Lorne (Angel)
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Lorne is a fictional character appearing in the TV series Angel. He is a green-skinned demon with red eyes and small horns on his forehead who comes from the world of Pylea in an alternate dimension. Physically, he rather resembles Batman's nemesis The Joker.
Lorne is played by actor and singer Andy Hallett and first appeared on the episode "Judgement" which aired in 2000. He was the host of a karaoke bar called Caritas frequented by humans, vampires and various demons. Caritas was a sanctuary where anyone could come in safety for Lorne's help. He has the unusual psychic ability to reading a person's soul, but only while they were singing. After hearing a person sing, Lorne can tell a great deal about that person's thoughts and feelings and true nature, and can even gain a limited perspective on his or her future. The nature of this ability changed as the series progressed. At first, Lorne's ability to read people's auras was limited to a (sometimes vague) glimpse of their destiny. Eventually, this evolved into a power similar to mind-reading.
The character was initially known simply as "the Host." His actual name was not revealed until the 2001 episode "Heartthrob". He said he didn't use the name "Lorne" very often because his green skin prompted people to make Lorne Greene jokes. Lorne is actually a shortened version of his full name, "Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan."
Lorne's home world was a violent place filled with champions constantly undertaking quests against evil.(Their idea of which differed in some respects from human morality, being that they were a society of demons.) Lorne was a gentle soul who would rather sing than fight, and he did not share his kin's prejudice against humans (or "cows" as they were called in his world). He was always reluctant to help out Angel and the other heroes of the series, though his essential goodness usually won out over his reticence.
As portrayed by Hallett, Lorne mirrored many of the stereotypical characteristics of a homosexual character. He was gentle, witty, self-involved, had a gift for gab and a flamboyant fashion sense and was misunderstood by his family. The series never made any claims about Lorne's sexuality, and Hallett himself intentionally left it vague. The character worked well as a metaphor for any misunderstood outcast.
Lorne is also one of the many non-evil demons in the Angel series. His complex and often surprising personality fit well in a series that delighted in thwarting the viewers' expectations.