This is a list of all historical / real life figures mentioned and seen within the world of Sanctuary. The majority of these 'characters' do not contain enough background information in the show to support their own proper page.
Notice: Being that most individuals in this category are only a brief single namedrop within a single episode, there is not enough concrete representation in Sanctuary outside of audience presumption to support the belief that these fictional people are an exact embodiment of their real-world counterparts. Based on this, caution is advised when applying details to their pages on this Fandom wikia; as such, character infoboxes should remain minimal to bare. For those who would like to read more about any specific person, a link is provided to redirect readers to their Wikipedia page.
Disclaimer: The majority of photos provided as well as all personal information displayed are of the real person, not the Sanctuary character variant. The details for the Sanctuary character are non-existent in-universe as the character is mentioned by name only.
Note: Historical figures are grouped by first appearance / mention.
Episode 0x01 - "Webisode 1": As Larry Tolson is being held at the hospital by the Old City Police Department for questioning after being injured by them, he snaps at some of the police officers, saying, "This is harassment, plain and simple. You will all be hearing from my lawyer. Especially you, Tom Cruise. I know you're the one that shot me. [looks at another cop] -Or was it you, hmm?"
Episode 0x02 - "Webisode 2": After Will Zimmerman wakes up in a bedroom of the Old City Sanctuary, he walks over to shelving that displays a bunch of framed photographs. He picks up a framed newspaper article featuring Helen Magnus alongside Winston Churchill among two other World War II Allied Generals.
Episode 2x10 - "Sleepers": Winston Churchill gifted Helen Magnus a bottle of '45 Bordeaux in recognition of her involvement in D-Day. In late 2010, Nikola Tesla drank the wine and used the empty glass bottle to secretly store his De-vamper device.
Theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory within physics.[1]
Helen Magnus met Albert Einstein at least once, and a photograph of that meeting was made. The photograph can be seen in the opening credits of every episode in season 1 starting as of Episode 1x03 - "Fata Morgana".
Episode 0x06 - "Webisode 6": According to the Arthurian legends, some knights who were rejected from King Arthur's court, desperate to prove themselves worthy, accepted a hideous task from Merlin, fighting the dark forces unleashed by the wizard's nemesis, Morgan le Fay. Through this, Merlin was also indirectly involved in the rise to power of the Cabalis Nocturnum.
Merlin recognized the Morrígan, who were created by Morgan as a means to restore balance by discouraging Arthur's armies, as Morgan's strongest weapon. He somehow brainwashed them and turned them against Arthur's enemies, causing them to wreak havoc among the Saxons.
Once the battle for Britain was won, Merlin locked the three witches away in a crypt on a deserted island, and created an army of ghouls to guard them for eternity.[2]
Episode 0x07 - "Webisode 7": Legend has it that the Cabal was originally formed by knights who had fallen from King Arthur's grace and in order to redeem themselves helped Merlin to fight Morgan, who was in turn assisted by the Morrígan.
Episode 1x01 - "Sanctuary for All, Part I":Ashley Magnus recollects that one of the nervous locals who helped them sedate and catalogue a werewolf den during the summer she turned 18 had "seriously looked like Adrien Brody". She also says that her mother Helen Magnus "thought he was hot too".
Episode 1x07 - "The Five":John Druitt shows Ashley Magnus the locket her mother Helen Magnus had commissioned as a gift for him. In the locket is a photo of Magnus taken by Henry Talbot in Southampton during 1880-something.
Episode 4x01 - "Tempus": When Helen Magnus is forced to admit that she has time-travelled back to London in 1898 from the future year of early-2012, James Watson comments "H. G. would be ecstatic." It is implied that Watson knew him personally.
Episode 1x09 - "Requiem":Helen Magnus knew Teddy personally, and considered him to be much more fun than his distant cousin Frank, the 32nd President of the United States.
The 32ndPresident of the United States from 1933 until his death, and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the USA during World War II.
Episode 1x09 - "Requiem":Helen Magnus knew Frank personally, but considered his distant cousin Teddy, the 26th President of the United States, to be much more fun.
Episode 1x09 - "Requiem": According to Helen Magnus, Harding was a shapeshifting abnormal. As she put it, "You think a normal person would choose a job that impossible? Don't be ridiculous."
Episode 1x09 - "Requiem": At the end of the war, General Eisenhower asked Helen Magnus to take part in the Third Reich surrender ceremony, as he was unwilling to be in the same room as General Jodl.
Episode 3x17 - "Normandy": General "Ike" Eisenhower met with Helen Magnus and most members of the Five before or during World War II, and sent them on a number of missions, including one on D-Day where they had to retrieve a weather-controlling machine that was to be used against the Allied invasion fleet.
Episode 1x09 - "Requiem": The only reason Helen Magnus was in the room when General Jodl surrendered was because General Eisenhower refused to be in the same room as him.
A glioblastoma brain tumor causing a brain herniation with Duret haemorrhages resulting in coma and subsequent death two days later after an immediate removal surgery.
