WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for 2023’s Haunted Mansion!

The events of 2023’s Haunted Mansion all revolve around the house originally owned by William Gracey and infested by ghosts of all types, with Gracey himself proving to be a key element of the story. A character in the Disneyland ride that inspired both Haunted Mansion and 2003’s The Haunted Mansion, William Gracey not only appeared in the remake of the 2003 Eddie Murphy movie, but his help was also crucial in freeing the house and its ghosts from Alistair Crump’s evil haunting. While less present than Master Gracey in the 2003 The Haunted Mansion movie, William Gracey’s story greatly impacted how events unfurled in 2023’s Haunted Mansion.

The influences behind William Gracey and Master Gracey’s demise are different in the two movies, but both take their own lives prior to the events of the films driven by grief for their late wives. The events that led to their tragic deaths are elements that Haunted Mansion and The Haunted Mansion both need to resolve by the end. Indeed, Master Gracey and William Gracey’s backstories are more detailed in both The Haunted Mansion and its 2023 remake, unlike the Disneyland ride which leaves certain details to guest's imaginations.

William Gracey's History & Movie Differences Explained

While 2003’s The Haunted Mansion entailed Elizabeth’s unsolved murder, which Master Gracey interpreted as a suicide because of Ramsley’s machinations, 2023’s Haunted Mansion had William Gracey’s wife die less suspiciously of yellow fever. However, Gracey’s persistence in wanting to meet his dead wife again causes trouble in Haunted Mansion, as his recurring séances with Madame Leota eventually set the ghost of serial killer Alistair Crump free. Although Crump’s newfound freedom is an accident caused by Gracey’s inability to face his grief, his choices in relation to his wife’s death still have unforeseen consequences on the mansion, causing it to be haunted by well-meaning ghosts and an evil spirit.

William Gracey’s story is explored further in the 2005 anthology comics by Slave Labor Graphics that aim to expand the mansion and its inhabitants’ backstories. SLG’s Haunted Mansion describes William as a sailor who led a mutiny against his cruel captain, Randall Pace. Eventually becoming the owner of Gracey Manor, William fell in love and tried to marry Emily de Claire, but was unknowingly obstructed by his clairvoyant Madame Leota, who unleashed Randall Pace’s ghost on Emily to kill her, which eventually led to Gracey killing himself. The ending makes the on-screen versions of Gracey similar to the Disney ride, even if the beginning of their stories are different.

The Sad True Story Of The Disney Imagineer Who Inspired Haunted Mansion's William Gracey

Imagineers Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump were in charge of the creation of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. Yale Gracey’s contributions to the theme park attraction are remembered with a tombstone in the graveyard portion of the ride, reading “Master Gracey, Laid to Rest, No Mourning at His Request, FAREWELL.” Both 2023’s Haunted Mansion and 2003’s The Haunted Mansion make William Gracey a central character of the story, taking the tomb’s inscription up a notch, but the real story of Yale Gracey is an equally heartbreaking and more sinister tragedy.

The Imagineer who gave his name to the iconic Haunted Mansion character was tragically shot in his sleep in 1983 (via Vulture). Yale Gracey’s murder was never solved, and what was originally intended to be a humorous way to remember him as one of the creators of the Haunted Mansion ride took a more sinister meaning upon his death, especially as his murder was never solved. Master Gracey and William Gracey both being inspired by the tombstone in the ride makes them inextricably linked to the Imagineer who helped create the ride, and whose tragically unsolved murder makes the character’s backstory even darker.

Why William Gracey Is So Important To Haunted Mansion

While the events of 2003’s The Haunted Mansion and 2023’s Haunted Mansion happen after Gracey’s death, both films couldn’t happen without the character. His unprocessed grief for his future wife in The Haunted Mansion locked him in the mansion and caused the ghosts to haunt it, just like his eagerness to talk to her again through séances in 2023’s Haunted Mansion invited Crump’s evil ghost to the land of the living. Without his inability to move on, both mansions could have never been haunted nor remained as such, thus making William Gracey a pivotal character on which Haunted Mansion and The Haunted Mansion both hinge.