Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)

The Jackal is a fictional character, the principal antagonist of the novel The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. He is an assassin who is contracted by the OAS French terrorist group of the early 1960s to kill Charles de Gaulle, then President of France. The book was published on 7 June 1971, in the year following de Gaulle's death, and became an instant bestseller. In the 1973 original film adaptation, he is portrayed by Edward Fox. In the 2024 TV series, a contemporary interpretation of the Jackel in the modern era is portrayed by Eddie Redmayne.

A significantly altered version of the character was portrayed by Bruce Willis in the 1997 loosely based adaptation, having a divergent storyline and set in the U.S., with a fictional First Lady of the United States as the target of the assassination.