| “ | Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms. | „ |
| ~ Leonard having suspicions about Roger Thornhill |
Leonard is the secondary antagonist of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest. He is the right-hand man of criminal mastermind Phillip Vandamm, who helps him Frame Roger Thornhill for murder as part of a plan to steal valuable microfilm.
He was portrayed by the late Martin Landau, who also portrayed Judah Rosenthal in Crimes and Misdemeanors.
In the film[]
Leonard is first seen at the estate of criminal mastermind Phillip Vandamm, along with Vandamm's other henchman, Valerian, after the latter kidnaps advertising executive Roger Thornhill, having mistaken him for a diplomat named George Kaplan who supposedly has a valuable microfilm that Vandamm wants to steal. At Vandamm's order, Leonard forces enough alcohol down Thornhill's throat to get him drunk and tries to kill him and make it look a drunk driving accident. Thornhill survives, however, and gets arrested for public intoxication. He tries to tell the police what happened and takes them back to Vandamm's estate, only to find that he and Leonard have vanished and covered their tracks.
Leonard later attacks Thornhill in a crop-duster plane at an isolated rural bus stop, where Thornhill is waiting to meet with Kaplan. Leonard shoots at him with a plane-mounted machine gun, but Thornhill once again escapes after Leonard crashes the plane into a tanker truck that Thornhill is hiding behind.
Leonard later tells Vandamm that he suspects that Thornhill is telling the truth that he is not Kaplan, unaware of how right he is - Kaplan is in fact a fake identity created by U.S. intelligence, who are using an unknowing Thornhill as a pawn to capture Vandamm. Vandamm dismisses his suspicions, however, and orders Leonard to knock Thornhill unconscious and leave him locked up in a hospital room.
Vandamm ultimately orders Leonard to kidnap government agent Eve Kendall, who is also Thornhill's lover, in order to draw him out. He and Vandamm take Kendall to Vandamm's hideout overlooking Mount Rushmore, where they engage Thornhill when he tries to rescue her. After subduing Thornhill, Leonard and Vandamm force Kendall to board Vandamm's plane, where they plan to kill her by throwing her into Sylvan Lake. Thornhill manages to save Kendall, however, and they flee to the top of Mount Rushmore. Leonard pursues them, but he is shot by a park ranger who is investigating the disturbance investigating. Fatally wounded, Leonard plunges to his death off of he mountain, while Vandamm is arrested.