Sleepy

"You fell asleep again."

- Leroy

Sleepy is a supporting character on Once Upon a Time, and a member of the brotherhood of dwarfs that accompanied Snow White in several adventures. As his name indicates, he is always presented as being tired and sleepy, but is nevertheless an active member of the group, enjoying his work at the mines and adopting an adventurous spirit when it is required. Following the Dark Curse, Sleepy became trapped in Storybrooke, Maine as Walter, a security officer at the local hospital, who shares Sleepy's main characteristic.

Before the Curse
"Let's show that king what Snow White and the seven dwarfs can really do!"

- Grumpy

Sleepy hatches from an egg, as all dwarves do, and is put to work in the diamond mines after being given his name which appeared magically on a pick-axe. Sleepy is put in a group with Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Dreamy, Happy, Sneezy and Stealthy. Sleepy and the rest of the dwarves love to do what they do, mine and work all day, the rest of them that is, besides Dreamy. The dwarves are completely sceptical when Dreamy tells them he’s fallen in love with a fairy by the name of Nova, telling him that dwarves are incapable of love, only work. Dreamy isn’t convinced and decides to sneak off one night with Nova, however, all the dwarves are awakened by his abandonment. Sleepy and the others all say goodbye. However, Dreamy comes back, without his love, and takes a new name; Grumpy.

Snow White becomes imprisoned by King George. Along with Grumpy and Stealthy, the three of them escape the castle together, however, in battle, Stealthy is killed as he tries to flee. Snow uses her identity to save Grumpy and set him free. After breaking Prince Charming’s heart, Snow leaves the castle and is approached by Sleepy and the other dwarves, who are saddened over Stealthy’s death. With Snow in need of a place to live, the dwarves offer for her to come live with them in their cottage in the Enchanted Forest, she agrees. A while later, when Grumpy hears of Prince Charming leaving his fiancée, Abigail, he comes looking for Snow to tell her the news. Sleepy is present when he looks for her. When he finds Snow, he’s too late and discovers she drunk a potion wiping her memory of Charming. (“True North”/”7:15 A.M.”)

Whilst living with the dwarves and having lost her memory of Prince Charming, Snow White is angry all of the time. The seven of them, including Sleepy, diagnose that this is because of the potion she took. However, she believes that it is because of the Evil Queen, and decides that she wants to kill her. The dwarves along with Jiminy Cricket try to ward her away from it, and manage to, convincing her to go to Rumplestiltskin to get him to reverse the potion's effects. However, when Snow visits Rumple, she discovers there is no cure. She instead gets help from him to kill the queen. Charming hears of this and stops Snow, helping her regain her memory with true love's kiss. Soon after this, Charming is kidnapped and taken away by King George's men. Snow returns to the dwarves and they decide that it's time to show Regina what Snow White and seven dwarves can really do.

Sleepy, along with Bashful, Dopey, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Snow White, Granny and Red Riding Hood plan on making an attack on King George's castle to rescue Prince Charming, who has been taken prisoner. Things grow complicated when they realize that Regina is in the area, so they believe its a trap. Despite this, the group advances on the castle, with assistance from the Blue Fairy and her fellow fairies, and they manage to wipe out King George's guards. When Snow finds Charming, she discovers that he has been kidnapped by Regina, and she's asked to meet up with the queen. The dwarves, including Sleepy, worry for Snow's safety when she agrees to meet her, and their fear turns out to be correct as they later find Snow White lying on the floor, appearing dead as she is under a sleeping curse, but this is unknown to them.

