Joe St. George

Joe St. George is the abusive alcoholic husband of protagonist heroine Dolores Claiborne and equally abusive father of daughter, New York journalist Selena St. George and is the secondary antagonist in the Stephen King 1995 film adaption "Dolores Claiborne" based on the novel of the same name. Throughout the film (depicted through flashbacks) he abuses and mistreats his wife Dolores both physically and emotionally on a daily basis, maintaining some sort of control over his wife until she begins to fight back -- then he threatens to kill her unless he reluctantly agrees not to harm Dolores or kill her in front of Selena for their daughter's sake so they pretend to be a "perfect family" throughout the course of narrative flashbacks. By the film's climax however, after it's discovered that he was molesting his own daughter Selena, Dolores flies off in a rage and plans his murder whilst making it look like an accident as this plan was the only way out of her turbulent marriage. George tries to kill her to prevent her from doing so and is left for dead when he falls into a secret trap (a deep hole in the ground) meant for him and eventually falls to his death. He is portrayed by actor David Strathairn.