Simon Ford

Simon Ford is a fictional werewolf and a minor character featured in the ABC television series The Gates. Played by actor Louis Herthum, he was introduced in the second episode of season one, "What Lies Beneath". He also played a major part in the eighth episode, "Dog Eat Dog".

Biography
Simon Ford was a werewolf and the Alpha of a group called The Pack. Simon and his wife Joan and son Lukas (also a werewolf) lived in the exclusive private community known as The Gates. Although all members of the Pack lived within The Gates, their personal code forbade them from hunting within city limits. Simon would lead Lukas and the others on hunting trips in the forests outside The Gates. Despite his authority within his social circle, Simon was a violent and abusive man. He would often return home drunk after a hunt and take his frustration out on his wife and son.

The Pack Beta was a man named Coach Ross. When Ross first moved into The Gates, Simon and he had an altercation that quickly led to violence. Simon beat Ross severely, but due to the secrecy of their lycanthrope nature, he decided not to press any charges against him. Ross remained on as Pack Beta, but Simon and he never became close.

One day, Nick Monohan, the new police chief of The Gates, came to the Ford residence to ask Simon questions concerning his son's history of juvenile delinquency. This was part of Monohan's investigation into the murder of the former police chief David Phelps. Ford played ignorant, declaring that he was unaware of any wrongdoing on the part of his son and assured Monohan that if he had learned of any such criminal activity, he would have taken stern measures to correct it.

Nick left, but returned to the Ford estate after he had learned that Simon had previous contact with Chief Phelps. Simon relented and told him that Phelps blackmailed him for $10,000 to make his son's juvenile record disappear.

A short time later, Simon's short temper got the better of him once again, this time at The Gates Country Club. During a Homeowners Association meeting, he got into an argument with Ben McAllister, leader of the vampire populace inside The Gates. The two came to blows and Chief Monohan and another vampire, Dylan Radcliff, had to pry them apart.

The following morning, Nick's wife Sarah found Simon Ford lying bloody and unconscious on his front lawn. She called her husband and Simon was taken to the hospital. Simon spent the night convalescing, but quickly recovered from his injuries. Another werewolf in the community, Karen Crezski, helped to revive him and engineer his escape from the hospital before Nick Monohan could question him about the incident.

Nick pursued the case and learned about the werewolves living at The Gates. He discovered that it was Lukas Ford, not Ben McAllister, who was responsible for brutalizing Simon. Lukas confessed that he did so because his father was an abusive drunk who was always beating on his mother and he. Per Pack law, any werewolf who challenges the Alpha and defeats him becomes the leader of the Pack. Lukas had no desire to lead the Pack and he knew that if it became known that he was now the Alpha, older, stronger werewolves would come out of the woodwork to challenge him. Coach Ross, a much larger man than Lukas, fabricated the story that it was he who had beaten Simon.

Simon knew that he could no longer stay at The Gates under such circumstances. He visited Nick Monohan to tell him that he was leaving, but warned him about the brewing feud between the community's werewolf and vampire population. He told him that werewolves and vampires could never coexist with one another and it was only a matter of time before things would come to a head.

What became of Simon Ford after leaving The Gates is unknown.