While searching for Snow White, Prince Charming enters the woods and approaches the seven dwarves, who are located in a clearing, around the glass casket they built for Snow, who is comatose after ingesting a poisoned apple, and presumably believed to be deceased. Doc tells the Prince that he's too late, and when he sees his beloved princess confined in the coffin, he is horrified. He looks at her, with a melancholic gaze, and orders the dwarfs to open the casket. Grumpy tells him "I'm sorry, she's gone", but a teary-eyed Prince begs him to at least allow him to say goodbye. The depressed dwarfs remove the glass top of the coffin, and the prince leans down for a kiss. When he kisses her, waves of magic are spread through the air, and the area, that was dark and slowly being covered with snow, is filled with light and life. ("Pilot"/" A Land Without Magic")

The dwarfs attend when Snow and Charming rally up some villagers in order to tell them their intentions of taking back the kingdom. The villagers seem to support Snow's cause until it comes to the prospect of actually fighting the Evil Queen, and when Regina herself arrives, the villagers hide. Sleepy and the others witness the Queen offer Snow a deal - live in exile with Charming and the dwarfs, thus giving up her claim to the throne, or her subjects die one by one. Later, Snow is more inclined to living in exile, which is supported by the dwarfs, but Charming doesn't agree. This leads Sleepy and the dwarfs to accuse him of being a gold-digger who's only interested in Snow for her crown. Despite Charming denying this, the dwarfs stick to their guns. When it comes time for Snow to make the deal with Regina, she refuses thanks to the new confidence instilled into her by Charming, and the Queen assures the princess that she shall see her on the battlefield. This leads Grumpy to apologize to Charming, and the dwarfs decide to accept the prince as Snow's soul mate. A while later, Sleepy attends Snow and Charming's wedding along with his fellow dwarfs and he witnesses Queen Regina threaten everyone with her curse. He attends a royal council meeting when it is discussed that Snow will travel through a portal to escape the curse. When the curse is finally enacted, Sleepy is sent to a town named Storybrooke where he lives as Walter, a security guard, unable to remember his former life. ("Pilot"/"The Thing You Love Most"/"The Stranger")

Season 1
"You selling me out?"

When David Nolan goes missing, Sheriff Graham, Emma Swan and Mary Margaret Blanchard ask Walter to view the security cameras. Sheriff Graham asks Walter if he or Leroy, the only two people whom where on shift at the time of the disappearance, saw anything suspicious. Walter tells them that he didn't and Leroy jokingly says it would have been because Walter was sleeping on the job again. This causes Walter to reveal that Leroy drinks on the job. After realizing they are watching the wrong tapes, they find the correct one and see that David Nolan woke up from his coma and walked into the woods.

Walter and his friend, Tom Clark, the pharmacist, visit Granny's Diner during Miner's Day so they can have a drink together at the bar. They find that there aren't two seats next to each other so they cannot sit together. Leroy is also sat at the bar, eating food, with a chair either side of him. They ask if he could move up a seat, allowing them to sit together, but he grumpily and rudely refuses. He tells them that if they want to sit together, they should have got here earlier. Tom sarcastically calls Leroy a ray of sunshine before accidentally sneezing all over his food. Leroy loses his appetite and then leaves, allowing the two to sit together. Mary Margaret enters the diner asking for volunteers to help sell candles for Miner's Day, but Walter doesn't offer to help. Later on, during the celebration and when the lights go out, Walter buys one of the candles to light up the area.

One night, Regina is has a terrifying nightmare in which the people of Storybrooke become aware of their past selves and seek vengeance against her. Walter is a part of the dream, and watches as people tie Regina to an apple tree in the middle of the road, out on the town. Regina begs to be let go, to which Ruby replies that they won't, not after what she's done to them. Everyone in the crowd yells aggressively at the queen, excited for vengeance. Eventually, Walter and the others watch as Emma proceeds to behead Regina. The mayor and former queen awakens from her horrid dream, shaken.

Season 2
"Come on boys, it's off to work we go."

- Grumpy

After the curse is broken and everyone is reuniting with one another, Snow is addressed as “Your highness”, and she is excited to see before her very eyes the seven dwarves, reunited, and taking a bow. They all exchange in a group hug. When they break it off, Grumpy asks if the curse has been broken, and Charming replies that it appears so. Charming and Grumpy then shake hands while Red asks what they do now. Grumpy asks why they’re still in Storybrooke, Charming tells him that that’s an excellent question. All the dwarves, including Sleepy, begin to ask questions about the curse and purple smoke until they’re interrupted by one short answer: “Magic”. The line comes from the Blue Fairy, who joins them, and says that magic is there as she can feel it. The group go to find Rumplestiltskin, the man responsible for the return of magic, but on their way, Jiminy approaches them and asks them to stop an angry mom from killing Regina.

