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3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4%%
5%%
6Characters in the ''Film/DeathWish'' films:
7----
8[[foldercontrol]]
9
10!!Kersey Family
11
12[[folder:Paul Kersey]]
13!!Paul Kersey
14[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paul_kersey.jpg]]
15[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's like killing roaches. [[GottaKillThemAll You have to kill 'em all]], otherwise what's the use?"'']]
16!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/CharlesBronson
17
18->''"I mean, if we're not pioneers, what have we become? What do you call people who, when they're faced with a condition of fear, do nothing about it, they just run and hide?"''
19
20A mild mannered architect and UsefulNotes/KoreanWar veteran from New York who started killing criminals after his wife and daughter were attacked inside his own apartment. He started his vigilante career by killing small-time bad guys (muggers, rapists etc.), moved to street gangs and by the end of the series takes on heavily armed mafiosos.
21----
22* AdaptationNameChange: His last name in the book was "Benjamin".
23* AdaptationalJobChange: An accountant in the book, but a architect in the films.
24* AntiHero: When you are a vigilante who murders bad guys, this kinda comes with the territory.
25* BadassLongcoat: Breaks out a black leather one now and again, especially prevalent in the fourth movie.
26* BerserkButton: While Kersey kills all crooks equally, he gives far worse punishments to rapists, muggers and drug addicts/dealers, all of whom were responsible for his greatest tragedies.
27* BewareTheNiceOnes: Who would have thought that some nebbish architect would end up taking down several criminal organizations?
28* CartwrightCurse: No woman is safe from harm around Kersey, least of all members of his family. Except for Geri, who left him due to his violent lifestyle.
29* CoolOldGuy: Charles Bronson was already in his fifties when he first played the role and Paul is roughly the same age, with an adult daughter and son in law, and he only gets cooler and tougher as the films go on, ending the series in his seventies. He even gets an introductory scene to show that he's in excellent shape for a man his age.
30* CrusadingWidower: The entire thing began when he lost his wife to scumbags, and it just gets worse when his daughter joins her in the second movie.
31* DoesNotLikeGuns: At the start of the first film, he feels this way. He grows out of it.
32* TheDreaded: What he becomes over the course of the first film, and taken to ever growing heights in the sequels, making even high level criminals frightened of running into him.
33-->'''Fake Nathan White:''' "As long as Kersey's ''breathing'' he's dangerous!"
34* EarnYourHappyEnding: By the end of the fifth and final movie, he finally manages this, avenging his murdered fiance Olivia and saving her daughter Chelsea, regaining custody of her, before vanishing into the darkness with a promise to a sympathetic detective that he will [[AlwaysWithYou return if he is ever needed again]].
35* FreudianExcuse: His pacificism and intense dislike of guns is due to his father being killed in a hunting accident and Paul not wanting his mother, who hated guns, to go through the same.
36* FromNobodyToNightmare: A more AntiHero example. Started out a mild mannered liberal pacifist and conscientious objector who didn't like guns, until the rape of his daughter, murder of his wife and the incompetence of the New York police. This and a business trip to Arizona, being reintroduced to guns and offered another perspective on them, ends up setting him on an escalating trajectory to ultimately becoming the [[TheDreaded scourge of God]] against America's criminal underworld as a famous, legendary VigilanteMan waging a one man war on crime and inspiring others to do likewise.
37* TheGunslinger: A handgun is his weapon of choice.
38* InSeriesNickname: Mr. Vigilante, the New York Vigilante in the first film.
39* ManlyFacialHair: Charles Bronson's famous, manly mustache remains ever present on Paul through the series, even as it turns a salt and pepper shade.
40* NiceGuy: Despite his nightly profession as a VigilanteMan, he is generally an affable, kind man to others by day, treating most people respectfully until they don't deserve an ounce of it.
41* OutlivingOnesOffspring: His daughter Carol takes her own life in the second film after being sexually assaulted a second time.
42* OneManArmy: What he ultimately becomes over the course of the movies, and all the experience he gets hunting and killing criminals, especially prevalent in the third and fourth movies.
43* PacifismBreakingPoint: He was a conscientious objector during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, but after his wife was murdered and his daughter brutally gang raped, he turns into a nighttime urban vigilante shooting criminals in the streets of New York and other cities.
44* PartTimeHero: Does architect work when not shooting criminals.
45* RevolversAreJustBetter: His weapon of choice in the first film is a .32 caliber nickel Colt Police Positive revolver, and he uses another revolver in the final film.
46* TheStoic: He's a kind man of few words and not very emotional, letting his actions do the talking for him.
47* TookALevelInBadass: Starts out a mild mannered liberal pacifist who becomes an amateur VigilanteMan in the first movie, then a professional vigilante in the second, then an urban Rambo in the third and then basically Agent 47 and a ChessMaster in the fourth. By the fifth and final movie, although he doesn't kill as many criminals, it is clear even at his advanced age he is a legendary vigilante who retains his skills and cunning, focusing on the quality of his kills over the quantity.
48* UnwittingPawn: In the fourth film he becomes this after seemingly being hired to avenge a wealthy man's daughter who overdosed, against the L.A. criminal drug trade. It is revealed the man who hired him was a criminal competitor to those Kersey had been killing. Though Paul breaks free of this when he outlives his usefulness to the man, and in turn kills him and wipes out his criminal organization as well.
49* VigilanteMan: The iconic urban vigilante, who set the standard for vigilante flicks to come.
50* VillainKiller: He makes it a point to subtract baddies. After his wife is killed and his daughter raped into a vegetative state, Kersey goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the punks responsible, plus quite a few other nasty no-goodniks in the process, in various cities he has visited. His WhyDontYouJustShootHim approach to street crime makes Kersey into TheDreaded among Chicago's hoodlums. Several criminal organizations fall because of him.
