21 Facts About Lucious Lyon

Lucious Lyon grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began selling drugs to support himself at age nine as an orphan, after his father was "killed" by the Nation of Islam, the details of which have yet to be revealed.

Lucious Lyon met his future wife, Loretha Holloway, who helped him sell drugs to finance his rap music career.

Lucious Lyon soon becomes engaged to a younger woman and debutante named Anika Calhoun.

Lucious Lyon refuses her demands, but nonetheless hires her on the company board and allows her to be the manager of their son Jamal, claiming that he "never wanted" him anyway due to his homosexuality.

Lucious Lyon kills Bunkie after meeting with him later near the city docks.

Lucious Lyon pretends to grieve at Bunkie's funeral, and has his oldest son Andre lie to the police about his location the night of the shooting.

Lucious Lyon gets Anika's father, a doctor, to sign a false statement of health concerning his ALS.

Lucious Lyon discovers that Jamal has a possible daughter named Lola with his ex-wife Olivia.

Lucious Lyon has Andre restrained and sedated, allowing Rhonda to decide to place her husband in psychiatric care.

Lucious Lyon offers Hakeem's older girlfriend, Camilla money to pay off her numerous debts in exchange for leaving the country and Hakeem, as he views her as a bad influence on his son.

Lucious Lyon tells him that he is Lola's father and that he deserves to die, but Malcolm shoots Reg in the head before he can fire on Lucious Lyon.

Lucious Lyon discovers Cookie's relationship with Malcolm and reveals that he never actually hired her to the company board, and forces her out of her office.

Lucious Lyon is told by his doctor that he was misdiagnosed with ALS and actually has MG.

Lucious Lyon finally recognizes Jamal's musical talent and realizes that he should lead Empire, making him the CEO.

Lucious Lyon later admitted that the other actor was Wesley Snipes, but Taraji P Henson, who had already been in talks with the producers to play Cookie, suggested her former co-star Howard for the role.

Much like Lee Daniels' own father, Lucious Lyon is severely homophobic and extremely unapologetic about it.

Daniels revealed that the decision to make Lucious Lyon homophobic stemmed from his experiences doing research for Precious.

Lucious Lyon reminded me how much Lucious loved little Jamal, but my need for the boy to be a strong man was greater than my need to show my love to him.

Lucious Lyon starts showing symptoms much earlier than the doctor predicts which makes it seems like his life expectancy could be shorter.

Howard insisted that Lucious Lyon loves Jamal and only wants the best for him.

The character of Lucious Lyon arguably offers one of the first non-white variations on the now-standard television anti-hero.