William Donahue (Eraser)



William Donahue is a supporting antagonist of the 1996 film, Eraser. He serves as the corrupt CEO of Cyrez Corporation, being one of the men behind a conspiracy to sell railguns on the black market.

He was portrayed by James Cromwell.

Role
A woman named Lee Cullen has known to work for Donahue for five years, but it wasn't until she came across his plan to sell electromagnetic pulse guns on the black market. Feeling that this may go out of hand, Cullen came to the FBI for help, and they assigned to deliver a disc containing any evidence regarding to the arms sale.

Equipped with a hidden camera inside her suit, Lee heads over to Cyrez HQ, where she procures much of the evidence onto two discs, one for herself and the other for the FBI. However, after she completes the task, several guards notify her that Donahue wants to see her. After being escorted into Donahue's office, Lee is confronted by Donahue, who explains that he saw her getting the files through the surveillance systems.

Donahue demanded to know who was Lee working for. Lee stated that she thought that Cyrez was working for the government, but Donahue retorts at this, saying that if the government won't pay through his prices, he would rather find someone else who will. This implies that he is willing to commit treason to make money. Upon finding the hidden camera inside her suit, Donahue is informed by Lee that she's working for the FBI and that they just saw and heard everything what he said. Drawing a gun from his drawer, Donahue angrily pointed at Lee, berating her for her betrayal and that have she leaves him no choice. However, rather than shooting Lee, Donahue instead puts the pistol into his mouth and commits suicide to avoid facing charges for treason. The commotion caused Lee to escape away in distraught with the help from the FBI.

Following Donahue's suicide and Lee's deliverance of one of the discs to the FBI, she is informed that Donahus was nothing more than a middleman behind the plot, right before she is placed under protection by U.S. Marshal John Kruger (the protagonist of the film). Both Kruger and Lee soon learn that Underesecretary of Defense Daniel Harper is the real mastermind behind the arms sale, as he assigned Donahue to create the railguns while assigning his right-hand man Robert Deguerin to eliminate Cullen to cover their tracks, though this ended up in failure.