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''There never was a cat of such deceitfulness and suavity''
''He always has an alibi and one or two to spare''
''Whatever time the deed took place, Macavity wasn't there!''
|''[[Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats]]''}}
The [[Spear Counterpart|male version]] of the [[Classy Cat Burglar]] may lack the cat jokes and themes, but he makes up for it with roguish good looks coupled with a breeding and style that manifests as a suave and debonair manner. He's usually a [[Casanova|charmer]], too—think [[James Bond]] without the government authorization. [[Cary Grant]] used to play this type of character frequently.
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He steals for the challenge/pleasure of the job and generally avoids violence while restricting his targets to those who can afford the loss. More importantly for [[Plots]], the character will often go out of their way to stop more serious crimes - especially with lives at stake - either on their own or with the help of the police. As such they [[Con Men Hate Guns|often adhere]] to [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] and/or are [[Technical Pacifist]]s. Murdering your target or stealing from them at gun point is not very gentlemanly.
Like the [[Classy Cat Burglar]], the '''Gentleman Thief''' usually regards the police with a certain amount of disdain and condescension, and frequently leaves behind "[[Calling Card|calling cards]]" announcing who performed the crime; especially confident versions may announce their targets in advance to ensure a challenge. With a [[Worthy Opponent]], they may have a less adversarial relationship, verging at times on friendship (and when the opponent is of the opposite gender, fraught with [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] of the [[Dating Catwoman]] variety). They're usually a [[Badass in a Nice Suit]], occasionally doing the [[Tuxedo and Martini]] look. As may not enjoy ''actual'' risks, the
Compare and sometimes overlaps with [[Phantom Thief]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Ijyuin Akira, the Man of Twenty Faces, in ''[[CLAMP School Detectives]]'': a young gentleman thief, he steals according to the direction of his two mothers. This character is based on Japanese mystery author Edogawa Ranpo's "Fiend With Twenty Face".
** This character also reappears as "Twenty Faces" in ''[[The Daughter of Twenty Faces]]'', who, among other things, steals national treasures that have been mislocated due to war to return them to their rightful place.
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* Phoenix, the male lead in ''[[Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken]]''. Also the [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] to the female lead's [[Tsundere]] [[Plucky Girl]].
* The eponymous ''[[Man of Many Faces]]''
* Tuxedo Kamen in the manga and Live Action version of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', though only to find the Silver Crystal, and he stops when they do find it and becomes solely a superhero. Sailor Moon even comments "He's just like Lupin the Thief! He's hot!" when she first sees him in the Manga. It causes severe friction between him and the Senshi in the Live Action version.
* Lunlun meets one of these in the Egypt episode of ''[[Hana no Ko Lunlun]]''.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* The Phantom Blot of the 40s, a Disney villain.
* Gambit, from ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': charms the ladies while taking their pocketbooks.
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* Casanova Quinn from Matt Fraction's ''[[Casanova (comics)|Casanova]]'' was one of these for a while...until he became a [[Spy Fiction|Martini-and-Absinthe-flavoured]] superspy.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[To Catch a Thief]]'' follows John Robie (Cary Grant), a reformed Gentleman Thief, as he attempts to discover who has been framing him for a new spate of burglaries. It turns out to be a [[Classy Cat Burglar]].
* "Sir Charles Lytton, the Notorious Phantom", David Niven's ([[The Other Darrin|or Christopher Plummer's]]) character in the ''[[Pink Panther]]'' movies.
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* Cobb from [[Christopher Nolan]]'s later and more expensive feature, ''[[Inception]]''.
* Hudson Hawk in ''[[Hudson Hawk]]'', who sings showtunes to synchronize his robberies.
* Simon Dermott in ''[[How to Steal a Million]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* In ''[[The Hobbit]]'' the Dwarves are under the impression that Bilbo gained his money as a hired thief or in other words was a professional of the type they naturally thought would be useful in stealing dragon treasure.▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* In [[The Hobbit]] the Dwarves are under the impression that Bilbo gained his money as a hired thief or in other words was a professional of the type they naturally thought would be useful in stealing dragon treasure.
