As the series characters have different names in the Danish, Swedish and (sometimes) Norwegian versions, the characters have been slotted in folders with names following the structure "Danish name/Norwegian Dub Name Change (if different)/Swedish name".
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The central trio
Egon Olsen/Charles-Ingvar Jönsson
Criminal mastermind and expert safe-cracker whose plans often rely heavily on correct timing and scheduling. He also tends to lose his temper if things don't go his way.
Tropes
- Atrocious Alias: As a form of Bilingual Bonus, when he pretends to be an arrogant German businessman, he takes on the moniker "Generaldirektor von Arschloch" ("Chairman von Asshole").
- Awesome by Analysis: Egon seems to know exactly how characters will react and his plans rely heavily on being able to predict the time such a reaction takes, occasionally down to the second.
- Berserk Button: He has two of these: Yvonne accusing him of not knowing how the world works because he spends all his time in prison, and the incompetence of his two underlings, the latter of which inevitably triggers an angry rant from him.Egon: Mangy dogs! Jaywalkers! Lousy amateurs! I come up with the greatest plan yet, and this is how you thank me! How can you be so ungrateful?!
- Celibate Hero: While Egon does have an interest in women in the first two movies, he seems to have zero understanding or patience for either the emotional or the physical side of such a relationship in the later movies.
- Clock King: He is famous for memorizing the schedules, shifts, routines and routes of guards and other people standing between the gang and the thing they want to steal so that they can elude their attention.
- Doorstop Baby: The last Olsenbanden Jr movie reveals that Egon was one of these and that's why he lives at an orphanage.
- Heroic BSoD: His usual reaction when his plans go wrong and the police sirens are getting closer.
- Large Ham: In a World of Ham, he gets the most scenery chewing moments.
- Karmic Thief: Egon occasionally steals from people who have committed much worse crimes than he ever will.
- Parental Abandonment: It doesn't really come up in the original movies, but in the Olsenbanden Jr version Egon is revealed to be an orphan living at an orphanage.
- Safe Cracking: He is especially well-known both in and out of universe for breaking into safes by the prestiguous fictional company Franz Jäger. In the Swedish version, Vanheden can crack some of the cheaper models, as seen in the third movie, but Sickan is one of the few people in the world who can crack the advanced ones, hence why Wall-Enberg keeps hiring him.
- Signature Headgear: Egon's bowler hat, to the point where it has become a symbol of the series itself. (His Swedish counterpart wears a beret at all times instead.)
- Smoking Is Cool: In the first movies Egon is often seen smoking cigars, although in most installments he is just seen with an unlit cigar stub (because the actor didn't smoke in real life).
- Surrounded by Idiots: Egon often claim to be this.
Tropes specific to his Swedish counterpart:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: whereas Egon is an orphan, Charles-Ingvar as a child lives together with his parents, his twin sister Sikkan, and his younger brother Sven-Ingvar.
- Angrish: Descends into this several times in the second movie in particular.
- Embarrassing Nickname: downplayed with his In-Series Nickname "Sickan"note . At least Once an Episode he will responds to other characters calling him that with an annoyed "[It's] 'Charles-Ingvar'!" — but does not take any further action when his compatriots inevitably go back to using it soon afterwards.
- Last-Name Basis: Depending on the Writer, he usually calls Ragnar Vanheden by his last name.note
- Cigar Chomper: Is rarely seen without a cigar, though downplayed in that he varies between holding it or chomping on it while speaking. Occasionally veers into Oral Fixation territory, such as when he interrupts himself when the stump falls out and doesn't continue the sentence until he puts a small measuring tool in his mouth.
- Put on a Bus: After the fifth Swedish movie, he has a nervous breakdown off-screen which gets him placed in a psychiatric ward.
- Sanity Slippage: Both in the first and second films he has moments where he reverts to a childlike state; in the third he gets high off of the gas Biffen tried to suffocate him with and goes Laughing Mad; in the fourth his attempts to communicate with a Russian contact despite their language barrier descends into gibberish; and in the fifth he is first seen in a sorry state brought on by having been alone for an unknown amount of time.
- Theme Naming: Charles-Ingvar and his brother, Sven-Ingvar.
Benny Frandsen/Benny Fransen/Ragnar Vanheden
Small-time thief and swindler. The more competent of Egon's accomplices and the driver of whatever vehicle which may be at hand.
- Con Man: A thief and swindler who occasionally comes up with his own plans.
- Missing Mom: He and Harry have one in the Spinoff Babies version, and their father is a traveling salesman who is away a lot and never even shows up on-screen.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: The films are full of swearing and Benny is responsible for many such instances, especially due to his catchphrase including "Skidegodt" ("Bloody good", or more literally, "good shit").
