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|'''[[Patrick McManus]]''', ''The Grogan Look''}}
Sometimes the character is never seen because the viewer is, in essence, this character (and thus share viewpoints). In this case the viewers are probably being used as [[The Watson]].
If a disembodied voice -- "Yes Ma, I'm coming!"
Not the [[Great Gazoo]], but occurs in similar range of plot devices. See also [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]] and [[Nothing Is Scarier]] (for when a character remains unseen for the [[Rule of Scary]]). For a concept, item, or location, rather than a person, see [[Cryptic Background Reference]].
For a character who is frequently mentioned but never seen because they died before the story began, see [[Posthumous Character]]. For a character who's
For actual ghosts and spirits, see [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]. Not to be confused with radio character [[True Capitalist|known as the Ghost]].
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* [[Ernest P. Worrell]], an advertising icon who later starred in a television show called ''Hey Vern, It's Ernest!'' and a series of films, often addressed a friend, Vern, who was supposedly manning the camera and thus never spoke or was seen on screen. In fact, Ernest was famous for the [[Catch Phrase]] "Knowhutimean, Vern?" This would be one of the cases where [[The Watson]] is simultaneously invoked.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* Naota's older brother on ''[[FLCL]]'', only appearing as a silhouette in an episode 2 flashback and as a picture with his American girlfriend in a later episode, which is of course obscured by glare.
* Maka's mother on ''[[Soul Eater]]''.
* Whoever the hell it was that {{spoiler|killed Chojiro Sasakibe}} in ''[[Bleach]]''.
* The Shinigami King on ''[[Death Note]]''. At least untill the one shot sequel was released.
* ''[[Kyo Kara Maoh!
* Lina's older sister Luna in ''[[Slayers]]''. She's mentioned several times (especially in TRY), but we never do see her on screen, or in the novels that the anime was based on. [[Word of God]] says that she'll never appear in canon outside of the opening sequences, because she's so ''ridiculously powerful'' that she would unbalance the rest of the cast.
* Mr. Ichinose started out like this in ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'', but he did eventually appear (in a story where his appearance was the main focus). Oddly enough, he recognized everyone from Maison Ikkoku on sight, and knew many things about them. However, none of the tenants recognized him. He continued to make appearances in expected places for the rest of the manga's run.
* Toji's sister in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' started out as this. [http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa305/secondgryphon/Sketches/EVA/Screencaps/r2-19-Sister.jpg She finally appeared] in ''Rebuild 2.0''.
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]:
** Contrary to popular belief, Yugi Mutou from [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime)|| the original anime]] ''did'' have a mother, and she ''wasn't'' dead. She was seen in one brief scene in the manga, and one scene in one episode after the Duelist Kingdom arc (which was cut from the dub) but that was it. Exactly why she kept herself hidden all the time wasn't clear.
** Jonouchi's father was someone who was never seen, except in one panel in the manga, but he was talked about often. Apparently, he was an alcoholic whose illness had caused his marriage to end in divorce. Jonouchi's mother got a small amount of screen time; she kept custody of his sister Shizuka, and was very reluctant to talk to Jonouchi until Shizuka's surgery.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* Lawrence and Mobile of ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'', {{spoiler|until they both appear near the end of volume five.}}
* ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' has several:
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* [[Empowered]]'s mother. (They sometimes talk on the telephone, but we never hear what she says.)
* ''[[The Cartoon History of the Universe]]'' portrays Mohamed this way.
* The "Enemy" in ''[[Sturmtruppen]]'' is never ever shown, except for one single strip (which is still pitch black).
* [[The Joker]] is given this treatment in the DCnu reboot. He is ''apparently'' "retired", and the only thing left of him is his ''face'' after he had another psychotic criminal surgically remove it for some reason. He still manages to cause trouble for Gotham—in the wake of his disappearance, he gets in-universe [[Draco in Leather Pants]] treatment from a bunch of idiots who dress up like him to form angry mobs that accuse Batman of murdering the Joker. His face (which is currently being held by Gotham police) is also being treated as an object of worship by the Joker's crazier fans. The few times Joker has appeared, it's either a flashback or an impostor.
