Leto I Atreides

Duke Leto Atreides I
File:Prochnowasleto.jpg Jürgen Prochnow as Leto Atreides I in Dune (1984)
First appearance	Dune: House Atreides
Last appearance	Dune
Portrayed by	Jürgen Prochnow (1984 film) William Hurt (2000 miniseries/2003 sequel)
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Planetary Governor/Duke
Affiliation	House Atreides
Spouse	Lady Jessica

Duke Leto Atreides I (/ˈleɪtoʊ əˈtreɪdiːz/; 10,140-10,191 A.G.) is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He features in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert and in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

In David Lynch's 1984 film version, Duke Leto was played by Jürgen Prochnow. In the Sci-Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries, William Hurt played the role.

Prelude to Dune

Leto I is born in the year 10,140 A.G. ("after Guild") on the planet Caladan, to Paulus Atreides and Lady Helena Richese-Atreides. Paulus is the reigning Duke of House Atreides, their noble House ruling Caladan for 26 generations. House Atreides is distantly related to the Imperial House Corrino (through Leto's maternal grandmother) and has feuded with House Harkonnen since the time of Vorian Atreides, founder of the Atreides family line.

Duke Paulus arranges for Leto to spend a portion of his adolescence on planet Ix in the care of House Vernius and its then-Earl, Dominic Vernius — over the objections of Lady Helena. There, Leto becomes fast friends with the Earl's son and daughter, Prince Rhombur and Lady Kailea. They return to Caladan after the uprising of Ix's working class of mentally-limited subhumans, and subsequent Tleilaxu invasion, forces Leto and the members of House Vernius to flee from Ix. Earl Dominic and his wife, Lady Shando Balut-Vernius, each must flee to different locations, Paulus grants sanctuary to Rhombur and Kailea—again, over the objections of Helena, whose family of House Richese have been economic competitors (nearly to the point of being hostile enemies) of House Vernius.

Duke Paulus engages in the sporting event of bullfighting mutated Salusan bulls, both for the sport and for the spectacle; he plays every bull for all it was worth, and the people of Caladan love him for it. Soon after the Vernius heirs are given sanctuary, Paulus is killed when his treacherous wife arranges for a stablehand loyal to House Richese to drug a bull to extraordinary levels of rage, strength, and endurance. She intends to rule House Atreides as regent through her son Leto, as he is still under-age. Leto realizes what she has done and exiles her to a remote location with the Caladan Sisters of Isolation, rather than have her executed; public knowledge of what happened would have brought serious negative impacts on House Atreides and all of Caladan.

Leto keeps the head of the beast wall-mounted opposite a portrait of his father, as a grisly reminder of the event.

Leto takes Kailea as his concubine, and they have a son named Victor. However, Leto declines taking Kailea as his wife or name Victor as his heir, obligated to keep a political marriage a possibility. Leto and Kailea grow apart, and after the arrival into his household of the Bene Gesserit acolyte Jessica, whom Leto finds attractive, Kailea takes matters into her own hands by attempting to kill Leto. Kailea fails, but her brother Rhombur is injured and her son Victor is killed in the process, whereafter she commits suicide.

Leto and Jessica fall in love with one another, and she becomes his bound concubine. Unknown to both of them, she is the illegitimate daughter of his rival, Vladimir Harkonnen. They never marry, in order to maintain the possibility of an alliance with another Great House — although this never occurs. Leto and Jessica are devoted to one another; any marriage on Leto's part would have been purely political, and meaningless to him. In the year 10,176 A.G., Jessica gives birth to Paul Atreides, their son.

Leto is known in some Imperial circles, and especially by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, as "the Red Duke" referring to House Atreides' red hawk symbol. He gains fame as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable leader of his small military. He recruits skilled individuals—including Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, and Duncan Idaho—to lead and train his military forces. Jessica and Hawat serve as his two main advisors. Emperor Shaddam IV both admires and dislikes Leto, after Leto makes a bluffing attempt to blackmail the Emperor into intervening on his behalf in a case in the Landsraad court, in which he has submitted to a Trial by Forfeiture to prove that he has not fired on a Tleilaxu ship inside a Heighliner in foldspace. He has been framed for this by lifelong enemy, Vladimir Harkonnen.

In the year of Paul's birth, Leto's successful military overthrow of the joint Tleilaxu and Emperor's Sardaukar occupation forces on Ix, and his role in the subsequent political censure of Shaddam in the aftermath of Ix and the Emperor's other destructive actions across the Imperium, ensure Duke Leto a vengeful enemy in Emperor Shaddam. This culminates into the history-shaping events on Arrakis 15 years later.

Dune

In the year 10,191 A.G., Leto's two greatest enemies conspire against him. The Baron Harkonnen appears to surrender Arrakis to House Atreides, which requires Leto to transfer all his people to the inhospitable desert planet. Aware that some plot is afoot, Duke Leto accepts his new fiefdom so that he might form an alliance with the Fremen and end the plots against him and his House. Leto's plan to forge a formidable army, by unleashing what he termed Arrakis' "Desert Power", would not culminate until after his death, through the efforts of Jessica and Paul.

His term as planetary governor of Arrakis proves short, as he is betrayed by Dr. Wellington Yueh, his family physician, who surrenders Leto alive to the Baron. Yueh takes revenge on the Baron for the death of Yueh's wife and provides Leto with a false tooth filled with poison gas. This would kill those nearby when Leto bit down on the tooth and exhaled, and Leto would do so in the Baron's presence. Unfortunately for both Yueh's plan and Leto, he only manages to kill the twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries.

Leto dies at age 51 and is survived by Paul and Jessica, who is pregnant with Leto's daughter, Alia, at the time of his death. Paul later names his first son Leto, and then his second son Leto II, in honor of his father.

Sandworms of Dune

In Sandworms of Dune, the Reverend Mother Sheeana, on the no-ship Ithaca, begins to grow a ghola of the Duke in secret. However, the awakened ghola of Wellington Yueh, unknowingly manipulated by a Face Dancer imposter on board, poisons the axlotl tank in which the Duke grows, killing him before he is born.

At the novel's conclusion, a second ghola of Duke Leto has been created and is being raised back on Caladan in the care of the restored gholas of Jessica and Yueh.