What is the name of the protagonist in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train? Guy Haines. Played by Farley Granger, Guy is a successful amateur tennis player whose wish to divorce his wife makes him vulnerable to Bruno Antony’s bizarre murder proposal.
Guy meets Bruno on a train, where Bruno suggests that two strangers exchange murders: Bruno will kill Guy’s wife, Miriam, while Guy kills Bruno’s father. Guy treats the idea as a joke, but Bruno murders Miriam and insists that Guy honor the supposed bargain. The rest of the film follows Guy’s attempt to escape Bruno’s scheme and prove his innocence.
The film was released in 1951 and was adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel. Hitchcock changed important elements from the book: the cinematic Guy is a tennis player who refuses to become a murderer, while the novel’s Guy is an architect and ultimately commits the requested killing. Roger Thornhill is Cary Grant’s character in North by Northwest, and Bruno Antony is the antagonist—not the protagonist.