Clay Morrow

Clarence "Clay" Morrow is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy. He is played by Ron Perlman, however the role was played by Scott Glenn in the first version of the pilot. He is the leader of the Sons of Anarchy biker gang, but is also something of a vigilante as he does everything in his power to ensure that drug dealers and rapists stay out of his town. He is 6' 2" and has a number of tattoos, most notably a Grim Reaper on his upper right arm and a United States Army Airborne badge on his upper left, showing Paratrooper wings and the phrase "Death From Above".



Biography
Morrow was born in 1949 and is a native of Charming, California. He has been shown to struggle with his age and is developing arthritis. He is the President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Mother Chapter, based in Charming. This may also mean that he is National President. He was the youngest of the original nine members who formed the club in 1967, and one of only three who were not war veterans. He did later go on to serve in the military, however, and did a tour of duty in Vietnam from 1969 until 1972 (commemorated by a tattoo on his left arm and the parachutist badge on his vest). He also owns the Teller-Morrow auto shop where most of the chapter's members work.

He has been married to Gemma Teller Morrow since the mid nineties following the death of her first husband and club founder, John Teller. Despite the couple being in their 50s, they still act like youths, often having sex in public places and the like. Morrow's step son, Jax Teller, is his Vice-President. Jax recently found his father's memoirs which tell of how he formed the club as a form of social rebellion, not as a gang and has began to wonder if the outlaw life is the one for him. Clay keeps him on path and intends for him to be his successor when he steps down.

On his colors, he wears patches reading "President", "First 9" (as he was one of the original nine members) and "Men of Mayhem". He has formerly served time in prison, but it is never mentioned how long. His last criminal conviction was in or around 2001.

Season One
Series One began with the Sons of Anarchy finding their weapon storage warehouse being burned down. The SOA rush to the scene where local police officers are already investigating. Clay talks to Sheriff Vic Trammel about the blaze, who claims that propane tanks inside the building blew up, and suspects arson due to the bootprints inside. Trammel then shows Clay the burned corpses of the people hidden beneath the building, who were illegal immigrants. It is later revealed that they were Mexican prostitutes "owned" by the club's Sergeant-at-Arms, Tig Trager. Clay then goes to meet Laroy, the leader of the One-Niners, in the East Bay. He was due to sell guns to the gang, but as they were destroyed, he must explain what happened at the warehouse. Laroy needs the guns to sell to another motorcycle club, the Mayans, and eventually lets Clay have some more time to get more guns together for him. The Sons of Anarchy then worked out that it was the Mayans who stole the guns and destroyed the storage warehouse, and decide to get some payback. Juice Ortiz, the club's intelligence officer, finds out where the Mayans stored the guns and Clay, Tig, Jax and Chibs Telford all head out to San Leandro to retrieve them. When they arrive at the industrial storage warehouse and find the guns, three Mayans turn up in a car outside. Clay and Chibs, a Scotsman and the club's medic, then shoot and kill the Mayans and another man, who has a number of Nazi and White supremacist tattoos. He was a member of the Nordics, a local skinhead gang who are allied with the Mayans, and it later emerges that his name was Whistler. They escape with the weapons and destroy the building using explosives.

Wayne Unser, the Chief of the Charming Police Department, has always got on well with the Sons of Anarchy during his time in charge, and even employed them as muscle at times. However, he is dying from cancer and will retire at the end of the month, handing power over to his Deputy, David Hale, who is overtly suspicious of the SOA and will almost definitely begin an investigation into the club. To warn Unser to keep Hale off their case, Clay, Bobby Munson (the club's Treasurer) and Opie Winston hijacked a shipment that they were supposed to protect, and threaten to hijack more. As a good will gesture, they gave the contents of the truck to the local Italian American Mafia as their guns were late to be delivered. Meanwhile, Tig comes forth and tells Clay that he had been having sex with both of the women found at the warehouse and that his DNA is in the police database. Clay ordered Tig and Bobby to get rid of the bodies. The pair then retrieved the corpses from the police site and burned them in a furnace. Hale is enraged when he discovers that the bodies are missing, and he threatens Clay that he will close the SOA down for good.

