William Tanner (novel)

This article is about Mr. Tanner from the novel series. You may be looking for William Tanner from the TV series.

William Tanner
Biographical information
Born	20th Century
Status	Deceased
Occupation	History Teacher
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Family information
Family Members	Unknown
Supernatural information
Cause of death	Drained of blood
Killed by	Damon Salvatore
Appearance
First seen	The Awakening
Last seen	The Salvation: Unmasked

Mr. William Tanner was a character of The Vampire Diaries novel series. He was a history teacher at Robert E. Lee High School. He is about 25 years old, even though he's balding. He loved to humiliate students, but he couldn't humiliate Stefan when the teacher tried and miserably failed.

Appearance

He is young but looks older due to his receding hairline. He was thin and had eyes like a weasel.

Personality

Considering his young age, he didn't have much experience dealing with high school students. He loved to humiliate the students he taught and was condescending of the ones that got an answer wrong.

The Original Series

The Awakening

It had been stated that Mr. Tanner had recently come to the school as the history teacher. He is shown to be condescending and humiliated the students he taught in class, with Stefan noting that this was Tanner's intention. He is later put in place when Stefan stands up for Bonnie and answers the question Tanner had asked beforehand.

He reluctantly stepped into the role of the Druid sacrifice for the Halloween Fundraiser as Coach Lyman was ill. In this role he is meant to sit up and scare everyone when someone came near him. When this didn't happen, Bonnie went to see if Mr. Tanner was okay and when he wouldn't respond, she shook him and realized he was dead. After the police are called, but haven't arrived, Tyler Smallwood starts to rally up a group of people to find Stefan, believing he did it, but Stefan didn't, but Tyler hates him because he beat him up for trying to hurt Elena. It is then revealed that Mr. Tanner was killed by Stefan's brother, Damon.

Name

• William is from Old German origin and means "will helmet" or "protection".

• Tanner comes from an English origin and means "worker in leather".

The Vampire Diaries

Benjamin Ayres as William Tanner

Main article: William Tanner

Mr. Tanner appeared in TV series with the name William Tanner. He was also a history teacher. He was killed by Damon Salvatore. He was killed before the first football game of the season.

Trivia

• In both versions, Mr. Tanner likes to make students feel shamed or embarrassed.
• In both the series and the novel, Mr. Tanner is killed by Damon.