Sleepy and his fellow six dwarves decide to go and investigate the barrier that leads of of Storybrooke, they draw a chalk line, marking it, and suggest a volunteer to cross it. To determine who crosses, they each draw a straw, as Sleepy takes his, he wonders if crossing the line would be even worse with magic now back. They then reveal their straws and discover Sneezy is to cross. Sneezy is reluctant but Grumpy eventually pushes him over the line, he is then affected by an odd energy and something strange happens to him. Later, the seven dwarves come running into town to alert the residents that when you leave Storybrooke, you lose all memories of your fairytale self, such as what happened to Sneezy, who thinks he's Mr. Clark again. Sleepy and the other dwarfs then head to the mines, determined to find fairydust to help their friend.

The dwarves want to get Sneezy back to his normal self with his normal memories and so have decided to look for some fairy dust to save him. Sleepy and the rest of the dwarves take their pick axes down to Sotrybrooke's mines where they, to no avail, mine for some dust. They are aided by Prince Charming who helps them mine, wanting to use the dust to help Snow and Emma return home. The dawrves' mines are later used as a means of making Belle cross the line when she is locked into a minecart and sent to the border. However, after noticing the mine dust on Moe French's hand, Charming realizes where she has been sent so he, Ruby and Mr. Gold go to save her. Mr. Gold uses his magic to stop the cart just in time.

Whilst continuing their search for the magical diamonds that can be used to fix Jefferson’s hat and return their friend, Sneezy’s, memory, the dwarfs begin to get tired as they work non-stop. Happy suggests that the group go over to Granny’s Diner for a drink, stating they must be quick before they miss happy hour. All the dwarfs except for Grumpy seem excited to leave. Happy tries to persuade Grumpy to join them, but he refuses, stating he has work to do. He says this, he becomes frustrated and mines harder. Suddenly, he breaks through the rock and falls into a hidden cave. All the dwarfs look down to check if he’s alright. He is, and there is good news, they found diamonds. Charming and the Blue Fairy are called and they arrive. Blue explains that the diamonds need to be refined and turned to dust so they can use it. The group then head over to Granny’s Diner for a well-deserved beer and they celebrate together.

Rumplestiltskin and Regina head down to the dwarves mines with the Fairy Godmother's wand and they absorb all of the magical power from the diamonds that the dwarves found so they can create a spell to stop anyone who passes through the portal to Storybrooke. Later on, whilst surveying the mines, Grumpy discovers that the diamonds have gone missing so he, along with Sleepy, Red, Bashful, Doc, Dopey and Happy head over to Mr. Gold's shop to tell Henry, who is watching over Prince Charming under the sleeping curse, of Rumple and Regina's betrayal. Henry and Red set off to stop Rumple and Regina, leaving the dwarves to watch over Charming as he sleeps. Later, when Snow and Emma successfully return to Storybrooke after their long journey being trapped in the fairytale world, they head over to Mr. Gold's shop and Snow awakens Charming with true loves kiss. The dwarves are there to witness this and then they join a group for a trip to Granny's Diner.

Following the return of Snow White and Emma Swan to Storybrooke after they were left stranded in the fairytale land, a welcome back party is held in their honor at Granny's Diner. Sleepy, his fellow dwarves, and several other people arrive early at the party and chat amongst themselves whilst drinking a beer and they wait for everyone else to arrive. When Snow, Charming, Emma and Henry arrive, they all cheer and greet them. He then witnesses Charming give his speech about how he wants to give finding Snow a little break for a while. Sleepy then witnesses Regina arrive unexpectedly, and he doesn't give her a very warm welcome. After its explained that Emma invited her, Sleepy enjoys the rest of the party talking and drinking with his friends.

