History Main / TheOldConvict

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%%%* Wyoming in the ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' fanfic ''FanFic/MurderersRow''.
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** A more conventional Old Con is the very ancient Blanco. When we first see him, he's completed a replica of Muffin the Mule in the prison workshop: "You know, him what's on television." (''Muffin the Mule'' was broadcast from 1946 to 1957. The ''Porridge'' episode was broadcast in 1975.)

* Jafar disguises himself as one of these in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', in a Monte Cristo reference.

You'll find him in just about every prison film and television series ever made. He's the old convict that's been inside as long as anyone can remember (maybe he even received a LongerThanLifeSentence). He knows everything there is to know about how the prison works, and can explain it to new inmates. He tends to have the respect of most of his fellow inmates (except maybe the AxCrazy psychos). He's probably even on friendly terms with the guards or warden, and may have been appointed a "trustee" with certain privileges if he's stayed out of trouble long enough. Oftentimes no-one (except himself) knows just what he did to end up here, and wonders just ''why'' he belongs in jail.

You'll find him in just about every prison film and television series ever made. He's the old convict that's been inside as long as anyone can remember (maybe he even received a LongerThanLifeSentence). He knows everything there is to know about how the prison works, and can explain it to new inmates. He tends to have the respect of most of his fellow inmates (except maybe the AxCrazy psychos). Oftentimes no-one (except himself) knows just what he did to end up here, and wonders just ''why'' he belongs in jail.

* ''Series/TheTwlightZone1985'': In "The Convict's Piano", Eddie O'Hara was framed for murder by the gangster Mickey Shaughnessy in 1928. When Ricky Frost meets him in 1986, he has been in prison for 58 years.
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* In the episode of ''WesternAnimation/FunkyCops'' where and Dick are sent to prison, they befriend an elderly lifer called Bookboy (as he works in the library); Bookboy claims he's been called by that name for so long he doesn't remember his real name. He helps them escape using a glider he'd built out of matches over some decades.

%%%* Cresus in ''Film/{{Prison}}''.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'' Jake Benetti, AKA "Bobo" Benetti, one of the first metahumans, with a HealingFactor that grants him extra strength, durability and lessened aging, has been rotting for decades in jail. After being released, having served his sentence, he looks at the new world, sighs, and prepares to rob a bank to go back to jail. (Un)fortunately for Bobo, his slow, methodical heist clashes with the Royal Flush Gang's, and he somewhat inadvertently teams up with Starman to beat the thieves. This gets him a brand-new job and a legit career.

* [[spoiler:"Jack" Andy Beanstalk]] who Puss meets in prison in ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots''. He provides useful information about "the Great Terror".
* Jafar disguises himself as one of these in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', in a Monte Cristo reference.

* The equivalent character in the British remake ''Film/MeanMachine'' is Doc, who teaches Meehan everything he knows about the prison's goings-on.

* There's the choral conductor in the Korean film ''Film/{{Harmony}}''. She is able to organize the ladies of the prison into a group (not gang).
* Genflou, from the 1952 film version of ''Literature/LesMiserables''; a character who is not in the novel and was created to fill this role in the film version.
* Stroud in the latter half of ''Film/BirdmanOfAlcatraz'', having grown into this role over the course of his years in prison.
* The original Zorro becomes one of these in ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', after he gives up hope when he is arrested, his home destroyed, and his wife and child apparently killed. After twenty years, though, he finds the strength to break out.
* ''Film/Fortress1992'': Abraham has been in the prison so long that he's become a 'trustee', a privileged inmate who is entrusted with some responsibilities by the guards. Brennick tries to ask him for help, but he's so jaded that he would rather keep his head down. He does eventually aid the heroes when he realizes that he'll never be allowed to leave by the prison director.
* ''Film/{{Andersonville}}'' provides a prisoner of war version Dick Potter, a friend of Josiah and the others, was captured about a year earlier, is missing a leg and appears prematurely old as he shows them around the prison and gives tips to survive it.

* In DonaldWestlake's ''Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner!'', the protagonist is an inveterate practical joker who is in jail after a prank gone wrong. His Cellmate is an archetype old con provider of good advice.

* In ''Literature/DarknessAtNoon'', while Rubashov has been in other prisons before, and No. 406 had spent twenty years in another prison, No. 402 has known this particular prison for years.

