The Jackal is a fictional character, the principal antagonist of the novel The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. He is an assassin who is contracted by the OAS French terrorist group of the early 1960s to kill Charles de Gaulle, then President of France. In the 1973 original film adaptation, he is portrayed by Edward Fox. Bruce Willis in the 1997 film The Jackal, and Eddie Redmayne In the 2024 TV series.