Grand Theft Auto (series)/Characters

Claude (Grand Theft Auto III)
Our "hero" in the series's first 3D title - a very competent street thug betrayed by his girlfriend Catalina during a bank heist. Escaping police custody, he goes on an epic quest in Liberty City to make as much money as possible, destroy things, kill people, and take revenge at some point.


 * Anti-Hero (Type V)/ Villain Protagonist
 * (Anti)-Heroic Mime - The implication is that he genuinely lacks the ability to verbalize.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather
 * Meaningful Name - Claude is Latin for "lame". GTA III Claude is a mute.
 * Mythology Gag - Compare to "Claude Speed" of the Grand Theft Auto 2 intro movie. He's commonly thought to be the exact same character after a tongue-ectomy.
 * No Name Given - not even in the Kubrick miniatures. The name "Claude" was first found in in-game files, and later confirmed in San Andreas.
 * Super Drowning Skills - Handwaved by saying Liberty's water is essentially toxic.



Tommy Vercetti (Vice City)
Tommy was a member of the Forelli crime family in Liberty City before being sent to whack a rival gang member in Harwood. However, he was ambushed but took down his would-be assassins, racking up a body count of 11. This incident lead to him gaining not only infamy as "The Harwood Butcher", but also 15 years behind bars. Upon his release, Sonny Forelli knows that Tommy is too hot for Liberty and sends him "down south" to Vice City to expand the empire, starting with a cocaine deal with the Vance Family. Unfortunately, this results in yet another ambush that leaves Vic Vance dead and Tommy without the coke or Sonny's money. With nothing but the clothes on his back, a hotel room and a relationship with neurotic lawyer and lead Ken Rosenberg, Tommy then sets out to find out who set him up, get Sonny's cash back, and perhaps get a slice of the action for himself. Voiced by Ray Liotta.


 * Badass: Even before the game. The reason he's called the Harwood Butcher is because he slaughtered eleven men by himself after he got ambushed.
 * The Butcher - As mentioned above, he's known as "The Harwood Butcher" because of a hit that went down badly.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: After Tommy's worked with the Cubans a bit, Auntie Poulet (a matriarch of the Haitian gang, which is at war with the Cubans) gets her hands on him, drugs him with a strange stew, and has him commit hits on the Cubans against his will.
 * Brooklyn Rage
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Expy - Tony Montana
 * Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist
 * Super Drowning Skills - In a beach town. Fanon accepts the above "Liberty City's water is unsafe" explanation and extrapolates it into "Tommy thus never learned how to swim, having grown up there." He also seems to be extremely fearful of sharks and overreacts to the rumors that Vice City's waters have them.
 * Hardly rumors, you can sometimes see a huge shark swimming around the city.
 * Universal Driver's License - Tommy is the first GTA protagonist who can use vehicles on air, land and sea.
 * Villain Protagonist
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Loves to hurl insults at pursuing cops.



Carl "C.J." Johnson (San Andreas)
The playable protagonist of San Andreas. After his brother is killed, C.J. moves away to the East Coast (Liberty City to be specific) to try and escape his gangbanger roots and move beyond them. Five years later, his mother Beverly is murdered in a drive-by shooting, prompting him to return to Los Santos for the funeral. Unfortunately, he's picked up by C.R.A.S.H. almost immediately after arriving, framed for a cop killing (that C.R.A.S.H. themselves are responsible for), and dumped in enemy territory. And so begins San Andreas... Voiced by rapper Young Maylay.


 * Affably Evil: He is a Nice Guy, despite committing rather horrendous acts during the course of the game.
 * Anti-Hero (Type IV or V)
 * Anti-Villain: Type I
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience - While not necessary, wearing anything green will boost C.J.'s respect amongst the other Grove Street members a bit.
 * In general, most street gangs in San Andreas fly their own distinctive colors. When you first run up against the Ballas, the game even says "Those guys in purple are the Ballas. They are your sworn enemy."
 * Drives Like Crazy: Supporting characters will often comment on his reckless driving habits during cut-scenes or missions.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
 * Even Evil Has Standards: The OGs may be crooks, but they look out for their neighborhood. The Ballas flood their own territories with drugs.
 * Gangsta Style - For any one-handed weapon, combined with...
 * Guns Akimbo - If he is skilled enough that is.
 * The Lancer - starts out as one to Sweet.
 * Trash Talker - Cranked up to 11 from Tommy in the previous game.
 * Universal Driver's License - CJ may have to take a Forced Tutorial before he can enter airports and jack planes (unless he elaborately hops the fence), but he still manages to figure out the jetpack pretty quickly. On the other hand, the player has to grind skill with most forms of transportation before they can use them with anything resembling competence.