* [[Gaston Lagaffe]]'s aunt Hortense.
* In ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', this is a tradition with the original members of the Yancy Street Gang that Ben Grimm knew as a member before he became the Thing. They are never fully seen in the comics - only heard from the shadows, from the windows of buildings, with hardhats, baseball caps, or other headwear covering their faces, etc. However, the younger "new generation" of the Gang is seen in full.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[A New Hope]]'' had several Ghosts: Emperor Palpatine and Jabba the Hutt were both The Ghost. Jabba was originally supposed to appear in the film, but his scene was cut, and his character was reimagined as a giant slug alien. His scene was restored in the [[Recut|Special Edition]] with a CGI version of Jabba inserted over the original actor and his dialogue dubbed over with Huttese.
* In the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' movies, most of the other 00 agents qualify, with [[GoldenEye (film)||one notable exception]]. Not counting ''[[Thunderball]]'' where they're all seen in the background, at best they're only seen when dead or 3 seconds from dying. 008 in particular is never seen onscreen, though M always threatens to replace Bond with him if he keeps disobeying orders.
* In ''[[Waiting for Guffman]]'', the characters spend the entire movie preparing for the arrival of Broadway talent scout Guffman. During their performance, {{spoiler|a distinguished man arrives late and takes Guffman's seat, but we later find out that he's just a random guy. Guffman never appears}}.
* Dagmar Geech in ''[[Art House]]''.
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* The title character in ''Edward, My Son'' is never seen or even pictured.
* Lord and Lady Ferncliffe in the George Cukor classic ''[[Dinner At Eight]]''.
* Claude Daigle, the boy
* Al Capone in ''[[Road to Perdition]]'' is referred to a number of times, but he never appears. A scene was shot with him, but it was cut out to make his presence more abstract and ominous.
* ''[[Patton]]'' does this with General Eisenhower, both on purpose and by accident. They couldn't find an actor that looked enough like Eisenhower, so they decided to have Eisenhower be an unseen, ominous figure.
* ''[[My Dinner with Andre]]'' is full of them. The cast literally conists of two guys, a waiter, and a few extras. Throughout the film, Wallace talks about his girlfriend Debbie, and Andre talks about quite a few people. The closest we ever get to seeing any of them is a single black and white photograph of a Polish woman Andre worked with one time.
* ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'': Walter's ex-wife, Cynthia. She is mentioned a few times, Walter even takes care of her dog, but she is never seen or heard.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Galbatorix from the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]''. Somewhat unusual in that he is the [[Big Bad]] of the series, at least as of the third book. He finally appears in the last book, ''Inheritance''.
* [[Not a Subversion|Inversion]] in [[Thursday Next|''Thursday Next: First Among Sequels'']]: {{spoiler|Jenny never appears because she's actually a mindworm implanted in the first-person narrator's mind. This was revealed when her family explained it to her to stop her freaking out over an abandoned Jenny - only to have the mindworm blank out her memory of the conversation afterwards.}}
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* Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, ''[[Discworld]]'''s most [[Bungling Inventor|infamous inventor]]. His works are present throughout the series, but Johnson himself never makes an appearance. It's pretty strongly implied that he's been [[Posthumous Character|dead for decades]].
** It's mentioned that Sybil Ramkin's father shot the man when he started to work his particular landscaping genius on their estate, although whether this is what killed him is unclear.
** Mrs Colon was The Ghost up to ''[[
* The letters that ''[[Last Dragon]]'' consists of are addressed to Esumi, a character we never meet in the story and about whom we learn very little.
* In ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', Jane Gallagher is one of the few people Holden respects and admires. Thinking she might have had sex with Holden's boorish roommate sparks the fight that sets the plot in motion. Holden considers or tries to call her at various points during the novel, but never reaches her.
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* The Emperor Over The Sea in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Ercole "Ecky" DiMeo, the boss of the crime family in ''[[The Sopranos]]'', was sent to prison years before the events of the show. Though the crime family still bears his name, it's actually run by his underlings.
