Cray was born in North London on October 5, 1950, baptized Harold Eric Lunt. Having a remarkable singing voice, Cray wished to be a pop star, though his parents forced him to go to the Royal Academy of Music in London despite his unhappy protests. When he was thirteen his parents were killed in a bizarre accident, a car falling on top of them from the top floor of one of their car parks. Lunt later left the Royal Academy of Music and travelled the world, changing his name and becoming a Buddhist and a vegetarian.
Cray returned to England in the 1970s, forming a band called "Slam!" (a parody of Wham!) that shot straight to fame, and enjoyed a highly successful music career. At the end of the 1970s the band split and Cray began his solo career. He was seldom out of the UK/USA top twenty, his first solo album, "Firelight" going platinum in a matter of weeks. It is said that he won several awards, including an award for 'Best Original Song'.
One of the singles he released was called "Something for the Children", which was released at Christmas time with all the money going to charity. Cray campaigned for several issues, including saving the rainforests, ending world debt and banning testing on animals, his work earning him a knighthood in 1990. It is said that he donated a million pounds to the government before the last election. The rich superstar then began branching into hotels, television, and began developing "Gameslayer", the most advanced game consoles of its time, through his own computer company named Cray Software Technology (CST).
Despite his charitable work and beliefs, Cray had a much darker side to him; in order to fulfill some of his charitable notions, such as his campaign against animal testing, he ordered the assassinations of many people for the practices he was campaigning against, willing to go to any length to succeed. This went unnoticed until he ordered an assassin on Edward Pleasure, a journalist who was threatening to expose Cray. He also arranges the killing of a journalist who puts him on the spot asking awkward questions regarding the video game violence in "Feathered Serpent", the first game developed for the Gameslayer, based on the Aztec civilization.
Alex Rider began looking into Cray's actions after a confrontation with Yassen Gregorovich, who Cray sent to kill Edward Pleasure. Cray was planning a nuclear attack to annihilate major drug-producing parts of the world. Using the Gameslayer as a cover, he devised a way of hi-jacking the presidential plane Air Force One using a flash drive to launch the USA's supply of nuclear missiles. However, Alex had trouble convincing Alan Blunt that the charitable Cray is planning to destroy half the world, forcing Alex to investigate himself.
Alex hears that Cray is holding a conference to celebrate the launch of his Gameslayer console, and he decides to go there with his housekeeper Jack Starbright to see if he can find out anything about Cray. While he is there, Cray asks for a volunteer to test out Feathered Serpent, and the audience encourages Alex to be the one because he is the only child attending the conference. Alex does well in the game and Cray becomes annoyed that he has made it look too easy; he congratulates Alex on his progress but secretly plans to get back at him someday for ruining the launch of his Gameslayer.
Later on, Alex infiltrates Cray's software company, CST, and sees Cray with Yassen Gregorovich. Cray kills one of his employees called Charlie Roper, who had carelessly leaked information on Cray's plans, by burying him alive under two million coins (which was to be Cray's payment to Roper). Alex is then caught by a guard and brought to Cray, who promptly has him locked " into his game to make it more realistic. However, having previously played the game itself, Alex gets past all of the traps and escapes from the complex, but not without stealing Cray's valuable flash drive first.
Cray soon realizes that his flash drive has been taken from his desk, and he becomes enraged from the fact that all his work and expense would have been for naught. He sends his men to search for Alex, but Yassen Gregorovich informs Cray that Alex is close friends with Sabina and uses her as a hostage. He then tells Alex that if he does not get the flash drive back, he will kill Sabina. Alex tries to find a way of outsmarting Cray. he puts a small pack of glue in it and threatens to squeeze, but he eventually admits defeat and returns the flash drive to the villain.
Cray later carries out his plan, code-named "Eagle Strike", and proceeds to launch the USA's nuclear missiles using his flash drive. He then hijacks Air Force One after killing the crew and takes Alex and Sabina on board with him, so that they can witness the devastation about to take place. Eventually though, Cray orders Yassen to kill Sabina and Alex after they annoy him with threats. Yassen refuses, however, claiming that he doesn't kill children. As a result, Cray shoots Yassen and then Alex; luckily, Alex had been wearing a bulletproof vest and is unharmed, and he and Sabina then attack Cray. Sabina eventually pushes a drinks trolley into Cray and Alex hurls him out of the open doorway, where Cray is sucked into one of the jet turbines and shredded to pieces. This forces the plane to make a crash .
Cray is described as being very short, with dyed jet-black hair. He has a round babyish face with green eyes and a small nose positioned "almost unnaturally in the center of his face". It is mentioned that Cray has probably had plastic surgery.
He currently takes an adult special education (SPED) class at some unknown
university (and at his own company, Cray Software Technology), which is given
and led by some unmentioned guard in Eagle Strike who works for him. This is because of an unknwon learning disability that he was diagnosed with in his childhood.
Cray's personality and manner of death are similar to those of Sir Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
Added by Zeljan Kurst
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