Toni Cipriani (Liberty City Stories)
First appeared in GTAIII as a Capo for Liberty City's dominant Leone Mafia family. Later used as the protagonist of the prequel title Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, where he has returned from a long absence to help organize said family's success. Has an unsupportive, domineering mother who embarrasses him at every turn.


 * Basement Dweller
 * The Comically Serious
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Michael "Mr. Blonde" Madsen in III.
 * Momma's Boy
 * Retired Badass: By the time of GTAIII he's no longer working the streets, but in his day he could bust heads with the best of them.
 * Super Drowning Skills: Back in Liberty and the water is still as good for you as a heart attack
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy

Victor Vance (Vice City Stories)

 * Anti-Hero - Victor starts out as probably the most heroic of all III-continuity protagonists. He sure doesn't end that way.
 * Doomed by Canon
 * Nice Guy



Niko Bellic (Grand Theft Auto IV)

 * Affably Evil
 * Anti-Hero: Depending on your choices in the story and your actions in free roam mode, Niko may become a Type IV or V.
 * Anti-Villain: Again, depending on the player's actions, Niko could be Type I, II or IV.
 * Badass
 * Cultured Warrior: Often comes off as much more intelligent than the two-bit crooks he works for.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Even Evil Has Standards
 * Knight Templar Cousin
 * Noble Demon
 * One-Man Army: In almost the whole game, especially the museum mission.
 * Only Sane Man: Kind of unavoidable when you hang out with Roman, Brucie and Jacob.
 * Punch Clock Villain
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran
 * Sugar and Ice Personality
 * Wild Card

Johnny Klebitz (GTAIV: The Lost and The Damned)

 * Badass Biker
 * Deadpan Snarker: Not quite as adept at it as Niko or Luis, though.
 * Dumb Muscle: Johnny can competently run his biker gang, but noticeably lacks the instinct or foresight of other GTA protagonists. He'd be up the creek without his brothers in the Lost, and he knows it.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Because of the slightly mocking and teasing tune his fellow club members puts on every time they say "Jonathan", it can be assumed to be one.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: He is a much more qualified leader of the Lost than club president Billy Grey ever was...
 * Too Dumb to Live: ...but still tries to pull an incredibly transparent double-cross on one of the biggest mob bosses in town. It's implied by that point that Johnny no longer cares whether he lives or dies.

Luis Fernando Lopez (GTAIV: The Ballad of Gay Tony)

 * Badass Spaniard
 * Berserk Button: Threatening or insulting his mom.
 * Casanova
 * Deadpan Snarker: Even more than Niko.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Technically hyper-competent business partner, but Gay Tony would've gotten himself shot, blown up, lit on fire, and dumped in the ocean ages ago without Luis to handle things.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: He served a sentence in juvenile hall after shooting a teacher who felt up his sister.
 * Really Gets Around
 * The Stoic
 * The Sociopath: He has no qualms about violence, and is implied to enjoy it. He also mentions that he does not feel much.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: At least compared to that other GTAIV protagonists. Luis genuinely believes it's possible to clean up and better yourself, which gets him treated like a chump by most of Liberty City's criminal population.

Huang Lee (Chinatown Wars)
The main character of Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars and one of the more intelligent GTA protagonists. He starts out relatively naive and expects to be treated well, but instead ends up working for his uncle for awhile, and it all goes uphill from there.