* Heather Sinclair of ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' is a ghost. She's a running joke between the writers and is basically only brought up when there needs to be drama in an episode but it's not between the main characters.
** Curiously enough, Heather's younger sister [[Alpha Bitch|Holly J]] was brought onto the show [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|in later seasons.]]
* One of the earliest would be "'Er Indoors", Arthur's wife from ''[[Minder]]''.
* Captain Mainwaring's wife Elizabeth in ''[[Dad's
* Vera was reincarnated in Niles' wife Maris in ''[[Frasier]]''. She wasn't originally meant to be a ghost, but by the time they would otherwise have showed her the makers of the show realized that they'd built up such an inhuman woman with their imagery that no actress could play her. You ''do'' see a silhouette in one episode and (in a flashback) a bandage-covered woman in another.
* Al's Mom from ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]''. Similarly, they built up Al's mother's weight so long that there was no way they'd actually get anybody to play her. There'd need to be unimaginable amounts of padding. After she dies, we see her casket at her funeral. It's the size of a station wagon.
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* The Gooch on ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]''
* ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'' had, well, Charlie. He always communicated with the Angels and Bosley via a speakerphone, and his face was never seen on camera; occasionally he was seen from the back, ofen in the company of one or more beautiful women. There were quite a few theories among fans as to his identity and history.
* [[Laverne and Shirley]]'s boss, Mr. Shotz, was something of a [[Running Gag]]. He spoke to them and his other employees once
* Both Allie, Jack Gallo's young wife and Binnie, Nina's best friend on ''[[Just Shoot Me]]''
** Both characters eventually appeared onscreen. Jack's wife Allie made her first appearance in the fourth season finale, a [[Cliff Hanger]] that ends with her {{spoiler|sleeping with Finch.}} Binnie appeared both in a [[Halloween Episode]] and as a ghost in one of the final episodes; in both she was [[The Faceless]] (covered in bandages in the former, seen only from the back in the latter).
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** Although Jasmine, the [[Big Bad]] of Season 4 refers to herself as a "Power That Was" implying that she was [[Fallen Hero|one who had fallen from grace.]]
** The Season 5 episode "The Girl in Question" revolves around an entity known only as "The Immortal", who only appears on camera once barely visible through the crowd on a dance floor, and Buffy herself, who fills a similar role throughout the season.
* A dubbed example is Klink's housekeeper/possible mistress in ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]''. Never heard of the her? You weren't watching the dub, where dialogue relating to Hitler or other topics verboten on German television were replaced by more innocent dialogue about Klink's housekeeper. She was never seen because originally she never existed.
* Stan on ''[[Will and Grace]]'' (occasionally [[The Faceless]])
* Jenny Piccolo for the first few seasons of ''[[Happy Days]]''.
* Bob Saccamano & Lomez, Kramer's friends on ''[[Seinfeld]]''.
{{quote|"Well Jerry, they ask why they've never met you."}}
* Snake, Natalie's boyfriend in the later seasons of ''[[The Facts of Life]]''. He does show up in the latter half of the final season, just in time for a [[Very Special Episode]] about Natalie being the first of the girls to "get her V-Card punched".
* Mister Rogers on ''[[
* ''[[Marion And Geoff]]'' in the British [[Black Comedy]] named after them. Despite the title, the show is all about chauffeur Rob Brydon talking about them and other people. The events are entirely [[Second Hand Storytelling]]. They did eventually appear in the prequel, ''[[A Small Summer Party]]''.
* ''[[That Beryl Marston
* Honorable mention: Bella's Gran, ''[[Tweenies]]''. She did make one appearance though, in "Jake and the Beanstalk" (she's watching the Tweenies doing a Christmas pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk, starring Jake).
* Mrs. Columbo in ''[[Columbo]]'' is a prime example of the phenomenon. Though she never appeared in the series, a [[Spin-Off]] which ran under several titles featured as its lead a character purported to be the detective's wife, in which Columbo himself was likewise a Ghost.
* Diane, Cooper's secretary, in ''[[Twin Peaks]]''.