* [[Robin Hood]], in his usual classic portrayals, robs from the rich and gives to the poor. In some versions, he is a former Noble, making him more literally a Gentleman Thief.
* ''[[Raffles]]'': a character who has been around in literary form since the 1890s. Invented by E. W. Hornung, who meant him to be a subversion of the trope: definitely not a nice guy, and stealing for profit rather than for fun or altruism. (See further discussion under [[Depraved Homosexual]].) It was no use, though; Hornung's readers saw Raffles as glamorous anyway, and later incarnations of the character invariably make him into a hero.
** See [[wikipedia:A. J. Raffles|the other Wiki]] for a list of works featuring Raffles. Also recently appeared as a minor character in the webcomic ''Scary-Go-Round''.
* [[Arsène Lupin]] in the series of short stories and books written by Maurice Leblanc between 1905 and 1939, and in five additional volumes written by Boileau-Narcejac in the 1970s, is a Gentleman Thief who moonlights as a detective. He was the precursor of [[Lupin III|Arsène Lupin III]], and is pretty much the [[Trope Namer]], as the first collection of short stories on the character is called ''Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Cambrioleur'' (Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Burglar). He's also the [[Trope Codifier]], exhibiting many of the tropes associated with this trope and [[Phantom Thief]]: [[Calling Card]]s, being a [[Master of Disguise]], announcing his crimes ahead of time, fighting evil criminals and displaying a general romantic attitude.
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* ''[[The Saint]]'', AKA Simon Templar, was such a Gentleman Thief in the original stories (and also mixed race as well, unusual in those days) that [[The Saint (TV series)|the TV series]] cleaned him up a lot, though not entirely.
** The Saint doesn't quite fit the trope, in that he was in the habit of murdering criminals as well as taking their money. On one occasion, he {{spoiler|tied the villains of the story up in an abandoned house, to which he then set fire, leaving them to burn alive.}} Granted, they were going to do the same to him and his cohorts, but still, not entirely gentlemanly behaviour.
* Nobby Cranton from the ''[[Lord Peter Wimsey]]'' novel ''The Nine Tailors'' pretends to be a Gentleman Thief. The only impediment is that he isn't a gentleman.
* Philip Collin, aka Professor Pelotard, from the various books and short-stories by Frank Heller. One thing that helps make Collin into one of the more memorable gentleman thieves is the fact that his first crimes are the same as his creator's, who, before becoming an author, was a swindler who went into a self-imposed exile in order to escape the Swedish police.
* ''[[The Baron]]'' was John Creasy's (decidely inferior) version of [[The Saint]].
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* The Thieves Guild in [[Discworld]] is said to run special courses for Gentleman Thieves. It's one thing being robbed, but it's annoying to learn that your possessions were stolen by a man in a borrowed suit.
** The Discworld Assassins' Guild has a large proportion of gentleman members; this is because the Guild runs one of the best schools on the Disc, specialist subjects aside, and many upperclass boys get their education there before going on to other careers. It's not all upperclass males, though; the school now has two all-girls houses, and offers scholarships to prospective students who are too poor to pay the fees but show potential to be ''[[Psycho for Hire|really good at killing people]]''.
** [[
*** Rather deconstructed, for that matter: Mr. Pump points out that, despite Moist's rules and Gentleman nature, he's still killed [[Disturbing Statistic|2.338 people]].
** Although in ''[[
* Seregil (and Alec) in Lynn Flewelling's ''[[Nightrunner]]'' books.
* Nicholas Valiarde/Donatien in ''The Death Of The Necromancer'' by Martha Wells.
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* Panamon Creel from ''[[The Sword of Shannara]]'' does an amazing impression of one of these, yet at the core he's far more of an [[Affably Evil]] [[The Highwayman|highwayman]] than he is one of these, and he knows it, putting on the act in an attempt at convincing himself that he hasn't wasted his life.
* Quinn/{{spoiler|Alex}} from Kay Hooper's ''Once a Thief'' and ''Always a Thief'' novels fits this to a T, though he prefers the term "[[Classy Cat Burglar|cat burglar]]".