 * Deadpan Snarker: As a part of...
 * Jade-Colored Glasses: As the game progresses, he wears these more and more often.
 * Only Sane Man: Due in no small part to his bosses throughout the game.
 * Perpetual Frowner
 * The Triads and the Tongs: Most missions revolve around this, and Huang is stated multiple times to be a Triad.
 * You Killed My Father: His initial reason for flying to Liberty City.
 * Non-Idle Rich: Stated multiple times to be a spoiled rich kid, if only before his appearance in Chinatown Wars. He also has a short criminal record (trademark counterfeiting in 2002, grand theft auto in 2005).
 * Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Very, very heavily averted.

Catalina (Grand Theft Auto III)
Claude's ex-girlfriend; she shoots him in the bank heist getaway and leaves him for dead. Catalina appears at various points throughout the game in league with anyone Claude's working against, although she's primarily associated with the local Colombian Cartel, and in the end she kidnaps Claude's (presumed) latest love interest to force a final showdown. She also makes an appearance as a supporting character in San Andreas; when C.J. is forced out of Los Santos, her cousin (and C.J.'s sister's boyfriend) Cesar Vialpando sets the two up for a crime spree throughout the countryside. A violent one sided (with Catalina as the active party) love affair begins to take form until she finds Claude, and the two leave the state to harass C.J. with obscene phone calls for the rest of the game.

"Catalina: Carl, you have to be fast and totally ruthless! No fucking about like in the betting shop! CJ: What?! If you hadn't started bustin' things would've been sweet! Catalina: They had to die because you were slow and stupid! Like a big fat brat who eats chocolates while his father gives nothing to his stepdaughter but stale bread!
 * Ax Crazy - In GTAIII, she already shoots two of her apparent love interests, but it goes even further in San Andreas: she has graves dug by her house, she sexually abuses C.J. (and still thinks she loves him), she threatens to kill/castrate C.J., and she takes glee in killing any cops or civilians who get in her way.
 * Big Bad: Of Grand Theft Auto III.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder - To be perfectly fair it's served her pretty well until the end of GTAIII.
 * For the Evulz- While other antagonist have reasons for their actions against the heroes, she is just a Complete Monster who enjoys robbing and killing.
 * Freudian Excuse - This dialogue from San Andreas, made at the conclusion of her robbery missions.

CJ: What? Where did that come from?

Catalina: Enough! I'm not speaking to you anymore!"


 * Noodle Implements: Carl's unpleasant exeperience with Cat's "rack."
 * Spicy Latina
 * Yandere: For all her personality issues, she can also go from almost sweet and caring towards Carl and absolutely batshit about killing him on a whim.

Sonny Forelli (Vice City)
The Don of the Forelli family, Sonny is calm and gentle at first but really likes being rich.


 * Big Bad
 * Diabolical Mastermind
 * The Don
 * Expy - Alex Sosa
 * Berserk Button: Losing money or valuable things.

Ricardo Diaz (Vice City)
A self-centered, self-serving, Holywood Homely fat guy whose only reasons to live are in and around his mansion.


 * Diabolical Mastermind
 * Expy - Frank Lopez
 * Hair-Trigger Temper
 * The Napoleon
 * Porn Stache



Frank Tenpenny (San Andreas)
The main antagonist of San Andreas, Tenpenny is a officer from Los Santos Police Department's Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums unit. He is bent on destroying all of the gangs in the state by playing them out against each other. He approaches his job with a willingness to commit murder, blackmail people both inside and outside the law and turn the blind eye on certain crimes if it results in a good looking crime percentage rating afterwards. Voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.


 * Bald of Evil
 * Big Bad
 * The Corrupter
 * Dirty Cop
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Villainous Breakdown: As he is dying.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Casts himself as one.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Casts himself as one.

Big Smoke (San Andreas)
.


 * Beard of Evil
 * Big Bad
 * Big Eater
 * Face Heel Turn
 * Fat Bastard
 * Foreshadowing: He moves out of Grove Street to buy a house with some money an aunt gave him. It's most likely drug money, and the move showcases his lack of loyalty.
 * Nice Hat: His trademark bowler hat.
 * Villainous Glutton: His order in the takeout is larger than everyone else's combined, and he still steals their food.



Eddie Pulaski (San Andreas)
Pulaski is Tenpenny's right hand and takes care of the more physical parts of C.R.A.S.H.'s dirty business. He is possibly even more corrupt and definitely a bigger jerk than his boss. He does however have a problem with seeing the bigger picture in Tenpenny's plan, and does not realize that he is about as dispensable as everyone else involved in it. Voiced by Chris Penn.