* Dan the Van from ''[[Chucklevision]]''. Often mentioned by the Chuckle Brothers or spoken to on the phone. Appeared in one episode, covered entirely in bandages
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* Kimmy's parents in ''[[Full House]]''.
* In the first season of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', Vince and Howard mention their friend Leroy, who apparently has influence on the show. His face is actually seen in one scene, but only for a few seconds, and covered completely by KISS-style make-up.
* Major Atumbe, ''[[Babylon 5]]''{{'}}s third-in-command. Mentioned several times, but never appears because, according to the creator, they didn't want yet another on-screen recurring character. Oddly, David Corwin who started off as a bit part would eventually assume the 3iC role.
** Another important faceless is David Sheridan, son of John Sheridan and Delenn. In all flash-forwards, David is never seen, even when {{spoiler|John Sheridan dies. David is off training with the rangers, and they didn't want to call him back.}}
** This, interestingly, is because David is too important to the arc. They wanted to keep it open to eventually cast him, and there is a lot of stuff that happened with him. Revealed in the novels, of course.
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** The Chef on ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''. May be a [[Shout-Out]] to an episode of the original ''[[Star Trek]]'' (where the Chef over the comm system was voiced by [[Gene Roddenberry]]), though in the series finale, it's Riker from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|TNG]]'' standing in for the Chef. He makes a [[The Faceless|Faceless]] appearance in a second season episode, where the lower half of his body can be seen as he passes food down.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'':
*** Throughout the series, there were many offscreen ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''
*** Lt. Vilix'Pran and his ever-growing brood of budlings were sometimes mentioned. Jake is even supposed to have baby-sat some, which involved keeping their wings untangled.
*** Jadzia also has an ex-boyfriend with a transparent skull who fits this trope nicely.
** The Breen on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' were something of a running in-joke. They were never shown on screen but were supposedly a dangerous empire and enemy of the Federation. Characters would often wrongly suspect their involvement in the conflict of the week but they were always [[Red Herring|red herrings]]. They were eventually revealed on ''
* Ugly Naked Guy in ''[[Friends]]''. He ''is'' seen twice, though not completely: his rear end and his hand in "The One with the Giant Poking Device", and also from behind in the episode where Ross is trying to get his apartment.
*
* In the inspirational television series ''[[Life Is Worth Living]]'', Bishop Fulton J. Sheen would refer to an Angel who erased a blackboard used on the program. The Angel is never seen, since the host would move away so the blackboard and whoever erased it was off-screen. When transcripts of the series were published, illustrations would show an angel along with recreated diagrams.
* Jerry the cameraman from ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]''. He is never seen as he is always behind the camera. Due to the situations that Damien places him in he is always the [[Fall Guy]].
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* Phyllis's husband, Lars, in ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]''.
* Mr. Peterson's domineering wife, Doris, in ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]''. Unfortunately, she was shown once, which made all the jokes about her much less funny.
* Mrs. Slocombe in ''[[Are You Being Served?
* ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]'' makes many references to characters' family members that are never seen: Regina (has a brother who married a white woman and moved to Arizona), Steve (has a sister who is a dentist and whose dental school tuition was paid by Steve writing jingles, also has a brother who married a white woman), Ced (mother), Lovita (many, many family members named for products, but brother Duracell is most talked about along with her mother).
* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' also makes references to never seen relatives: Dorothy (brother Phil who liked to cross-dress), Sophia (at least 4 other siblings), Rose (Charlie), Blanche (3 sons and their wives, grandmother.)
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* Sitcom ''[[The Parkers]]'': Kim's friend Shaquan was frequently talked about throughout the series but was never seen until the final episode when it was revealed that Shaquan is Asian.
* Audrey in ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''. She did end up appearing in the episode "The Anniversary."
* The re-imagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** An honorary mention goes to the Cylon Number 7, Daniel. He was mentioned only in one episode and never seen. Thanks to [[Epileptic Trees]], however, speculation regarding his identity and nature of involvement has persisted through the ending of the series and turned him to a near-mythical figure. [[Word of God|Ronald D. Moore]] actually referred to that portion of the fandom as the "Cult of Daniel".
