Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. Trout appears in several of Vonnegut's books, in which he performs a variety of roles: he acts as catalyst for the main characters in God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian and Slaughterhouse Five; in others, such as Breakfast of Champions and Timequake, Trout is an active character who not only helps advance the story, but is vital to it.
Trout is usually described as an unappreciated science fiction writer whose works are used only as filler material in pornographic magazines.
Kilgore Trout's presence in Vonnegut's novels is somewhat of a puzzle – in Breakfast of Champions, he has, by the end, become something of a father figure; in other novels, he seems to be something like Vonnegut in the early part of his career. He is also a fictionalization of the real author Theodore Sturgeon.
Vonnegut has revised Trout's biography on several occasions. In Breakfast of Champions, he was born in 1909 and died in 1981. In Timequake, it was 1931 to 2001. Both death dates were set in the future as of the time the novels were written.
The novel Venus on the Half-Shell was written by Philip José Farmer under the name "Kilgore Trout". For some time it was assumed that Vonnegut must have written it; when the truth of its authorship came out, Vonnegut was reported as being "not amused".
Albert Finney portrayed Trout in the 1999 filmed version of Breakfast of Champions, directed by Alan Rudolph.
Also of some note, "Kilgore Trout" was the title of a song by Appleseed Cast on their album Mare Vitalis.
Robert Rankin spoofed the chararacter by naming one of the many fictional authors in his books "Kilgore Sprout".