 * Defiant to the End
 * The Dragon - to Tenpenny
 * Dirty Cop
 * Jerkass: Tenpenny is the only person to whom he shows any degree of civility.
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain
 * Smug Snake
 * Villainous Glutton
 * Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Taunts Carl about his mother's death.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Carl tells him he will be "the next one they gonna silence".

Ryder (San Andreas)
Lance "Ryder" Wilson is a senior Grove Street OG and has been a criminal since his childhood. Almost always under the influence of some kind of drug, Ryder is a loudmouth and the troublemaker of the group.


 * Catch Phrase - "Gyeah" and "Busta".
 * Cool Shades
 * The Dragon -
 * Expy - Appearance wise, he's a dead ringer for classic gangsta rapper NWA Eazy-E.
 * Face Heel Turn
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk - Tends to act like a jerk to CJ and just about everyone else for that matter.
 * Nice Hat
 * The Stoner - See "Almost always under the influence of some kind of drug" above.
 * Sunglasses At Night - We never see him without them.

Jerry Martinez (Vice City Stories)

 * Big Bad
 * Big Bad Duumvirate - with the Mendez Brothers
 * Conflict Killer

The Mendez Brothers (Vice City Stories)

 * Big Bad
 * Big Bad Duumvirate - with Jerry Martinez

Auntie Poulet (Grand Theft Auto Vice City Vice City)
A matriarch of the Haitian gang that is fighting the Cubans, and probably the strangest character in Vice City. After getting Tommy to come to her shack, she gives him a strange brew that screws with his mind.


 * Hey, It's That Voice!: During her cutscenes, do you half-expect her to say "Call me now for your free tarot reading!"? That's because she's voiced by Miss Cleo.
 * Hollywood Voodoo
 * Mind Manipulation

Dimitri Rascalov (Grand Theft Auto IV)
A Russian criminal Niko meets in Grand Theft Auto IV. He starts out as Mikhail Faustin's right hand man. Due to Mikhail's increasingly irrational behavior getting them in trouble with Kenny Petrovic, Dimitri orders Niko to assassinate Faustin. However once the deed is done Niko goes to collect the money to discover that Dimitri has sold Niko out to Ray Bulgarin.


 * Big Bad
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 * Evil Counterpart: If you think about it, he kind of is this towards Niko.
 * Face Heel Turn
 * Four Eyes, Zero Soul
 * The Mafiya
 * Only Sane Man: Opposed to Mikhail's Ax Crazy attitude. Goes out the window when Mikhail dies and he starts a reign of terror across Liberty City.
 * Smug Snake
 * The Starscream

Ray Bulgarin (GTAIV: The Ballad of Gay Tony)

 * Big Bad: Of The Ballad of Gay Tony
 * Bigger Bad: In Grand Theft Auto IV.
 * The Mafiya
 * Villains Out Shopping

Billy Grey (GTAIV: The Lost And Damned)

 * All Bikers Are Hells Angels
 * Ax Crazy
 * Beard of Evil
 * Big Bad: Of The Lost And Damned
 * The Caligula
 * Hookers and Blow: Basically his entire life style.

8-Ball
A demolitions expert in Liberty City (even though car bombs shops everywhere in the III continuity use his name.) Connected to the Leone family, and a buddy to Claude and (to a greater degree) Mike.


 * Bald of Awesome
 * Exposition Fairy
 * I Owe You My Life

Phil Cassidy
Phil appears in every single game from the GTA III continuity (with the only exceptions being San Andreas and Advance). He is a weapon-dealer who specializes in big guns...really big guns. His first appearance is in GTA III, where he only appears in one mission, wherein Claude helps him defend his weapon supply from the Colombian Cartel. At this point he wears military clothing and is nicked-named "The One Armed Bandit" because of his left arm he claims to have lost doing a battle in Nicaragua. In Vice City, were his screen time is vastly expanded, it is revealed that never was in the army, but was repeatedly turn down because of bad temper and heavy drinking, and that he, in fact, lost his arm do to an accident with some home distilled alcohol and a homemade bomb. Apparently he would later make his friends keep up the lie. In what is presumably a Continuity Nod, Phil only appears in a short cameo in Liberty City Stories, while Vice City Stories once again features him a bit more prominently.