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|"Daddy's Assistant"]], whom Amanda was constantly harassing on the phone in ''[[The Latest Buzz]]''. He finally appears on screen in the [[Grand Finale]]. Also Rebecca's grandmother 'Baba', and DJ's mother.
* In ''[[Kath and Kim]]'', Kim constantly refers to Sharon as her second best friend. Her alleged best friend, Tina, has never appeared.
* ''[[Hannah Montana]]''{{'}}s Uncle Earl and Aunt Pearl. Aunt Pearl continues to be The Ghost; Uncle Earl was until mid season two, when he was portrayed in all his larger-than-life glory by David Koechner.
* A running gag in ''[[Outnumbered]]'' is that Sue's boss is never seen: Veronica in the first series, Tyson in the second.
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[The Colbert Report]]'', when Stephen Colbert says that an imaginary state district's residents include Vera from ''[[Cheers]]'', [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]]'s teacher, and the smoke monster from ''[[Lost]]''.
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* Allegedly, Lane Kim's dad in ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' is this. It is a rather strange case because not only is he never seen onscreen, he also is never really referred to. [[Word of God]] has it he not only exists but also lives together with his wife, Mrs. Kim, who appears quite frequently.
** Likewise, Al of Al's Pancake World is never seen onscreen even though the girls frequent the establishment often, almost as much as Luke's Diner.
* ''[[The Nanny]]'': Morty, Fran Fine's dad was pretty much this until he finally appeared for real in one of the last episodes. Up to that point he
* Mareen, the barman's wife in one [[Black Comedy|blackly comic]] sketch from ''[[The Fast Show]]''. The barman would chat to his regulars about her, call up the stairs to her - usually "Mareen? It's getting busy down here!" - and when she didn't respond, he did whatever he'd asked her for himself. No-one reminds him that she died several years ago and he's in denial.
* Rachel's gay dads on the show ''[[Glee]]'', though they're seen with her in a photo booth picture strip in the pilot episode.
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* ''[[Family Matters]]'': Steve Urkel's parents. In one episode, we see a baby picture of Steve with his mother holding him. The glare partially obscures her face, however.
* Shawn and Marlon's mother on ''[[The Wayans Bros]]''.
* In ''[[Quantum Leap]]'', Al is Sam's only contact with the future, so all the other members of the Quantum Leap Project are ghost characters. Programmer Gooshie shows up briefly in the pilot, and a few times in the fourth and fifth seasons, and Al's girlfriend Tina gets maybe a minute of screen time in the fourth-season premiere, but for the most part we only get Al's stories about them.
* In the BBC serial adaptations of John Le Carre's ''George Smiley'' novels, [[The Quest for Karla|Karla]] is almost entirely invisible. He appears once in flashback in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', and once in ''Smiley's People'' for just ten seconds during his defection. He doesn't speak in either appearance. Despite this he drives the entire plot of both series.
* In ''[[30 Rock]]'' Cerie's fiancé Aeris never makes it onto the screen, even at their wedding.
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* In ''[[According to Jim]]'', Jim has a friend no one else ever meets or sees. His wife Cheryl suspects he made the friend up, since it always seems he's in town and they have to go out whenever Jim wants to get out of something. She's right, Jim made him up, and he then "kills off" this friend so Cheryl doesn't expose it.
* Many [[Game Show]]s have offscreen judges who are sometimes heard, but never seen. Their job is to determine on the spot if an answer is acceptable (e.g., if the contestant gives an answer on the buzzer, or gives an alternate answer that isn't on the host's card).
** ''[[Pyramid|The $25,000
** ''[[Deal or No Deal]]'' has the Banker, who calls host Noel Edmonds on a large prop telephone to make deals with the contestants. Noel appears to talk to him, but nothing is heard in the studio. (Critic [[Charlie Brooker]] suggested he's just listening to [[Hearing Voices|voices in his head]].)
* Smithy's girlfriend Lucy in ''[[Gavin and Stacey]]''.
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* Shane's wife Anna in ''[[Raw]]''. She appears in episode 5 and that's it.