* ''[[A Simple Survey]]'' has a short story that inverts this trope. The premise is that there are many different Santas, each specializing in a particular role. The focal character is a Gentleman Thief Santa, who specializes in delivering presents into high-security houses.
== [[Live
* Dennis Stanton, a [[Recurring Character]] in ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', was a Gentleman Thief in his first appearance, although in later appearances, he used his skills as an insurance investigator. He worked by three rules: he never steals from anyone who can't afford it, he never steals anything with sentimental value, and he makes sure that everything he steals is insured by the company who refused to pay for his late wife to have a lifesaving operation.
* Jerry Fagin, an international jewel thief who made a single appearance in ''[[Cagney and Lacey]]'' solely to challenge Cagney to a duel of wits. His first action is to pull a heist and plant evidence all over the scene that points to the police department itself. When this becomes clear, Cagney immediately says, "Jerry Fagin! Nobody else would do this with such unmitigated . . . style!"
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* Steve McBride, who is also known as a middle class thief ([[James McAvoy|James McAvoy's]i] character in series 1-2 of ''[[Shameless]]'').
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
== Real Life ==▼
* In his memoirs, [[Badass]] early 1900s detective Frederick Porter Wensley refers to the Spider, a brilliant Gentleman Thief who turned to a life of crime for a sense of adventure.▼
* Despite the fact that espionage is mainly about hustling, often hustling some quite vile pteople; and sometimes bears distinct resemblance to organized crime, both the OSS and the British Secret Service in World War 2 were crewed largely by upper class boys who had enlisted for patriotism and sense of adventure. Many of these were specialists at activities which in peacetime would be called safecracking, pickpocketing, abduction, extortion, assassination, vandalism-and burglary. Churchill himself jokingly called the SOE(sabatoge and covert ops)"the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare." Nonetheless despite all that nasty stuff a lot of sons of upper class families were willing to stoop to it and performed it with a distinct flaire.▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' is a cartoonish, [[Talking Animal|raccoon]], video game equivalent. He even has his own [[Worthy Opponent]] in the form of Carmelita Fox, with whom [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] is a pronounced, recurring theme.
* ''[[Carmen Sandiego]]'' is a [[Rare Female Example]]. A fabulous, [[Affably Evil]] [[Friendly Enemy]], [[Impossible Thief]], and [[Magnificent Bastard]], all rolled into one red-trench-coated package.
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** Hawke also falls into this role, at least in Act I where they're doing mercenary work.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Jeremy Archer from ''[[Shadow of the Templar]]''. He uses non-lethal weapons to avoid killing people during his thefts, has sexual tension with Simon, the FBI agent chasing after him in the first novel (which stops being tension soon after), and acts as an occasional consultant for Simon's team on cases involving more dangerous criminals.
** Kind of subverted in that, while he's extremely charming, any time he charms a woman, he does it with tongue firmly in cheek. It's implied that basically everyone knows he's gay (the team doesn't know because Jeremy doesn't want to mess up Simon's life).
*** According to [[Word of God]], he's bisexual with a preference toward men.
* ''[[The Onion]]'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20100314111208/http://www.theonion.com/content/video/bad_boy_fencing_star_implicated Bad Boy Fencing Star Implicated In Daring Jewel Heist.]
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* Stan's real father in ''[[American Dad]]''.
* The one-shot character Malloy from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''. After being caught at the end of the episode, he graciously returns the items he has stolen—immediately followed by tricking ''the entire town of Springfield'' into searching for his buried stash while he escapes their jail.
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'''Red X:''' Then go get it. (''Leaps off the back of the [[Theme Naming|R-Cycle]]'') }}
** Red X then proceeds to [[Curb Stomp Battle|effortlessly take out]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|every other villain in the race]]'', along with their vehicles, in about five seconds.
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* In his memoirs, [[Badass]] early 1900s detective Frederick Porter Wensley refers to the Spider, a brilliant Gentleman Thief who turned to a life of crime for a sense of adventure.
▲* Despite the fact that espionage is mainly about hustling, often hustling some quite vile
{{reflist}}
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