"* While being very drunk* "The thing is Vicky boy, my daddy was an angry man. He never, ever told me I was special. In fact - he used to beat me. Especially when he caught me staring at my cousin or my sister. You know what he said to me? He said I'd be better off dead...""
 * The Alcoholic
 * An Arm and a Leg: Contrary to what he says, he didn't lose it in Nicaragua.
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood:


 * Phony Veteran
 * Porn Stache - In Vice City Stories
 * Trigger Happy

Maria Latore

 * All There in the Script - Her surname
 * The Load
 * Mafia Princess - LCS sees her in the middle of the life, and III sees her at the tail-end of it.

Salvatore Leone

 * The Don
 * Expy: Of Vito Corleone.
 * Properly Paranoid - The only person he does not seems to distrust is Toni Cipriani, and he even holds him at gunpoint once.

Donald Love
Liberty City's resident media mogul; first introduced in Grand Theft Auto III seeking Claude's services for McGuffin escort. After having a cameo in Vice City he comes back as a supporting character - and more neurotic than ever - in Liberty City Stories as the Leone family's preferred candidate for mayor.


 * Affably Evil: He's impeccably polite and professional, even while planning to invoke a gang war to drive down real estate prices.
 * All Elections Are Serious Business: Entering the mob-controlled mayoral race in Liberty City. (hint: Not as a democrat).
 * Beard of Sorrow: Sprouts one after losing both the election and his empire in Liberty City Stories.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: In III, he's played by Kyle MacLachlan.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Revealed in Liberty City Stories as clarification of what he did at the "morgue parties" referenced in GTA 3.
 * The Voiceless: Due to Kyle Maclachlan's absence in Vice City. He starts to introduce himself to Tommy, but Avery keeps cutting him off and telling him to shut up.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: He simply disappears after all his missions are completed in III.

Ken Rosenburg
A neurotic mob lawyer with connections to various big figures in Vice City.


 * Ambulance Chaser
 * Amoral Attorney
 * Expy: He's clearly based on Sean Penn's character in Carlitos Way.

Lance Vance

 * Embarrassing First Name: He got picked on all the time in school over his name, and it's quite a touchy subject for him. When he's working with Diaz, he calls himself "Quentin" instead.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Phillip Michael-Thomas.
 * The Load
 * The Millstone: He's the source of most of Vic's (and some of Tommy's) problems.
 * Too Dumb to Live
 * Too Dumb to Live

Louise Cassidy-Willams

 * Pink Means Feminine: Her exercise outfit is part pink, and her fur jacket is all pink.
 * Pretty in Mink: Wears a fur jacket in the later half of the game.
 * Rape as Drama: Martinez rapes and nearly kills her as his first revenge for Vic and Lance crossing him.
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: Her fate before the end of Vice City Stories.

Ned Burner
A news reporter willing to do anything for good stories to cover... including posing as a priest and having Toni Cipriani commit all sorts of atrocities.


 * Confessional - He poses as a priest who Toni seeks forgiveness through. It doesn't quite work out for Toni.
 * Intrepid Reporter

Phil Collins

 * MacGuffin Escort Mission
 * The Rock Star In Danger

Yusuf Amir

 * Collector of the Strange
 * Lonely Rich Kid: He lives in the lap of luxury, but some get the impression he is a lonely, socially awkward man who just wants a good friend.
 * Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: His relationship with his father.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: His relationship with his father.

Roman Bellic

 * Butt Monkey
 * Plucky Comic Relief
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife

Brucie Kibbutz

 * Freudian Excuse: In his own words, he was "a fat loser" as a child, which is one of the main reasons he is obsessed with fitness and his looks. His bullying older brother, Mori, also contributed a lot to this.
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: A lot.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: He has quite a lot in common with British millionaire Scott Alexander, right down to his talking points.
 * Shirtless Scene: Quite a bit.
 * Small Name, Big Ego

Eddie Low

 * Depraved Bisexual
 * Serial Killer
 * Mugging the Monster