Local businessman Elliot Oswald goes to Clay after his 13-year-old daughter was raped at a carnival and asks the Sons of Anarchy to hunt the rapist down and kill him, in exchange for money. Clay refuses the money but insists that if they catch him, he must carry out the punishment himself. Juice and Gemma find out that the rapist is one of the carnies and the gang capture him and bring him to Oswald, who tries to castrate him but can't bring himself to do it. Clay then carries the punishment out, but wears gloves whilst doing it. He then frames Oswald for the crime, as only his fingerprints are on the knife, because he was about to sell off much of the land around Charming to big business and housing, which would challenge the SOA's reign over the town. Jax is unhappy that Clay did not tell him of the plan, however, and tells him to always inform him on his future motives.

When a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent arrived in Charming and began investigating the club, Clay decided that they should move their weapons to Indian Hills, Nevada, where their brother club, the Devil's Tribe, are based. He also sent Bobby and Jax to inform the Devil's Tribe that the Sons of Anarchy would be patching over them, and Tig and Juice to steal a truck to transport the guns in. Clay also travelled to Indian Hills to perform the patch-over ceremony and brought a number of SOA Washington members as protection in case the Mayans retaliated for an earlier conflict involving Jax, Bobby and five Mayans. At the patch-over party, he had sex with Cherry, a woman that Half-Sack likes, as revenge for him calling Gemma a MILF earlier. The Mayans did eventually retaliate as predicted by attacking the Devil's Tribe clubhouse, and a large shoot-out ensued.

Otto Delaney and a number of other imprisoned SAMCRO members have been protecting Chuck in Stockton prison. He is wanted by the Triads because he stole money from them, then informed on a number of their members when he was arrested. When Clay and Jax went to visit Otto in prison, he told them that if they protected Chuck when he was released, he would inform them where the Triads keep their money. They agreed and picked him up from prison and brought him to the clubhouse. SAMCRO intended on waiting until the restaurant, where the money is stored, was closed before they raided it, but Chuck's frequent unconscious masturbating was unbearable for them and they decided to raid the restaurant straight away. However, just after they stole the money and some counterfeiting plates, the Triads turned up. Instead of starting a war, Clay decided to make a deal; SAMCRO handed over Chuck and the plates, and the Triads let them keep the stolen money. Meanwhile, Kyle Hobart, a disgraced former SAMCRO member, went to Jax and asked him if they Sons wanted in on his deal selling stolen car parts. Jax accepted and invited him to the clubhouse that night. This was a set-up, however, to punish him for not having his SOA tattoo removed after being disowned by the club. At the clubhouse, they tied him up and Tig used a blowtorch to burn off the tattoo.

Jax and Piney sold five AK-47s to Nate Meineke and his right-wing state militia. They then used these guns to ambush a prison convoy and free one of their members, Frank Cison. Three police officers were killed during the assault. Meineke dropped his cell phone at the scene, and his last calls had been to Clay Morrow. When the ATF found the phone, they arrested Clay and raided the clubhouse. Clay was later released because no evidence was found, meaning he could no longer be kept in custody. Meanwhile Jax, Piney and Opie Winston decided to kill Meineke and his gang to keep them from "snitching" if they were apprehended by the authorities. They pretended to sell them more weapons. The boxes of guns were actually filled with explosives, however, and the militia loaded their trucks with them. All of the militia were killed when the bombs were detonated.

Workmen working for the Water and Power Board near the highway dug up three skeletons, two of which were Mayans killed in the war of 1992. The other was Lowell Harland, Sr., a mechanic at Teller-Morrow. He was killed for being a "junkie rat". To stop the bodies from being identified, Clay, Jax and Tig broke into the local morgue and were prepared to steal the bones. However, the corpses had already been identified. When Clay told Lowell, Jr. about his father's death, he ran away. Clay tracked him down and eventually brought him back to town.

Clay was almost killed when the Mayans attempted to shoot him while at a deal with Cameron Hayes of the True IRA at a bar. The two Mayan soldiers were gunned down by Tig and the shotgun-toting barman, however. Clay then called in the Sons of Anarchy State Presidents and Vice-Presidents from Washington, Utah and Nevada, in a bid to wipe out the Mayans. After the shooting, he questioned Jax's commitment to the club and whether Jax was willing to kill.

