Vernon Schillinger
Vernon Schillinger is a fictional character played by American actor J. K. Simmons on the HBO series Oz as a major antagonist.
As a leader of Oz's Aryan Brotherhood, Schillinger controls most white inmates and has a reputation for ruthless brutality and rape.
He indulges in varying degrees of sexual sadism, especially toward fellow inmate Tobias Beecher, whom he rapes to "initiate" him into prison life.
In addition to Beecher, Schillinger commits several acts of rape over the series against weaker white inmates; ironically, he is virulently homophobic.
Throughout the series, Schillinger has several major family issues: his father, whom he hates, taught him everything he knows about white supremacist ideology; his sons are both amoral drug addicts; he has disowned his sister for marrying a Jew, and his daughter-in-law is a prostitute.
Despite his status as a leader, he seeks approval from his superiors such as former mentor Wilson Loewen, who views him as having "a big ego and no balls to back it up."
After Tobias Beecher is threatened by his larger African American cellmate, Simon Adebisi, the initially harmless-looking Schillinger offers to let him move into his "pod."
[3][4] Schillinger subjects Beecher to a series of rapes and humiliations, most notably forcing him to perform in drag for a prison talent show.
These fears come true when a prison riot breaks out in Emerald City, during which Schillinger lies low, allowing biker inmate Scott Ross to command his Aryan troops.
During the riot, Schillinger sees correctional officer Diane Whittlesey murder Ross after the SORT team supplies her with a gun.
When law school dean Alvah Case investigates the riot, he offers Schillinger a letter of recommendation for parole.
After Emerald City is reopened, Beecher begins taunting and threatening Schillinger in the hopes of ruining his chance at parole.
When Schillinger approaches other prisoners to try and hire one of them to kill Beecher, they all make fun of him for being too frail to handle his own dirty deeds.
He employs Chris Keller, a bisexual serial killer who once served time with him in another prison, to play a sick mind game on Beecher to break him down.
As the plan goes forward, Beecher is informed of his wife's apparent suicide, and Schillinger tauntingly implies that he actually arranged her murder.
Schillinger promises to take Cyril to see his brother in Emerald City but instead orchestrates his gang rape by the Aryans.
[6] When Augustus Hill testifies against Malcolm Coyle for murdering an innocent family, Saïd asks Schillinger, among other inmates, to help protect him.
Guard Sean Murphy starts a boxing tournament in Emerald City, to which Robson agrees to compete for the Aryans.
He asks all the other whites, including Beecher and Keller, to form a bond of solidarity — albeit only a temporary, opportunistic one — to prevent the Blacks from taking over the entire prison.
Schillinger pays Jewish inmate Eli Zabitz to help frame Keller for the kidnapping, turning the two against each other, and has Hank remove the hand of Beecher's son Gary and ship it to Oz.
Before Robson is put on trial for murder, Schillinger sends the only witness a disturbing letter that drives him to commit suicide.
Schibetta goes after the Aryans alone attempting to stab Schillinger, when he and Robson go to pick up their damaged pool table, after they taunt him with racial slurs and references to being raped by Adebisi.
He immediately orally rapes Franklin Winthrop, who offers to kill Beecher's father Harrison, who had been visiting Oz to help Keller overturn his murder conviction, if he can join the Aryans.
Meanwhile, a family friend of Schillinger's, Mayor Wilson Loewen, faces trial for reportedly assisting the Ku Klux Klan in murder of two young Black girls in 1963.
The trial leads to a full-scale race riot in the city, which spreads into Oz, putting the entire prison in lockdown.
Schillinger is visited by his sister whom he had disowned for marrying a Jewish man and expresses regret upon seeing pictures of his nephews and nieces whom he can never have a relationship with due to his National Socialist ideology.
Due to the deaths of Schillinger and other Aryan lieutenants, and James Robson transferred to Unit F, the Brotherhood is reduced to pulling mail room duty; all are wiped out when an anthrax shipment is delivered to Oz in the series finale.
