Victor Bennett

Victor Bennett is the ex-husband of Patty Halliwell and the father of the oldest Charmed Ones; Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell. After the death of his eldest daughter, he accepted Paige Matthews as one of his own daughters, never separating the three sisters when talking about his girls.

Early life
Victor was born into the Bennett family, and may have had a "manic" sister, an alcoholic niece or nephew and an aunt named Sylvia.

Marriage to Patty Halliwell
Victor Bennett married Patty Halliwell sometime before Prue was born in 1970. Patty's mother, Penny, was not pleased that her daughter had married a mortal. She had low expectations for men, especially mortal men. Sometime between Prue and Piper's births, Victor found out that his wife and mother-in-law were witches--and his daughters were witches as well. Victor attempted to adjust to his wife's Wiccan life with little success. He and Patty fought constantly over how to handle their daughters' magical heritage. Victor thought that magic was dangerous, and would hurt his girls. He wanted to raise them as normal girls, while Patty (with Penny's support) wanted to raise them as witches. It didn't help that he and Penny sparred constantly in a Bewitched-style, Darrin Stephens-Endora type relationship.

Sometime after Piper was born, Patty started spending more time with her Whitelighter, Sam Wilder. Victor was increasingly frustrated with Sam's growing involvement in their lives and with magic in general, and left the family for a brief time in 1975. However, he returned after finding out Patty had given him a third daughter, Phoebe.

When Prue was six, Victor rescued her from the Nothing found within the Ice Cream Truck used to capture demon children. According to Victor, while he managed to save Prue, Grams was horrified, believing that Victor only got lucky since he didn't have powers. Shortly afterward, Victor found out Patty and Sam were having an affair (whether or not it was a physical one was left ambiguous), and the two divorced sometime in 1977. Unknown to Victor, Patty was pregnant with a daughter by Sam, Paige Matthews.

Victor was still around for his girls after Patty's death in February 1978. However, unable to deal with Penny's overbearing nature, he left for good after a demon attacked on the night of Piper's fifth birthday. This led to Piper having night terrors, as she subconsciously blamed herself for her parents' divorce. Prue and Phoebe were eight and three at the time, respectively. After Victor left, Grams warned the girls that he was a threat to them.

Reapperance
His daughters didn't hear from him again for 20 years. Victor suddenly appeared in San Francisco in 1998, not long after the girls' powers were unbound. Prue was suspicious of him, but Piper and Phoebe were more open to seeing him, as they had scarcely any memory of him. However, they grew suspicious of him after Victor admitted he wanted to take the Book of Shadows from the girls in order to protect them. When he persisted, Prue made her feelings clear on the situation by using her telekinesis to violently fling him across the room. It turned out that a trio of shapeshifters were using him to get the Book. By betting his own life to protect the girls, he finally re-earns their trust, including Prue. However he leaves the sisters without a proper goodbye, instead leaving a home movie from the '70s of the girls on Christmas morning, on the Manor doorstep. Victor wasn't heard from again for three years. Piper tried to keep in touch by sending him birthday cards, but only reluctantly because he never sent them one.

Season Three (reunion after three years)
Victor doesn't appear again until 2001, when he comes to San Francisco for a job interview. While in town, he assists the sisters in helping to capture the demon children and bring them to the Ice Cream Man's truck. By saving Prue from the Nothing once again, Victor finally proves himself to Prue, and the episode ends with he and all of his daughters on good terms. He appears several more times in the third season, to meet Piper's fiance Leo, to ask for Phoebe's magical assistance and to attend Piper and Leo's wedding.

Victor has an immediate distrust of Leo once he found out he was a Whitelighter, as he believes that Patty's affair with Sam was one of the contributing factors to the end of their marriage. He is especially skeptical when Leo tells him Piper has a "higher calling"--it was the same line Sam used on Patty. Once Leo explains to Victor that despite what happened to Piper's parents, he is still marrying Piper no matter what, Victor seems to warm up to him. ("The Good, the Bad and the Cursed", "Just Harried")

Season Four
At this point, Victor is a welcomed member of the family, and obviously attends his daughter, Prue's funeral and is outraged when arguing about demons occurs during the wake. Victor appears later on in the season to attend Phoebe's wedding to Cole Turner. Victor seems to accept his girls' newly found sister, Paige. (Charmed Again, Marry-Go-Round)