51
52[[/folder]]
53
54[[folder:Carol Kersey]]
55!!Carol Kersey
56!!!'''Played By:''' Kathleen Tolan (''Film/DeathWish'') & Robin Sherwood (''Film/DeathWishII'')
57
58Kersey's daughter.
59----
60* AdaptationNameChange: In addition to the change in her last name, in the book, she was married and took her husband's last name "Tobey".
61* BreakTheCutie: A very tragic example. Her TraumaCongaLine begins with a home invasion by a random gang of hoodlums that results in her rape and the murder of her mother, understandably leaving her traumatized and afraid of being touched by even her father and fianceƩ. She gets better by the second film (despite remaining mostly mute), but ''another'' gang of criminals with a grudge against her father kidnap her and rape her once again, causing her to [[DrivenToSuicide jump out a window and fatally impale herself on a fence to escape them]].
62* CuteMute: By the beginning of the second film, she has recovered from the worst phase of her catatonia and trauma from her rape and the death of her mother in the first film, but has graduated to this trope.
63
64[[/folder]]
65
66!!The Law
67
68[[folder:Frank Ochoa]]
69!!NYPD Lieutenant Frank Ochoa
70!!!'''Played By:''' Vincent Gardenia
71
72A detective who investigates Kersey's killings.
73----
74* EnemyMine: In ''Film/DeathWishII'', he saves Paul Kersey from a hidden sniper targeting him, and then performs a HeroicSacrifice helping Paul take out members of Nirvana's gang, despite being on loan to the LAPD from the NYPD to track Kersey down and stop his vigilante spree.
75* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: He is an opponent of Paul Kersey throughout the first film and much of the second film of the ''Death Wish'' series, but he gives Paul a chance to disappear at the end of the first film, and then saves him from Nirvana in the second film at the expense of his own life.
76
77[[/folder]]
78
79!!Villains
80
81[[folder:Manny Fraker]]
82!!Manny Fraker
83[[quoteright:223:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mfdw3.jpg]]
84!!!'''Played By:''' Gavan O'Herlihy
85
86The leader of the unnamed street gang in the third movie.
87----
88* AxCrazy: After he meets Paul in the cell, he tells him that he'll kill an old lady, just for the hell of it.
89* BigBad: Of ''Film/DeathWish3''.
90* BulletProofVest: Was the only one smart enough to bring one of these to the final battle against Kersey, and it helps him shrug off a full round from both Kersey and the police chief. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Not enough to save him from the mini-bazooka Kersey had on hand, however]].
91* FacialMarkings: Just like his cronies, the mark of his gang is on his forehead.
92* GangBangers: Leads a group of particularly vile ones that are terrorizing New York.
93
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Nathan White]]
97!!"Nathan White"
98[[quoteright:224:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whitDWIV_7276.jpg]]
99!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JohnPRyan
100
101The person who hires Paul Kersey in the fourth film to take down the major drug rings in Los Angeles. He is actually an ambitious drug dealer under the identity of an absentee news magazine mogul, who seeks to take over the local drug businesses by tricking Paul to do the dirty work for him.
102----
103* BigBad: Of ''Film/DeathWish4TheCrackdown''.
104* TheChessmaster: This guy uses Kersey and his vigilante tendencies to eliminate his rivals in the drug trade. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Unfortunately, he made the mistake of painting a target on his own head after trying to kill Kersey and kidnapping one of his love interests]].
105%%* CigarChomper
106* DiabolicalMastermind: He's one of the only villains in the ''Death Wish'' series who manages to run rings around Kersey (and even use him to completely destroy all of the local drug competition), and probably comes the closest to killing him of any other antagonist aside from the previous film's Manny Franker.
107* EasyImpersonation: He impersonates the real Nathan White (who's off on vacation in Europe for most of the film) and just has his henchmen and himself wear fancy suits, speak and act formally, and use White's mansion. It completely fools Kersey, but then again, the ruse only needed to last until the rest of the drug business was dead and "White" could [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness try and off Kersey]].
108%%* ManipulativeBastard
109* ManlyFacialHair: It's even better than Kersey's, and he's one of the most dangerous opponents Kersey's gone up against.
110* NoNameGiven: His real name is not revealed.
111* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Tries to kill Kersey off by trapping him in a car with a bomb after he finishes off the last of the drug trade (and by extension the last of ''his'' competition). Unfortunately for him, it fails and he pays with his life.
112
113[[/folder]]
114
115[[folder:Tommy O'Shea]]
116!!Tommy O'Shea
117[[quoteright:237:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/osdwv.jpg]]
118!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/MichaelParks
119
120A mobster in the fifth movie, who brings Paul Kersey back into the vigilante game by killing his new wife-to-be.
121----
122* BigBad: Of ''Film/DeathWishVTheFaceOfDeath''.
123* TheDon: He made his way through Irish gangs to be a boss of his own outfit.
124%%* FauxAffablyEvil
125* FinalBoss: The final villain of the ''Death Wish'' series.
126* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His mocking (and later [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]]) of Big Al for being fat and Reg for being black certainly qualifies.
127* SinisterShades: Prefers to wear Music/EltonJohn-inspired shades in his public appearances.
128* SmugSnake: A slimy, Irish mobster, he always manges to escape prosecution [[spoiler: because he has a [[TheMole mole]] in the D.A's office]] but once Kersey gets his sights on him, he acts like its' a minor annoyance. Even when his [[TheDragon dragon]] Chicki warns him not to underestimate Kersey, O'Shea is far too confident in his plans. Sadly, his overconfidence proved to be his undoing, as he wasn't savvy enough to realize he was a villain in a ''Death Wish'' movie and therefore, doomed.
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