Clay was taken to the local police station for questioning about the recent shootings, by Wayne Unser. Ernest Darby was also being held there, and Clay told Unser to bring Álvarez in, in order for the three gang leader to hold a meeting and, hopefully, halt any more bloodshed. He met with Darby first, and told him not to retaliate because it would start a war on the streets of Charming. He then met with Álvarez and the pair made a deal; the Sons of Anarchy will begin selling guns to the Mayans, and all Mayan-SOA disputes (over turf, businesses, etc.) end in the SOA's favour. Álvarez also gave the Sons permission to kill Esai, as revenge for the attempted hit on Clay.

After the clubhouse was raided and Bobby was arrested for the murder of Brenan Hefner, Clay and Tig suspected Opie of being the witness that identified him. It was another person, however. When Opie turned up at the clubhouse, Tig checked his car for bugs and found a microphone. He also found a recording device in his mobile phone. Both were planted by the ATF without Opie's knowledge. Clay and Tig then decided to kill him.

Clay and Tig again met with One-Niners leader Laroy, and they discussed taking out the Mayans. They agreed that the Sons would meet the Mayans for an arms deal and when they left, the Niners would eliminate the Mayans and take the guns as payment. However, when Clay, Tig, Opie and Jax met Álvarez and his crew at a warehouse in Oakland, the Niners tried to take out the Mayans and SOA. The group escaped, but a number of Mayans and Niners were killed in the shoot-out. Tig attempted to kill Opie during the havoc, but found himself unable to do so. Later on at Jax's son Abel's homecoming party, Tig followed Opie's car home and shot the driver dead. However, it was Opie's wife, Donna, that was driving the car. Just after Tig had left to kill Opie, Clay was approached by Wayne Unser and told that Opie was in fact not an informant, and that the ATF had set him up. Clay tried to phone Tig to tell him, but Tig was not carrying his phone.

Rosen, the club's lawyer, met with Clay and told him that the ATF have put a warrant out for Opie's arrest and that he will most likely get convicted of Hefner's murder because of the witness. Clay, Tig and Juice then met with Vic Trammel and offered him money to reveal the location of the witness. Trammell didn't know, however, so they went to Elliot Oswald. They again blackmailed him with the knife that he used to kill the rapist earlier in the season, this time to get his friends in the US Attorney to tell him the witness' case number and location. He then sent Chibs, Happy and Tig to kill the witness, who was at a safe house in San Joaquin. Jax went to the safe house and stopped the trio from killing the witness, but did threaten her into leaving the state. At Church, Jax confronted Clay and asked him if he killed Donna. He refused. Season One ended at Donna's funeral, which was attended by Sons of Anarchy from all over the country. There, Jax and Clay stared at each other and it was plain to see that the club was coming apart from inside.

Season Two
In the first episode of Season Two we see that Clay still has no remorse for what he did to Donna and that he's going head to head with Jaxs over the death of Donna. We see him giving Opie a fake story of how a Mayan MC member killed Donna and he throws a welcome back party for Bobby. When Ethan Zobelle and the L.O.A.N. start threatening members of SAMCRO, Clay is all for immediate retaliation, but he is at odds with Jax who feels the club may be walking into a trap.

He has recently learned of his wife Gemma's rape at the hands of L.O.AN. and settled his differences with Jax, so the two could work together to get revenge. Clay is now shown to be a lot more in tune with Jax's method of operation, opting to do more recon work before entering potentially lethal situations.

In the season two finale, Clay neglected to inform Marcus Alvarez that Ethan Zobelle was an F.B.I. informant, knowing the Mayan leader would kill Zobelle himself forfeiting Clay the opportunity to do the deed. Later in the episode, the Sons ambushed the Mayan convoy containing Zobelle and Clay spared Alvarez's life. Clay and the others cornered Zobelle in a deli, but Clay decided to abandon the scene when he learned of his grandson's kidnapping. He was last seen consoling his distraught stepson Jax, whose son Abel (Clay's grandson) was kidnapped by IRA gun dealer Cameron Hayes.