* In a [[What If]] episode of ''[[Party of Five]]'' where the parents had never died, the parents themselves are not seen in the episode apart from a blurry scene at the end and the mother's voice on the answering machine.
* Holiday camp supremo Joe Maplin in ''[[Hi-de-Hi!
* The boy who owns and plays the games in ''[[Pixelface]]''. The characters inside the console just refer to him as 'the boy'.
* In ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', several characters are this- Stannis Baratheon in Season 1, and Mance Rayder and Roose Bolton's bastard in Season 2.
* The most popular segment on the old [[Edutainment Show]] ''[[3-2-1 Contact]]'' was "The Bloodhound Gang", where the three protagonists were [[Amateur Sleuth]]s who worked for a private eye named Mr. Bloodhound, who was never seen. Not even in the episode where he had been kidnapped.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* All adults in ''[[Peanuts]]'', the cat next door who hates Snoopy ... and that little red-haired girl. The TV specials adapt the fact that adult dialogue is never presented as speech bubbles in the comic by making the adults [[The Unintelligible]] (Waa Waa wa Wa wa wa Waa).
* [[Andy Capp]]'s mother-in-law. Okay, maybe there are some small glimpses.
* Roger, Juliette's [[Informed Ability|loud, boorish]] brother in ''[[9
* In ''[[Garfield]]'', Ellen was a woman Jon regularly phoned to get a date, and always failed. We never heard her actual answers, only his reactions to them. She eventually appeared in a storyline where she has amnesia, and therefore agreed to a date with Jon. Also, Jon's neighbor Mrs. Feeny, often the target of Garfield's pranks, was never seen in the comic.
== [[Radio]] ==▼
* Duffy, the owner of the eponymous eatery in the the 1940s radio show ''[[
▲== Radio ==
* Samantha, the scorekeeper for the panel game ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]''. Since [[The Points Mean Nothing]], the game doesn't need a scorekeeper; she only exists as the focus of elaborate [[Double Entendre
▲* Duffy, the owner of the eponymous eatery in the the 1940s radio show ''[[Duffys Tavern|Duffy's Tavern]]''. Every episode opened with the manager Archie answering the phone with the words "Hello, Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here -- oh, hello, Duffy."
▲* Samantha, the scorekeeper for the panel game ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]''. Since [[The Points Mean Nothing]], the game doesn't need a scorekeeper; she only exists as the focus of elaborate [[Double Entendre|double entendres]].
** Colin Sell, the pianist, has sometimes been assumed by listeners to be fictional too (if you decided they were just playing prerecorded piano music, then Colin would be in a similar position of only existing [[Butt Monkey|to be abused]] in elaborate wordplay). Humphrey Lyttelton once claimed that someone had come up to him to ask whether Samantha and Colin were real and he told them that Samantha was but Colin wasn't.
* Sabrina Thwaite (and husband Richard) in ''[[The Archers]]'' are often "just missed" on-air, pulling out of Christmas pantos at the last moment and so forth, usually explained by tutting disapproval from the regular characters.
** A long-standing trope in ''[[The Archers]]''. Mr Pullen, whose troublesome prostate has been a [[Running Gag]] for many years, is never heard. Freda the Middle White sow used to be heard sometime but not Freda Fry, cook at The Bull and long-suffering wife of Bert Fry. Most notoriously, the late Pru Forrest went unheard for years only to be [[Lampshaded]] in a special anniversary episode by being voiced by [[Judi Dench]].
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==▼
▲== Stand Up Comedy ==
* A [[Running Gag|running joke]] for the surrealist comedy group [[Stella]] is for one member to refer to someone named "Marcus." Another member responds, "Who the fuck is Marcus?" The original member just shakes his head in equal bewilderment, saying, "I know, I know!"
== [[Theatre]] ==
* ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''; It's not a spoiler to say that [[It Was His Sled|he never shows up]].
* For [[The Glass Menagerie]], Tom and Laura's father is frequently mentioned, but never seen. His ''absence,'' in fact, leaves a greater impact on all their lives than his presence likely would have.
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* None of the husbands ever appear in Clare Boothe's play ''[[The Women]]'' or its black and white film adaptation (which had the [[Tagline]] "It's all about the men!").