Episode 1x12 - "Revelations, Part I": According to Helen Magnus, Conan Doyle modeled the literary figure of Sherlock Holmes after James Watson's brilliant deductive mind. Watson was relegated to the sidekick in the stories at Watson's insistence, as he preferred to let Holmes take center stage while he played the fawning acolyte in the wings.
A noted aviation pioneer and author; the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books, and organized female pilots. She was also an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She disappeared on July 2nd, 1937 in the central Pacific Ocean en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea during an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the Earth. Fascination with her life, career, and disappearance continues to this day.
Helen Magnus met Amelia Earhart at least once, and they were photographed together in front of one of Earhart's planes. The photograph can be seen in the opening credits of every episode in season 2.
Amanda Tapping has said that she believes Amelia Earhart and Helen Magnus were in some sort of brief relationship; having always thought they were buddies.[5]
Episode 2x03 - "Eulogy":Helen Magnus recollects to Will Zimmerman that in the believed year of 1953 she was at a Princeton football game with Albert and Kurt, and that the three of them had a physics discussion about the ubiquity of matter turning into energy and vice versa.
Episode 2x04 - "Hero": Due to the sensitivity of an electronic device to pick up high-pitched sounds, Henry Foss jests that Declan MacRae should not get too close to any ambulances or Christina Aguilera.
Molly Brown[]
Molly Brown
Image:
Name:
Margaret Brown (née Tobin) ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown")
Socialite, philanthropist, and activist who traveled aboard the steam liner Titanic in 1912, and was among the survivors of the vessel's sinking after hitting an iceberg.
Episode 2x08 - "Next Tuesday":Helen Magnus recollects to Will Zimmerman that after the Titanic sank on April 15th, 1912, she was luckily fished out of the icy water into a lifeboat by Molly Brown; saving her life.
Episode 2x11 - "Haunted": In late 2010 after the boiler exploded on the empaths ship off the coast of South Africa, and the survivors are being teleported by John Druitt to the Old City Sanctuary, Helen Magnus asks Henry Foss about the current state of the ship. He says, "Yeah, not so good; Celine Dion should start singing about now. Sorry, disaster joke; not funny."
Pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was a politician, lawyer, peace activist, and a philosopher.
Helen Magnus met Mahātmā Ghandi at least once, and a photograph of that meeting was made. The photograph can be seen in the opening credits of every episode in season 3.
Episode 3x01 - "Kali, Part III": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 3x02 - "Firewall": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 3x03 - "Bank Job": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 3x04 - "Trail of Blood": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 3x08 - "For King and Country": In 1908, her son Edward VII ordered his Prime Minister to convince the Five to hunt down and terminate the dangerous criminal Adam Worth. John Druitt noted how the King seems to be not as spineless as his mother, the late Queen Victoria, believed him to be.
Musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush.
Episode 3x12 - "Hangover": After the Sanctuary team falls under the spell of a pinnepex, Will Zimmerman changes the computer network's administrator password to "Geddy Lee". To get back into the computers, Henry Foss uses a program to reveal the new password. At Helen Magnus's questioning tone when she read the name aloud, Henry informers her that he's the lead singer of Rush. Magnus responds, "Isn't that Will's favorite band?" Henry confirms it, however it leaves both of them confused as to why he would have done that.
Episode 3x17 - "Normandy": Adolf Hitler was very interested in the abnormal world, and ordered a number of measures to find abnormals to use against his enemies, including a Tunisian fire elemental. Officially, Hitler committed suicide by gunshot in his underground bunker in besieged Berlin of Nazi Germany on April 30th, 1945. However, the actual Führer was knifed to death by John Druitt in the fall of 1943 during a performance of Tristan and Isolde in his private viewing box at the age of 54-years-old, leaving the German High Command in charge of the Reich. Franz Korba mentioned that Hitler's double was much easier to deal with.
Helen Magnus met Martin Luther King Jr. at least once, and a photograph of that meeting was made. The photograph can be seen in the opening credits of every episode in season 4.
Episode 4x01 - "Tempus": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x02 - "Uprising": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x03 - "Untouchable": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x04 - "Monsoon": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x05 - "Resistance": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x06 - "Homecoming": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x07 - "Icebreaker": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x08 - "Fugue": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x09 - "Chimera": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x10 - "Acolyte": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Episode 4x11 - "The Depths": Seen as photo in opening title sequence.
Caleb tries to persuade Helen Magnus of his non-violent agenda to create the homeland project by quoting MLK. Magnus responds that MLK was a pacifist, something that Caleb is not.
The profile image of Buckminster Fuller displayed here on this Fandom wiki is the same image seen used in the TV show when Abby Corrigan is looking up records on the Specified Counter-Insurgency Unit computer in Episode 4x13 - "Sanctuary for None, Part II". This image can be found on Fuller's Wikipedia page.
↑Most of this was only mentioned in "Webisode 6" and not included in the re-shot television episode "Fata Morgana", likely because Helen Magnus seemed unaware of the Cabal's existence in the webisode.
↑According to his IMDb page. It's the only source with a height listed.
↑Speculation: Helen Magnus's comment may potentially suggest that he did not actually die, but was instead unable to hold human form any longer.