<Tr> <Th> Aliases </Th> <Td> John Grant Jack Gordon </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Gender </Th> <Td> Male </Td> </Tr> <P> Jame Gumb (known by the nickname Buffalo Bill) is a character and the primary antagonist of Thomas Harris's 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs and its 1991 film adaptation, in which he is played by Ted Levine . In the film and the novel, he is a serial killer who murders overweight women and skins them so he can make a "woman suit" for himself . </P> <P> According to the novel, Gumb was born in California on October 25, 1949, and abandoned by his mother--an alcoholic sex worker who misspelled "James" on his birth certificate--and taken into foster care at age two . The screenplay omits Gumb's backstory, but does imply that he had a traumatic childhood . Lecter summarizes Gumb's life thus: "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse ." </P>

Who played the murderer in silence of the lambs