the end of the show. Instead of Alan using her, Sally felt that he was using the witness like a tool of sorts to show how despicable and utterly unethical he was. Alan used the word "run", and was perhaps trying to manipulate Sally to stay away from him. Sally countered that it was "the incredibly decent man" lying buried underneath the bad stuff who was trying to warn her.
Tara also stated that Alan has three sides: the good side, the bad, and the naughty side. The good side is his honorable intentions during court defending innocent people, but the bad side of him could not bear that burden of being the good. So, in an attempt to get to Alan, Tara tried appealing to his naughty side. The aforementioned bar fight has also seemingly reflected Alan's personality. Tara has stated before that "it's always about Alan Shore"; 'always' being the key point.
Alan has a grandiose sense of himself, and believes that the world is just about him. There is a section of dialogue between Alan and Denny Crane where the former states that the best part about Denny is that he doesn't seem to be in the room at all. Alan has an interesting narrative that he remains absolutely alone during a relationship, and serves to more of his self-hating, narcissistic attitude. Shirley Schmidt, who appeared later in the show, described Alan the exact way he is: albeit in an insulting manner.
He has often found himself at odds with both Brad Chase and Jeffrey Coho.