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Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of books, an ex-Auror working for the Order of the Phoenix. In the films, he is portrayed by Brendan Gleeson.
Alastor ("avenger") is a household god in Greek myth called on by families to visit fury upon those who have wronged them.
Background
According to the Harry Potter series of books, Moody is perhaps the most famous Auror in modern times, single-handedly responsible for capturing numerous wizard criminals. Moody is horribly scarred, described as looking as if he had been carved out of wood by a person with only the crudest understanding of the human form. He has lost several body parts, including an eye, leg, and part of his nose, in fighting practitioners of the Dark Arts, and is cautious—some might say paranoid— in that he refuses to eat or drink anything which he himself has not prepared "as it is all too easy to poison an unattended cup." He is particularly conspicuous because of his peculiar magical eye which can rotate three hundred and sixty degrees and see through almost everything (including walls, doors, invisibility cloaks and the back of his own head), hence the nickname "Mad-Eye". Also, he is seen using a cane in the same way as a wand.
Brendan Gleeson plays Moody on screen in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and has also featured in the sequel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Moody is appointed as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Shortly before the school year begins, however, Moody is captured by Bartemius Crouch Jr, a previously imprisoned and escaped Death Eater, and faithful servant of Voldemort. When the school opens for classes, Crouch locks Moody into his own magic trunk, and keeps him prisoner in his office at Hogwarts. Crouch uses Polyjuice Potion, to take on Moody's appearance and to pose as him while teaching Moody's Dark Arts classes. To continue to pose as Moody, Crouch keeps Moody alive, and under the Imperius Curse, because one of the ingredients of the Polyjuice Potion is a physical part of the person whose form is to be assumed, such as a tuft of hair. Crouch also must periodically interrogate Moody, to obtain information that allows him to continue to maintain the illusion. Moody's personal habit of carrying around his own drink in a private hip flask, and periodically taking a drink, allows Crouch to take the Polyjuice Potion as needed, without raising suspicion.
Moody, or rather Crouch acting as Moody, becomes noted for teaching and demonstrating otherwise forbidden classroom topics, such as the Unforgivable Curses. He also assists Harry with getting selected as a School Champion to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. Crouch/Moody also mentors Harry, encouraging and tutoring him in the three Tournament tasks. But after Harry unexpectedly returns alive from the graveyard battle with Voldemort, Crouch/Moody takes Harry back to his office, questions him about Voldemort and the graveyard, and reveals that he is in fact working on Voldemort's behalf. He then prepares to kill Harry, expecting to be rewarded, but he is stopped by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape. Having neglected to take his hourly dose of Polyjuice potion, Crouch transforms back to his own appearance and, under the influence of Veritaserum potion, confesses everything. Dumbledore then rescues the real Moody from his magic trunk.
After Goblet of Fire
Harry first interacts with the genuine Moody just prior to his fifth year at Hogwarts, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In that book, Moody has joined the newly re-formed Order of the Phoenix, and is usually accompanied by fellow Order members Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, especially while protecting Harry. He appears at the climax of that book, along with Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Sirius Black. He also appears with Lupin and Tonks at the very end, when they give the Dursleys a severe talking-to.
His only appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is at the end, when he attends Albus Dumbledore's funeral.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows he is killed by Voldemort during Harry's flight from the Dursley home.
