Leon Fortunato

Leonardo "Leon" Fortunato is a fictional character in the Left Behind series of Christian novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. He is in fact the False Prophet, and he is a key member of the inner circle of Nicolae Carpathia, businessman, financier, politician, and Antichrist.

Character history

In his native Italy, Leon grew up fascinated with the trappings of Catholicism, although he never truly believed in any of the Church's teachings; Leon simply liked the pomp and circumstance. He was fond of dressing in ornate and flowing robes and strutting all over his college campus. After being expelled, Fortunato grew fond of becoming a kingmaker, preferring to work behind the scenes to elevate his chosen candidates to any positions of power they wanted. Carpathia, wanting to enter politics himself, employed Leon on his staff, and grew to value the older man's counseling; although Leon tended to be clingy and sycophantic, he taught Carpathia humility (or more specifically, how to feign humility) which proved to be very valuable on the world political stage.