Season Five
Sometime during the fifth season, Victor goes on a singles' cruise to Mexico, where he meets Doris, a demon in disguise. While it is not known for sure whether he was under the influence of a spell or not, Victor and Doris quickly fell in love and married. When he brought her home to meet his daughters, Doris showed her true colors and stabbed Victor in the abdomen, nearly killing him, before attempting to steal Piper's baby. She is eventually vanquished. Victor proves vital in this: despite being seriously wounded, he manages to climb down the stairs, pull Doris' partner away from Piper, and throw him over the railing, saving Piper and allowing the girls to vanquish him and Dorris. (The Day The Magic Died)

Season Six
When Chris Halliwell comes back from the future in the sixth season to save his brother Wyatt from becoming evil, Piper calls on her father to help understand why he is so distant towards her. To Victor's surprise, Chris is excited to see him; according to his grandson, they have a very close relationship in the future, and are drawn closer after Piper's death when Chris is only fourteen. Chris urges Victor to stop smoking cigars, telling him it will have a big impact on his health; Victor does so immediately. Victor advises Chris to try and get close to his mother because he couldn't during his life, and tells him that he possibly already changed his bleak future by coming to the past. (Hyde School Reunion)

Season Seven
After baby Chris is born, Wyatt expresses some jealousy towards him, using his powers to orb him away; one time, he orbed him right to Victor, who brought baby Chris home. From there, Victor gets involved with the problems surrounding Chris's Wiccaning and Wyatt and Chris's sibling rivalry. He and a temporarily-resurrected Grams bicker about the role of magic in children's lives, and eventually summon Patty to work out their issues. Patty sides with Victor, causing Grams to leave, and for Patty and Victor to ruminate on what kind of parents they would have been had they stayed married, and Patty lived to see the girls as teenagers. (Cheaper By The Coven)

When The Charmed Ones prepare to fight Zankou at the end of season seven, they leave Wyatt, Chris and the deeds to the manor and P3 with Victor, making him their official guardian in case the sisters do not survive. (Something Wicca This Way Goes)

Season Eight
After the Charmed Ones are assumed dead by both the magical and mortal communities (even though they faked their deaths), Victor still maintains his role as the boys' guardian, even after the Elders try to talk him into giving the boys to them. The sisters use their powers to glamour into Victor's nieces. (Still Charmed & Kicking) When the Charmed Ones come out of hiding and reveal that they are, in fact, still alive, the charade ends.

Victor's final appearance is in the season finale. Before the battle in Kill Billie Vol. 2 that kills Paige and Phoebe, Piper leaves her sons with Victor to protect them. Wyatt is taken by Dumain in order for antagonists, Billie and Christy to have enough power to summon the Hollow. Victor finds out that baby Chris has received his powers and encourages him to use them to orb Wyatt back. When Piper and Leo go back in time with Coop's Ring to bring Paige and Phoebe back to life, they meet a younger Victor and Patty in the 1970s. When they bring the Patty from the past to the future, she meets an older Victor, who unfortunately tells her that they divorced. Afterwards, she stays with him to catch up. Despite this, the episode ends happily, with the family brought back together, and Victor an integral part of it. Victor also informed Patty of Prue's fate, something she wants to forget and the two part on good terms. (Forever Charmed)

Season Nine
Victor comes to the Manor to watch over the kids while the battle with Neena is occuring. Victor realizes from Henry's bad attitude that he is having doubts about his life with Paige and tells him about his own troubles being married to a witch and the struggles they faced and his regrets of walking out on his family. Victor advises Henry to give Paige strength. Henry thanks Victor and rejoins Phoebe and Coop with a new attitude to help find Piper and Paige. Coincidentally, this is the only time when Victor and Sam are in the same place at the same time, though it is unknown if they had any interaction.

Professional Life

 * Businessman: Victor's actual job is left ambiguous, though whatever it is, it has allowed him to move back to San Francisco, giving him the chance to be near his daughters and grand children.

Trivia



 * Victor was originally portrayed by Anthony Denison in the season 1. Denison was not asked to return when producers found him more fit as a love interest for Shannen Doherty's character, Prue Halliwell. The character of Victor was recast for season 3.
 * Victor was initially named Victor Halliwell, however, we later learned that Penny's last name was Halliwell which she took from her husband, Allen. Therefore, his last name was changed to Jones , but was finally settled on Bennett . His name was once misspelled as Bennet.
 * Victor was the first parent to appear in the series and has appeared in each season except for the second season. He has appeared in 14 episodes, which is the same amount as Penny Halliwell, but 2 more than Patty Halliwell.