* Lisa in ''[[Wait Until Dark]]''.
* George Washington in ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]''.
* Matthew Shepard in ''[[The Laramie Project]]'', as the play is all about the aftermath of his murder.
* Mr. Stroheim in Neil Simon's ''[[Brighton Beach Memoirs]]''.
* Babe's husband Zachary in ''[[Crimes Of The Heart]]''.
* Mary and the late Old Man Meeks from ''[[The Foreigner]]'' both qualify.
* The unseen Mrs. Grundy, in Thomas Morton's ''[[Speed the Plough]]'' (1798), in which Dame Ashfield continually worries, "What ''will'' Mrs. Grundy say?" of each development. Since then the term "Mrs. Grundy" has passed into everyday speech as the embodiment of [[Moral Guardians|prudery and censorship]].
* ''[[Tom Stoppard|Arcadia]]'' has a bunch, the most prominent of which are Lord Byron and Mrs. Chater. There are several other characters who are mentioned repeatedly but never appear; this is somewhat inevitable given that the play takes place in a single room.
* The title character of the opera ''[[The Consul]]'', who appears only as a distant, inaudible shadow. As with [[Waiting for Godot|Godot]], the protagonist waits for him in vain.
* God in ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'' although he is addressed, indeed harangued, by Jesus in the scene at Gethsemane.
* The person(s) operating the eponymous device and sending bizarre messages in [[Harold Pinter]]'s ''The Dumb Waiter''. It may be Wilson, the unseen superior of protagonists Gus and Ben, but this is never made clear.
* This is the main joke of Tom Jacobsen's ''Bunbury: [[The Importance of Being Earnest|A Serious Play for Trivial People]]''. It features—you guessed it!-- Wilde's Bunbury and Shakespeare's Rosaline teaming up and roaming through the Western canon meeting or becoming other Ghosts or imagined characters and changing ends as they go. [[Romeo and Juliet]]
* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': Act I Scene III: Cardenal Richelieu, [[The Man Behind the Man|the most powerful man in France]] arrives to the Burgundy Theater to a box with the bars in front… or at least the public [[Show Within a Show|(in the play)]] murmurs it so, because he is never shown. Anyway, the simple rumor of his presence is enough to command respect from the public, impose silence, and even makes [[Screwy Squirrel|the Pages]] behave. He will be mentioned again at Act IV, but never seen.
* Ted, Joanne's husband in ''[[Vanities]]'', whom she finds out has been cheating.
* Father Reilly in ''[[The Playboy of the Western World]]'' by John Millington Synge. Characters worry about how he will react to events, and relay conversations they've had with him since they last appeared onstage, but he himself is never seen.
== Video Games ==▼
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
* Ellis' good buddy Keith of ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'', who must look like a pile of ground hamburger given the outrageous stories he shares at inopportune times.
** Oddly, characters like Keith have small, but dedicated fan-followings and [[Rule 34]] dedicated to them, based entirely on [[Fanon]] speculations of [[Backstory]] and appearance, none of which is backed up in-game.
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* Tachibana Muneshige from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' has a frightening and bad-tempered wife (for some reason he loves her dearly) who is constantly mentioned during his [[Inner Monologue]] and the subject of all his letters, but never anywhere else. The reason she's absent is because she grew tired of their lord's religious fanaticism and took off. Historically her name was Ginchiyo, but Muneshige always calls her "[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|the wife]]".
* Ulysses acts as this in ''Fallout: New Vegas''. When you first hear about him, you never even learn his name, he just sounds like some guy that used to know the Courier somehow. Throughout the game and the various DLC's we slowly hear more and more about him but never see or hear him while everything is built up about how the final battle between him and the Courier will essentially change the fates of ''everyone''. He's finally revealed in the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC which is all about the final confrontation between him and the Courier.
== [[Visual Novels]] ==
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* Kako in ''[[A Profile]]'' never makes it onscreen, though she does have a line or two. Maybe. She sounds exactly the same as her sister, you see. Apparently, by the end, even Masayuki has never met her.
