Virgil Tibbs

In the novels, Tibbs works for the police department of Pasadena, California. In the films, portrayed by Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier, he first works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but in the sequels, he works for the San Francisco Police. The Tibbs films are mentioned in the sequel novels. When asked about the movies, Tibbs emphasizes that he's from Pasadena, not Philadelphia. He also praises Poitier's looks and acting ability. In a short story (see below), the film character meets his literary counterpart.

In the novels, Tibbs returns to Pasadena as a police officer. In the films, Tibbs also returns to his law enforcement career, in Philadelphia and then in San Francisco. In the television series, set a few years after the first film, Tibbs returns to Sparta, Mississippi—where the action in the first film takes place—to become Chief of Detectives under Sparta's police chief, Bill Gillespie.

Tibbs has a black belt in karate and a brown belt in aikido. Like many fictional detectives, he is also perceptive and a polymath. He demonstrates an extensive depth and breadth of knowledge in many fields of the arts, sciences, and modern culture. His demeanor is cold and intellectual. He tolerates non-criminal behaviors outside of the social mainstream, such as nudism.

Tibbs is uninterested in glory or media attention. He is a perfectionist, and his sole motivation is duty and justice. In the films, Tibbs displays more anger over issues of race than in the books. For example, in the novel In The Heat of the Night, the phrase "They call me Mr. Tibbs" is a statement ending in a period, while in the movie, it's an angry exclamation.

Physically, Tibbs is slender, quick, strong, and handsome. His nose is narrow, and his mouth is "straight and determined". His skin tone is neither exceptionally light nor dark.

Tibbs has several romantic liaisons in the novels and seems to be well on the way to be getting married by the end of the last Tibbs novel Singapore. In the first film, Tibbs is not married, although in the second and third films he has a wife (played by Barbara McNair) and two children.

For the book The Great Detectives (1978), edited by Otto Penzler, John Ball contributed a short story in which Ball (or rather his counterpart in Virgil Tibbs' universe) meets with Tibbs and asks him to recount his upbringing. This short story establishes that Tibbs' superior on the police force encouraged Ball's fictionalizations of Tibbs' cases to promote positive public relations. "'I have a letter from Otto Penzler,' I said... 'Otto has asked me for a piece about your background. How much may I tell him?' I should insert a footnote here. Virgil Tibbs is basically a quiet, self-effacing man... He has mentioned to me more than once that my accounts of some of his cases have proved somewhat embarrassing to him. However, Chief McGowan feels that these books help explain the police function to the citizenry at large and to show how modern, enlightened police departments function."

In the NBC/CBS television series In the Heat of the Night, Tibbs is a native of Sparta, Mississippi who left the South and became a police detective in Philadelphia. During a visit to his hometown for the funeral of his mother, the politically opportunistic mayor offers Tibbs the position of Chief of Detectives because of his previous experience with Gillespie. Tibbs accepts the position, making him second-in-command to the reluctant Police Chief. Although Tibbs and Gillespie have their disagreements about police methods and use of limited local resources, they prove an effective partnership. Tibbs' sophisticated detective skills complement Gillespie's intimate knowledge of the area and its population.

Tibbs is portrayed in the series by Howard Rollins, who garnered critical acclaim for his work in the film A Soldier's Story and for his Academy Award-nominated performance in the film Ragtime. Substance abuse problems led to fewer Rollins' appearances on the series, and he eventually was fired. The Tibbs family was written out of the series.