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Donald Thompson was born in 1932 and married Marge Thompson in the late 1950s. He joined the police force. In 1966 his daughter was born (Nancy Thompson). In 1968 he and Marge saw how child-killer Freddy Krueger was announced not guilty and participated in killing him (without a trial). In the early 1970s he got divorced with his wife Marge and Nancy Thompson stayed with her mother. By 1981 Donald became Sergeant.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
At that time Tina Grey, his daughter's friend, was murdered. He arrested Rod Lane as he was the primary suspect. Soon, however, Lane apparently committed suicide. However, his daughter kept on telling him that it was Freddy Krueger who was responsible and that he lived in the dreams of the teenagers. After the death of Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz Donald Thompson arrived to his house just in front of his daughter's and former wife's house. His daughter phoned him and told him to help her to catch Freddy. When Donald Thompson saw smoke coming out Nancy's house he rushed inside. As the police and Donald Thompson went upstairs, they saw a burning Freddy Krueger trying to strangle Marge Thompson. Donald Thompson tried to save her but it was too late and she burned to death. Soon afterwards his daughter ended up in a psychiatric clinic.
Dream Warriors
After his daughter's release in 1984 Donald Thompson didn't talk much to her. He started to drink heavily and could hardly do his police duty. In 1987 he heard about a series of deaths in the clinic in Springwood his daughter worked in. By this time he had lost his job at police department and was currently a security guard. Nancy Thompson and Dr. Neil Gordon came to Donald Thompson to ask him where Krueger was buried. At first Donald didn't tell anything and Nancy rushed to the clinic. However, Dr. Neil Gordon persuaded him to take him to the burial site. Once arrived in a junkyard the couple dug up the remains of Freddy Krueger. Suddenly the skeleton got up and attacked Dr. Neil Gordon. Donald Thompson tried to attack the skeleton of Krueger but was impaled on metallic tube. He then died as the tube went right through his heart. Shortly after the death of Kristen Parker, we briefly see his grave beside his daughter's, Kincaid's, Joey's (His tombstone mistakenly said Joseph Peterson But his real name is Joey Crusel), and Kristen's in a cemetery.
In the afterlife
In the Nightmares on Elm Street comic miniseries by Innovation Publishing, set between the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Donald appears; the series reveals that ever since his death, Donald has been trapped in Freddy's realm, constantly tortured by him and unable ascend to the afterlife. When Freddy inacts a complex scheme to break through to the real world, he forces Donald into working for him, promising to allow him to die completely in exchange for killing Nancy.
Encountering Nancy when she enters Freddy's world, Donald, on the verge of tears and begging for forgiveness for all he's done and what he is going to do, shoots her in the head. Donald's attempt at killing Nancy fails, due to her having become a being similar to Freddy; despite his attack on her, Nancy forgives Donald and finally ends his suffering by using her power to free him of Freddy's hold and allow him to ascend, after he leads her to Freddy's central lair.