Fun Home

Fun Home Character List

Alison Bechdel

The protagonist and author of Fun Home. She discovers she is a lesbian at age 19 and, soon after, learns that her father is gay.

Bruce

Bruce Bechdel, Alison's father, around whom the memoir centers.

Tammi

Alison's childhood friend.

Christian Bechdel

One of Alison's younger brothers.

Helen

Alison's mother, Helen Bechdel, is an English teacher and former actress.

Ruth

One of Bruce's sisters, who lives right down the street from Alison's family. 

Sue

One of Bruce's sisters, who lives right down the street from Alison's family. 

Ed

One of Bruce's sisters, who lives near Alison's family. 

Old School Chum

A nameless friend of Bruce, who often asks him to come out to the woods to drink.

Grandfather

Bruce Bechdel's father, whose heart attack caused Bruce and Helen to return from Europe.

Grandmother

Bruce Bechdel's mother, with whom Bruce and Helen lived briefly upon returning from Europe.

Edgar T. Bechdel

Alison's great-grandfather, who founded the family funeral home business.

A local

A woman chatting with Helen in one of the drawings of West Germany.

John

Alison Bechdel's youngest brother.

Mort Dehaas

The mailman who pulled Bruce free of the mud when he got caught as a little boy.

Roy

Alison, Christian, and John's babysitter while they were children. He was having an affair with their father, Bruce.

Joan

Alison's first girlfriend at college, whom she was dating when she got the news of her father's death.

Alison's cousin

A distant cousin almost exactly Alison's age is killed in a car crash near the Bechdel home, along with two other people.

Mark Douglas Walsh

The seventeen-year-old boy for whom Bruce buys beer after picking him and asking about his brother, Dave.

Dave Walsh

The boy who, after having a sexual relationship with Bruce, calls the police when he sees Bruce dropping Dave's brother Mark off at home.

Nancy Gryglewicz

Beth's mother, who proposes group sex to the Bechdels.

Dr. Gryglewicz

Beth's father, who, along with his wife Nancy, proposes group sex to the Bechdels.

Beth Gryglewicz

Alison's childhood best friend, with whom she dresses up as a man for the first time.

Randy

The boy with whom Alison and Beth Gryglewicz were supposed to get a ride to the Labor Day dance.

Jack

The actor in Mother's production of The Importance of Being Earnest who befriends Bruce at the Bechdel family's Labor Day party.

Elly

Helen's ex-roommate, with whom the family often stays when they visit New York.

Richard and Tom

Elly's gay friends, to whom Alison is introduced in New York City at age fifteen.

Mr. Avery

The professor who teachers Alison's Ulysses course the year her father dies.

Uncle Fred

Bruce's brother who gives Bruce a pornographic calendar to hide at the Bullpen.

Elsie

Uncle Fred's wife, from whom he wants to hide his pornographic calendar.