Billy Fordham, nicknamed Ford, was a student of Hemery High in Los Angeles 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[src]
Hemery High
Buffy had a crush on Ford when she was in fifth grade and he was in sixth. By the time Buffy was expelled from Hemery High, Ford had figured out her identity as the Slayer, without Buffy realizing that he knew.
Making a deal with Spike
In late 1998, Ford returned to Buffy's life and apparently enrolled in Sunnydale High himself. However, in reality, Ford had made a deal with Buffy's newest enemy, Spike, to hand Buffy over to him in exchange for being turned into a vampire. Ford also became a regular at the Sunset Club, a naive group of teenage vampire worshippers who largely believed the vampire race to be misunderstood, gentle creatures. However, unlike the rest of them, Ford wanted to become a vampire because he was suffering from terminal brain cancer and believed it would be better to live as a vampire than to die riddled with tumors. He convinced the other members that they would be turned as well, but they were merely fodder.
Ford offered Buffy as well as the lives of the Sunset Club "true believers" in exchange for being turned into a vampire
When Ford put his plan into motion, Buffy, simultaneously disgusted by his willingness to sacrifice innocent people and moved by his plight, attempted to convince him that vampires were nothing but demons inhabiting corpses rather than the original people, but Ford did not care. When Buffy tried to warn the others, Ford attacked her, but she quickly overpowered him and knocked him unconscious before proceeding to rescue the Sunset Club from Spike and his pack. However, she locked Ford in the building with the vampires. When Ford came to and discovered what happened, he demanded that Spike turn him as he had technically fulfilled his end of the deal, and Spike agreed.
As a Vampire
Returning later to the Club, Buffy took Ford's lifeless body and had it buried. As she and Rupert Giles kept a vigil at his grave, Ford rose, a vampire, and Buffy staked him without reaction. Afterward, she asked Giles, "Does it get any easier?" He replied, "What do you want me to say?" Buffy answered, "Lie to me", which echoed the whole situation she had faced with regard to Ford's duplicity.
Behind the Scenes
- He was portrayed by Jason Behr.