William Fordham

William Fordham
Name	Billy Fordham
Aliases	Ford
Status	Deceased
Classif.	Vampire
Affiliation	Hemery High
Appearances
Appeared in	"Lie to Me"
Portrayed by	Jason Behr

Ford: “I wanna be like you. A vampire.”

Spike: “I've known you for two minutes and I can't stand you. I don't really feature you living forever.”

— Ford and Spike

Billy Fordham, nicknamed Ford, was a student of Hemery High and an old childhood friend of Buffy Summers.

Biography

“I'm sorry, Summers, did I screw up your righteous anger riff? Does the nest of tumors liquefying my brain kinda spoil the fun?”

―Billy Fordham

Ford and Buffy were once classmates in Los Angeles - indeed, Buffy had a crush on him when she was in fifth grade and he was in sixth. By the time Buffy had been expelled from Hemery High, Ford had figured out her identity as the Slayer, without Buffy realizing that he knew.

However, his real reason for traveling to Sunnydale and pretending to have enrolled in Sunnydale High is to give Buffy to Spike in exchange for being turned into a vampire. He also becomes a regular at the Sunset Club, a Gothic type of nightclub filled with lonely teenagers and vampire worshipers. Unlike the others, however, he wants to become a vampire because he is dying from brain cancer, and he believes that it is better to live forever that way rather than to die riddled with tumors. He also convinces the Sunset Club that they will also be turned, but they are simply fodder.

Simultaneously disgusted by Ford's willingness to sacrifice innocent people, as well as moved by his plight, Buffy tries to convince him that vampires are nothing more than demons in human bodies rather than the original person, but Ford doesn't care. When she attempts to inform the others, Ford attacks her, but she easily overpowers him and knocks him unconscious, subsequently saving the naive teens from Spike and his men. However, she locks Ford in with the vampires. When Ford comes to and discovers what happened, he demands that Spike turn him, as he had technically fulfilled his end of the bargain, and Spike agrees.

Returning later to the Club, Buffy takes Ford's lifeless body and has it buried. As she and Giles keep a vigil at his grave, Ford rises, a vampire, and Buffy stakes him apparently without a second thought. Afterward, she asks Giles, "Does it get any easier?" He replies, "What do you want me to say?" Buffy answers, "Lie to me", which echoes the whole situation she had faced with regard to Ford's duplicity.

Behind the Scenes

• He was portrayed by Jason Behr.

Appearances

• "Lie to Me"