* The VillainOfTheWeek of one episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark'' was a bank robber who had been in prison since the Great Depression. After he breaks out a guard mentions a workplace legend that they built the prison around him.
** The villain of the Season 1 finale was also a former gangster who spent most of his life in prison after being betrayed by his partner- he was also imprisoned in TheThirties, and got out a month before the events of the episode. Both of these episodes were broadcast in the mid-nineties.

* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Miss Claudette Pelage is this. She is in jail for murdering someone who raped one of her employees. She ends up getting even more time after attacking a guard.
** Season 6 shows that B Block in Max is a whole block of this known as "Florida" which houses not only old and senile prisoners, but also medicated inmates like Suzanne and transgender inmates like Sophia.
* ''Series/PrisonerCellBlockH'' had Lizzie Birdsworth, an elderly, chain-smoking, alcoholic recidivist prisoner, who provided much of the series comic relief. At the series start, Lizzie had already served twenty years in prison. When she is eventually released, she finds she cannot cope with life on the outside and commits a series of crimes to get herself re-incarcerated.
* ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' has the nameless insane old prisoner in the dungeon of Nottingham Castle, who constantly refuses to join in escape plans because he doesn't want to leave his pet rat Arthur. He was initially created as a plot device for one episode, but became an EnsembleDarkhorse.

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* In ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'', the Spook has been in the King's dungeons so long, not even Turnkey, the guard assigned to watch him, can remember what he did to be sent there. When asked, Spook says he [[DisproportionateRetribution called the King a "fink".]]
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* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', Tiktoffen is the "man in charge" in the sentient, sapient and homicidal [[MalevolentArchitecture Castle Heterodyne]]. Subverted, as he's actually only been in for three years - but he's still the longest-serving prisoner. People don't tend to last long inside Castle Heterodyne, especially since half the time it's actively trying to kill them.
** Fixing parts of the Castle gives you points and takes months off your sentence, but it's worth noting that in the fifteen or so years that the Castle has been used as a prison, only one person has ever managed to get enough points to get out.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': 'The last registered Democrat' who helps the Simpsons escape the government re-education centre in the episode "Bart-Mangled Banner".

* Curly in ''ComicBook/HardTime'' is the oldest lifer in State. Coincidentally, his cellmate is the youngest -- 15-year-old school shooter Ethan Harrow. Curly went into prison in his early 20s, and by now is your typical crotchety old man, having come to terms with the fact that he'll never be free again. [[spoiler:His long-lost granddaughter eventually got him out on appeal, if only because throat cancer left him with mere months left to live.]]

* In ''NewspaperComics/TheWizardOfId'', the Spook has been in the King's dungeons so long, not even Turnkey, the guard assigned to watch him, can remember what he did to be sent there. When asked, Spook says he [[DisproportionateRetribution called the King a "fink".]]

* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Miss Claudette Pelage is this. [[spoiler: She is in jail for murdering someone who raped one of her employees. She ends up getting even more time after attacking a guard.]]

If the central characters decide to break out, the Old Convict probably won't go with them, realising he no longer knows how to survive in the outside world. He may die at the hands of the authorities or vicious fellow inmates (maybe in an attack actually aimed at the hero), inspiring the heroes to either escape or seek vengeance. Compare the AlmightyJanitor.

* Curly in ''ComicBook/HardTime'' is the oldest lifer in State. Coincidentally, his cellmate is the youngest -- 15-year-old school shooter Ethan Harrow. Curly went into prison in his early 20s, and by now is your typical crotchety old man, having come to terms with the fact that he'll never be free again. [[spoiler:That is, until his long-lost granddaughter managed to get him out on appeal.]]

* ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz''English claims to have only been in Alcatraz for 10 years by that point, but it's ''Alcatraz''. Those years have turned him into a rather jaded sort, especially since his disproportionate punishment (for killing two men in self-defense) was racially motivated. He does form an OddFriendship with Frank Morris.

* English from ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz''; a black inmate serving two life sentences for killing two white men in self-defense.

** Fletcher. Although Fletch has been in and out of prison his entire life rather than spending most of it inside serving a single sentence, he still fulfills the role of explaining the system to newcomers.

[[IThoughtItMeant Only occasionally related to]] TheCon or the ConMan.

* Francois Villars in the ''Series/MacGyver'' episode "The Escape". He explains to Mac how the prison works but does not accompany him when he escapes.