* ''[[Abe Kroenen]]'' has this happen a lot, often with female characters like Ilsa or Liz (until recently). This is not so much because of gender bias in the comic as it is the fact that it's a [[Toy Comic]] and the Hellboy merchandising brigade is less than helpful.
* Bert in ''[[Rhapsodies]]''
* All of the characters from ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' that aren't the main characters, bar maybe the flea that lives on the end of T-Rex's nose, but he's so small you can't see him.
* Frank's sister in ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]''.
* Old Cobbley from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20090925111512/http://www.agameoffools.com/comic_57.html A Game of Fools]''.
* Skibble in ''[[The Mansion of E]]''.
* [[The Man Behind the Man|Lord English]] in ''[[Homestuck]]''. {{spoiler|Until the second intermission, that is.}}
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* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has Bob's neighbors [[Bob and Ray|Ray]] and Mr. Fluffinougat; the Spitoonellis, named [[Harold and Maude]]; and Voluptua's dad the Nemesite Emperor.
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲== Web Original ==
* Edward James Olmos in the ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' videos, who is mentioned all the time but is never seen. Possibly because it's a small production in ''Victoria, BC,'' and he's '''Edward James Olmos'''.
* OpAphid, Tachyon and Brother in ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' are implied to be present in several scenes, but never shown. OpAphid and Tachyon do appear onscreen in their own series, however. Additionally, a character named Cassie is mentioned in several episodes, but never appears. She did spawn a series of [[Epileptic Trees]] theories, however.
* ''[[The Spoony Experiment]]'': Dr. Insano's nurse is often referred to (and even threatened to be killed) but is never actually seen or heard from by the audience.
* Dr. Kyle from ''[[Darwin's
* ''[[Tobuscus]]'': Toby Turner's possibly fictional partner Steven.
* In ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', Strong Badman is created when Strong Bad gets an e-mail from one "Stiny". Within the email, and in several future Strong Badman appearances, Strong Bad imagines Stiny being Strong Badman's sidekick, who he constantly shouts orders or insults toward, but he never appears.
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** Fegelin serves as this to a lesser degree. There are ''some'' videos where he appears, but most just use him as an unseen nemesis for Hitler.
* Stan, the camera man from ''[[Crash Course (web video)|Crash Course]]''. John assures us that he really does exist.
* Professor Peach, from the first three
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Trap Door]]'' has 'Im Upstairs who is the patron saint of this trope. Spoken about often, shouts from upstairs... Until he appears in one episode as an [[Eldritch Abomination]].
* The Users ''[[ReBoot]]'', as only their characters are seen in games, and never the Users themselves, though the User's (slow) keystrokes are heard during {{spoiler|the system restore}}. Mouse was also a Ghost for a few episodes after first being mentioned.
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* The oft-randomly-mentioned Muffy Jenkins of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''.
** In "Operation: MESSAGE" we actually ''do'' see Muffy at the end of the episode, receiving a message Numbuh 2 spent the whole episode trying to deliver to her at lunch. The note mentions the [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Splinter Cell]], the main focus of season six...which Muffy had nothing to do with.
* Mateo, the bus driver, from ''[[
* Moltar's beloved wife Linda on ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]''.
* Gazpacho's mother in ''[[Chowder]]''.
* Trudy Beekman, Mallory Archer's nemesis on ''[[Archer]]''.
** [[Thinking Out Loud|"MEH MEH MEH, I'm Trudy Beekman. I'm on the co-op board and I'm going on a blimp! MEHHH!"]]
* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''{{'}}s moms, they are implied to live with them and they sometimes talk about them or call out to them but they are never seen.
* [[Lampshaded]] with boarder Mr. Smith on ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''. An entire episode was dedicated to Arnold and Gerald trying to track him down to deliver a package (apparently they had never seen him either). Of course, they were unsuccessful in their attempts.
* Sandy Plankton in ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' is considered among his classmates to be the purveyor of great knowledge. His fun facts are ''almost'' right. He and the information he shares are only mentioned; he is never shown.
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Older Than Steam]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost, The}}▼
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:He Who Must Not Be Seen]]
▲{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost, The}}
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