Race: Human
Sex: Male
Real Name: Ernest Longwood
Nick Name: Ernie
Birth Date & Location: 7th December, 1940 – London, England
Died: 16th January, 2007 – Los Angeles (Read About It)
Position: N/A
Group Affiliation: The Watchers' Council (Retired)
DESCRIPTION:
Ernie is an elegant old man, with white hair and beard. He is in good form, strong and agile in spite of his seventy something years of age and his mind is as clear as ever. His bright dark eyes betray a much stronger spirit.
Ernie has been retired from his position as a Watcher for more than twenty years now, and he moved to California 10 years ago. He owns a great house near the ocean, not far from L.A. where he lives with his wife, an aristocratic Englishwoman who doesn’t like his husband’s interests and is seldom seen outside the house.
(Ernest is played by Sean Connery)
BACKGROUND:
Ernie Longwood was born in a poor London neighbourhood. He doesn’t remember who his father was and only has a few memories of his mother. She died in one of London’s bombards during World War II and he was taken to the country with many other London children. When the war was over he returned to London where he lived in an orphanage until he was noticed by an old retired Watcher after seeing him fight against two bigger boys in the school’s courtyard. The Watcher, who was a teacher at the school, started helping the ten-year-old boy and discovered a keen intelligence and strong determination under his rebelliousness. The man was single and childless so he adopted Ernie and started training him in mind and body.
When Ernie became of age he entered The Watcher’s Council training program, where he met Morris Giles and they became best friends. Morris was part of a long line of Watchers and he helped the newly arrived sorting the intricacies of the organisation. However the friends separated later, being appointed to travel to different parts of the globe in search of potential Slayers. After some years, Ernie was given a potential slayer to train, however the girl died while training, killed by a demon. After that he didn’t want to train any other potential and was given a position in the Council’s headquarters.
He was working there when Morris Giles decided to challenge the Council by continuing to train the half-demon. Alessa Hunt. The annoyance with the way the organisation treated his friend was the last drop in his own decision to resign to the Council. In the years since he had started working as archivist and researcher in the Council’s headquarters he had noticed many things he didn’t like about them, and after Morris’ decision to leave the Council he did so himself. However, even if he didn’t belong to the Council anymore, Ernie didn’t stop being connected to the supernatural world, he continued researching and travelling around the world in search of knowledge, until he met his future wife, Andrea, while in India.
When Ernie met Andrea, he was 45 years old, and he felt tired of running around the world and being alone, that was why he promised his fiancée that he would abandon that kind of life. Andrea’s father was the owner of an important worldwide import/export enterprise, so after they were married Ernie secured a position in the business board and moved to London again. When he got the travelling itch his job gave him ample opportunity to do it, so he didn’t feel trapped. And as long as he didn’t really interact with supernatural beings her wife wouldn’t mind so he never stopped researching and investigating. His library on the occult was as complete as any Watcher’s.
For the next years he fulfilled the promise he had made to his wife, however, when Alessa came to his house, devastated by the death of Morris, he couldn’t refuse to help her. Andrea guessed quite soon that Alessa wasn’t completely human, confirming Ernie’s suspicions about his wife. She was so disgusted by the occult because she had a sixth sense about it, she could see through things and could detect non-human creatures. He defied her in this though, Morris had been his friend and he had told Alessa that she should go to him if something happened to him. Ernie reaffirmed his friend’s promise and did what he could to help the girl get along with her life again.
That was 20 years ago. Nowadays, Ernie is living in California, in a big house next to the beach, a much better spot to spend his older years than humid London. His son Ellis is in charge of the business and he and Andrea are enjoying their old age together. However, Ernie is as active in his occult research as ever, and his contacts make him always up to date in Council affairs. That’s why he has been able to help Alessa when she came to him again, asking for help to get established in L.A. Andrea isn’t very happy about it, though.
In Season Three, Ernie was attacked by the demon Dray’chen he was seriously hurt himself and his wife, Andrea was killed. He spent many months recovering from this ordeal and it was while in hospital that he was visited by his one time friend and now vampire Morris Giles. They fought and Morris threatened to make Ernie a vampire, rather than become one of the undead, Ernie gave himself a lethal morphine overdose.
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