- Universal Driver's License: Benny drives whatever vehicle which may be at hand, ranging from his old car, a forklift and a brewer's dray to a little train. The actor, Morten Grunwald, later noted that the only thing he didn't get to drive was a plane, although that may have been due to budget constraints.
- Yes-Man: Frequently plays this role to Egon, as exemplified by one of his catch phrases being to praise Egon's smarts.
Adaptation-specific tropes:
- Malaproper: Vanheden tends to use a lot of Stockholman slang, metaphor, and idioms — but this does not necessarily mean that he says them correctly. For instance, at one point he is trying to use the idiom "Mycket skrik för lite ull, sa bonden när han klippte grisen"translated but ends up with "mycket besvär för ingenting, sa kärringen som klippte grisen!"translated .
- Master of Unlocking: Downplayed; he's a skilled lockpick as part of his Con Man persona, and can even crack some of the simpler Franz Jaeger safes that would otherwise fall to Sickan, but there are limits - during the gangs time in Mallorca, he can't open the lock to a warehouse because he has limited experience with Spanish-designed locks.
- Meaningful Name: Vanheden's last name is a mildly corrupted form of the word "Vanheder", which means "Dishonor" — rather fitting for a crook.
- The Nicknamer: Apart from usually calling Charles-Ingvar "Sickan" or "Charlie", Vanheden also calls Fritz Müllweiser from the third film "Fritzen" ("The Fritz") and seems to be the one to come up with the nickname "Biffen". In the second film he also calls his employer "the apple" based on his last name, Appelgren, and his fiancée "The plum" (after her first name Katrin and the common term "katrinplommon" for zwetschge-plums).
- No Sense of Personal Space: Vanheden has a tendency to stand very close to other characters, casually pats his cousin Harry on the butt several times, and can't seem to stop randomly touching Sickan when talking to him. For instance, the first thing he does after Sickan gets out of jail in the third film is pat Sickan on the cheek (which Sickan barely seems bothered by).
- Spell My Name With An S: The Norwegian Benny's last name is spelled "Fransen" and not the original's "Frandsen."
- Third-Person Person: Vanheden slips into this occasionally in a boisterous manner, using his last name (ie. "Leave it to Vanheden!").
- Verbal Tic: Vanheden ends a lot of his lines with "vet du", usually shortened to "vettu", or "va?"Translated . This is exaggerated in the second film where he sometimes manages to throw in four "you know"s in the same sentence.
Kjeld Jensen/Kjell Jensen/"Rocky"
The stupid and nervous guy. By far the less competent of Egon's accomplices.
- Berserk Button: Egon's rants, especially when he insults Yvonne; these sometimes trigger another rant from Kjeld or a very threatening "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed towards Egon.
- Beware the Nice Ones: While Kjeld doesn't get angry often, it usually shuts Egon right up when he does.
- Henpecked Husband: He is close to being the most triumphant example of this in Danish film.
- Lovable Coward: While he has a tendency to ask other characters whether whatever they are about to do is dangerous, he can still pull through in an emergency.
Adaptation-specific tropes:
- Cannot Spit It Out: The Olsenbanden Jr version has this problem with Valborg. He gets over it, though.
- Funny Foreigner: The Swedish version downplays this, being a Fenno-Swede with a heavy accent; most of his gags are related to other facets of his character, but he will occasionally misspeak for laughs (such as mistakenly calling a dove the word for woodpecker or not understanding Stockholman slang).
- Green-Eyed Monster: In the Olsenbanden Jr movies, Valborg often flirts with other boys to make Kjell jealous when she thinks he's behaving badly or isn't paying her enough attention. It always works; he's always beside himself with jealousy. One movie actually had Egon incorporating this in his plan; a jealous Kjell making a scene is common enough that nobody's going to suspect that it's actually a distraction.
- Put on a Bus: After the second Swedish movie, with the in-series reason being that he and his family moved to Finland while Sickan was in jail.
- Spell My Name With An S: In the Norwegian films, his first name is spelled Kjell (which is the more common spelling of it in Norway).
Other recurring characters
Yvonne Jensen/Valborg/Eivor
Kjeld's wife, who often inadvertently screws up their schemes. Fans often consider her Egon's true nemesis; indeed, the death of her actress back in 1987 was the reason why the series was originally cancelled.
Tropes:
- Spanner in the Works: Someone will inevitably bring down Egon's cabal — and she's the one who plays this role the most.
