Role in The Simpsons
Groundskeeper Willie is the groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School and lives in squalor in a shack on the school grounds. He is a Scotsman with an aggressive temper. He is an uncouth and unpleasant, though essentially harmless, character. His personality is depicted as being incompetent, quick to anger for little or no reason, slow-witted, and a heavy drinker. Willie has shown antipathy to both his employer, Principal Skinner, and Bart Simpson, who plays pranks on him.
Due to its weak continuity, he has claimed to be from various parts of Scotland during the series, most recently Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands in the 2012 episode 'The Daughter Also Rises'. He had previosuly stated to be a fan of Aberdeen Football Club, and to have been resident in Glasgow. Prior to emigrating to America and starting his janitorial career, he was a coal miner and was caught in a mine collapse from which no one escaped, not even Willie. In early episodes Willie's father was deceased (possibly after being hung for stealing a pig) and "thrown in the bog" rather than given a Christian burial. However his parents were later introduced in "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", and lived near Loch Ness. He apparently never married although he was engaged to Shary Bobbins for a time before her blindness was cured and she decided that Willie was not good enough for her. According to Groundskeeper Willie, he is "too poor to have a last name", although in the Simpsons Comics he is referred to as "William MacMoran". In "My Fair Laddy" he is also temporarily known as G. K. Willington, Esq. The 2009 episode "Lisa the Drama Queen" reveals that Groundskeeper Willie's full name is William MacDougal, and that he is a doctor.
Willie plays a supporting role in most of his episodes, but featured heavily in the episode "My Fair Laddy" in which Lisa Simpson introduced him to high culture as a science project
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