It is the day of Archie Hopper's funeral and Mary Margaret gives the eulogy. Sleepy and his fellow dwarfs are present for the ceremony and they listen to the speech that is given. Mary Margaret gives a beautiful speech about how Archie will always be with them before the beloved conscience is buried. After the speech, everyone goes around giving their friends comforting hugs. Later, at the wake, Emma is saddened that she cannot cheer Henry up and Mary Margaret comforts her, that is, until Grumpy steps out and says that he and the dwarfs would all like to go back to the Enchanted Forest. The princesses are opposed to this but Grumpy points out that with Archie's death, Storybrooke isn't safe any more. He then goes on to say that there's a whole world out there that could see something in town like magic. He also adds that despite liking things such as penicillin, they're all homesick.

Once David saves Anton the giant from falling down a hole in the ground, the latter befriends the town and heads back to Granny's Diner. When there, he asks how good the farmland is, and David replies that it's good. He then reveals that he has a cutting of beanstalk that will be able to grow magic beans which can create portals back to their land. The town is overjoyed and Leroy gathers up Sleepy and the rest of the dwarfs to go and farm their new crop, Anton is confused, having thought they were miners, but Leroy explains that work is work. Before they plant the beanstalk, Leroy hands Anton a pickaxe, as he is to be helping them, and it names him "Tiny". David asks, since he did his fair share in the mines, why he never got one, and Leroy replies that it's because he's not a dwarf. Sleepy and the rest of the dwarfs then begin their work and start to grow magic beans together.

Mary Margaret and David drive Emma out to see the magic bean crops which are revealed to have been charmed by Mother Superior so that an invisible barrier resides over them, meaning that the town doesn't know what Anton, Sleepy, and the rest of dwarfs are up to. Anton is very happy to see Emma and they begin to converse, but soon enough, Leroy approaches them and tells the former giant to "quit lollygagging" as they have work to do. They return to the crops and Anton notes how much dwarfs love to work. Later, Sleepy, along with David, Mary Margaret, Anton and the other dwarfs, pull up outside Granny's Diner. They hop off the truck after a hard day of work before heading inside, where Leroy says that Tiny's buying. Anton is surprised by this and Leroy tells him that new guy always buys, despite Anton saying that he hasn't any money as they head inside. After David and Mary Margaret leave, Regina uses magic to trace their tire tracks back to the harvest, where she discovers the magic beans are being grown.

As Mr. Gold returns to his pawn shop, he discovers that the dwarfs are ransacking it. Due to the fact that the curse's fail-safe has now been activated and they're all on the way to the grave, he presumes that they are looters, but Leroy points out that it's not looting if you're taking back what already belongs to him. He finds Sneezy's old stein on a shelf and fills it with a blue potion that will be able to restore his memories when drunk from something that he treasures. Leroy explains that Mother Superior has been working on the potion all along and that she finally cracked it when she took a hair from young Pinocchio - someone unaffected by the curse. Sneezy is unsure about getting his memories back as he knows he might die, but he is escorted outside by the dwarfs where he presumably regains his fairytale identity. Later on, Sleepy and his fellow dwarfs are gathered at Granny's Diner as they and a group of people prepare to return to the Enchanted Forest to escape the fail safe's destruction. However, their plan soon changes when they all agree and convince Emma to send the fail safe through a portal after learning that Regina is sacrificing her life for everyone.

Origins
The Seven Dwarfs originate from the popular fairytale known across most of Europe, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the best known version being the Bavarian one collected by the Brothers Grimm. In the generalized tale of Snow White, once the princess protagonist is left in the woods by the huntsman, it is the seven dwarfs whom she stumbles upon who are happy to help her and offer their home up to her. This is the story that the 1937 film adaptation by Disney presents, and the one followed most closely by Once Upon a Time. However, when put into the Disney films, each dwarf was given a name based upon their main trait. They are as follows: Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy, which are the names they retain in Once Upon a Time. Many adaptations of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" have been made over the years. Each adaptation of Snow White brought with it several names, however, but the 1937 version is arguably the most famed.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.