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Alan Pangborn is a fictional character created by Stephen King from the novels The Dark Half, The Sun Dog and Needful Things, as well as being a primary character on the television series based on King's novels, Castle Rock. The character is one of the few recurring protagonists in Stephen King's bibliography, and one of the few to have been adapted multiple times. The character has been portrayed by Ed Harris in Needful Things, Michael Rooker in The Dark Half and by Scott Glenn in Castle Rock.

Fictional character biography
Alan Pangborn is the sheriff of the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. He is the husband to Annie and father to Toby ("Al") and Todd. Annie and Todd are killed in a car accident before the events of Needful Things, which leaves Alan devastated. It is also shown that Alan has a love for magic tricks, and is shown to be quite efficient with them.

The Dark Half
Throughout the novel, Pangborn is stricken with nightmares over the death of his wife and son. Pangborn travels to Ludlow to conduct an investigation of a series of murders being carried out by a man known as "George Stark" A.K.A. Thad Beaumont. Pangborn discovers Beaumont's fingerprints at the crime scenes. This evidence along with Beaumont's unwillingness to answer any of Pangborn's questions leads him to believe Beaumont is the killer, despite alibis. Pangborn then discovers that Beaumont and Stark carry the same fingerprints, a clue towards Beaumont's split-personality. Eventually Pangborn discovers that Beaumont in fact had a twin he absorbed in utero. This leads to a debate as to whether Stark is a malevolent spirit or Beaumont himself manifesting an alternate personality. Beaumont eventually destroys Stark, which leads to Pangborn returning to Castle Rock.

Needful Things
Pangborn re-appears again as the main protagonist of Needful Things. In the novel, a new shopkeeper called Leland Gaunt opens up a new store called "Needful Things" in Castle Rock. This attracts the attention and curiosity of many of the citizens of Castle Rock. This is due to the seemingly low prices of the clearly valuable stock. Gaunt is aware of the conflicts within Castle Rock and therefore expects each resident to pull a prank on someone else in the town as a result of their purchases. Pangborn is rightfully suspicious of Gaunt, which is dismissed by his new lover, Polly Chambers. Polly then buys a charm from Gaunt which seemingly relieves the arthritis in her hands. Later on in the novel, Gaunt employs criminal John "Ace" Merrill – a longtime antagonist of Pangborn and the town of Castle Rock – to cause chaos in Castle Rock in exchange for high-quality cocaine. Merrill and town selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton begin planting dynamite throughout Castle Rock as the violence escalates. Alan believes Ace to be guilty for the death of his wife and son and sets out for vengeance. Polly recognizes the evil in her charm and destroys it, only for her to be taken hostage by Ace, demanding Alan hand over a hoard of stolen cash from one of Ace's sites. This situation is defused when Deputy Norris Ridgewick kills Ace, leaving Alan to face off with Gaunt. Pangborn uses his skills in magic tricks, using sleight of hand techniques and magic novelties to force Gaunt back with his valise, as Gaunt leaves Castle Rock with his car turning into a horse-drawn wagon.

Castle Rock
Sometime after the events of Needful Things in 1991, Pangborn led the search for eleven-year-old Henry Deaver. Despite many people giving up on Henry, Pangborn persisted due to romantic feelings he had for Deaver's adoptive mother, Ruth. Pangborn eventually discovered Henry standing in the middle of Castle Lake and returned him home. Alan eventually also found Henry's father, Reverend Matthew Deaver, three days later dying in the snow, blaming Henry before succumbing to his injuries. Alan believed that Henry was responsible for Matthew's death, but hid this fact due to his feelings for Ruth. Later that year, Pangborn pulled over Shawshank State Prison Warden Dale Lacy and discovered he was transporting a young man in his trunk. Lacy convinces Pangborn that the young man is responsible for all of Castle Rock's troubles and that God had spoken to him on how to deal with it. Pangborn lets Lacy go, leading to the young man being secretly imprisoned in Shawshank for the next 27 years.

After his retirement, Pangborn left for New Hampshire, but returned around 2008. Despite no longer being the sheriff, the Castle Rock citizens would often contact Pangborn about their problems. When gunshots were overheard by the Deaver household, Pangborn was notified and traveled over to check on Ruth. Ruth embraced Pangborn and asked him not to leave. Despite Ruth's mental condition, Alan became her constant companion and lover, assisting her in managing days and dealing with her mental deterioration.

Henry Deaver returned to Castle Rock in 2018. Due to his disappearance, many citizens believe him to be responsible for the death of Reverend Deaver. Henry eventually left the town and became a lawyer, specializing in death row cases in Texas. After Shawshank State Prison was sold to Northeast Correctional, Warden Lacy committed suicide and the existence of the prisoner was revealed. When questioned, the prisoner had said Henry's name, leading to his return to Castle Rock. Henry was unaware of Pangborn's relationship with Ruth and was hostile about it, believing Pangborn was using Ruth's condition to take advantage of her.

Despite Pangborn's warning to new Shawshank Warden Theresa Porter to keep the kid locked up, the prisoner was eventually released. The prisoner confronted Pangborn in the woods and told him he can save Ruth. This led to Pangborn to a mission to find the car Warden Lacy committed suicide in. Once returning, Pangborn saw the prisoner outside the Deaver house with a bloody hand. Fearing for Ruth's safety, Alan stormed inside the house and was fatally shot by a confused Ruth, who thought she was defending Henry from her late husband.

Adaptations
Pangborn was first adapted into live-action for the adaptation of King's novel Needful Things. In this adaptation, Pangborn was portrayed by actor Ed Harris. Despite negative reviews towards the film, Harris's portrayal as Pangborn gained a positive reception. Pangborn was adapted again the same year for the adaptation of The Dark Half where Pangborn was portrayed by Michael Rooker. As with Needful Things, the portrayal of Pangborn was acclaimed despite the film itself receiving mixed to negative reviews. The most recent portrayal of Pangborn appears in Castle Rock, a television series focused on different stories by King. In this adaptation, Pangborn was portrayed by Scott Glenn as an older man and by Jeffrey Pierce as a younger man. This portrayal was highly acclaimed by fans and critics, who lamented the death of the character.