Adaptation-specific tropes:
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Eivor shows traits of this, responding to Sickan calling her husband a "sweet-toothed freak"to elaborate... by kicking the air and implying she'll break him like a brick if he ever talks about Rocky that way again. While this does freak Sickan out a bit she never hurts him directly though.
- I Was Quite a Looker: The Olsenbanden Jr movies reveal that she was the prettiest girl in school, and she had plenty of male admirers.
- Put on a Bus: in the second Swedish movie, she is absent due to having gone on a trip to Mallorca. By the next movie she has moved with her family to Finland for a more permanent bus trip.
- The Unfair Sex: In the Olsenbanden Jr movies, though she and Kjell are officially together, Valborg isn't the most faithful of girlfriends. She often flirts with or even goes out with other boys, sometimes because she's trying to make Kjell jealous and sometimes because she's angry with him. But if he so much as looks at another girl, she gets nasty, and is not portrayed as being in the wrong for it (though usually it's all a big misunderstanding).
Børge Jensen/"Basse"/Bill
Kjeld and Yvonne's son who sometimes assists the gang in their schemes.
Tropes:
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: His siblings, who vanish into thin air after the first movie.
- Put on a Bus:
- After the eighth movie, Olsenbanden ser rødt. He gets married at the end of the movie and is then absent for most of the rest of the series, although he does appear in the eleventh and fourteenth movies.note
- His Swedish counterpart leaves the series after the second film for the same reason as his parents.
"Dynamit"-Harry
Benny's brother, an alcoholic demolitions expert who occasionally helps the gang out. In the original Danish series he only appears in two movies, but he got a much larger role in both the Norwegian and Swedish versions.
- The Alcoholic: Across all three versions of the series.
- Ash Face: is often seen with this due to his status as an explosives guy.
- Cloudcuckoolander: While he's generally got enough sense to know when he's in a bad situation, he demonstrates often enough that his mind works in strange ways.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the Spinoff Babies versions, he is addicted either to liquorice (Danish/Norwegian) or fruit juice (Swedish). He still gets abstinences like his adult counterpart does when he can't drink alcohol. To really drive the point home, in the Norwegian movies he eventually gives up liquorice and starts a "new and better life." He is on the verge of "relapsing" a few times, but Benny manages to talk him down by reminding him how proud everyone is of Harry for having beat his addiction.
- Drunken Master: At one point, he decides to stop drinking; however, at the end of that movie, when he's needed to blow up a wall, it turns out that he needs to drink a beer to do that reliably.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: His speciality, although he often ends up taking the brunt of them himself.
Adaptation-specific tropes:
- Ascended Extra: In both the Norwegian and Swedish versions:
- In the Norwegian series he appears, and usually plays a major role, in seven of the fourteen movies (and is at least a prominent supporting character, if not a main one, in all six Olsenbanden Jr. movies.)
- In the Swedish series he becomes a full-time member of the gang, replacing Rocky from the third movie on. The Spinoff Babies version even forgoes Rocky entirely and feature Harry instead, despite this messing with the continuity of the series.
- Composite Character: In the Norwegian movies, Harry appearing in more movies and getting larger roles means he often takes over the roles and functions of other characters from the Danish movies. Most notably, Yvonne's computer-savvy nephew Georg from the Danish movies doesn't exist in the Norwegian remake, with his role and function in the story being taken over by Harry, who after an unplanned trip to the US (he fell asleep in a container that shipped to America) has gotten an education and discovered that he has a talent with computers. He even briefly renames himself from "Dynamitt-Harry" to "Data-Harry," to Egon's great annoyance.
- Large Ham: The Norwegian version is without a doubt the biggest ham in the entire series (which is no small feat, considering that the movies depict a World of Ham... but he manages to out-ham even Egon). This is probably the reason why he became such a fan favorite character and subsequently became an Ascended Extra.
- Meaningful Name: He gains the last name "Krut" (occasionally spelled "Kruth") in Swedish promotional material. This is not only a legitimate Swedish surname, it also happens to be a homophone with a word which can be translated as either gunpowder or explosive powders in general.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the Swedish version he is Vanheden's cousin instead of his brother. (Possibly because of their actors' age difference.)
- Third-Person Person: In the Swedish version he will occasionally slip into this.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: In the Swedish version he is this to Doris, which gets lampshaded before Doris even makes it on-screen:Vanheden: "He ran off and fell in love, and she did as well. It's mind-boggling!"
Bang-Johansen/Hallandsen/Holm Hansen
The recurring Big Bad in many of the movies: a corrupt authority figure with villainous schemes of his own. This character is subject to an unusual and confusing gag. In most of the movies where he appears he has one of those three names and is supposedly a new character who has nothing to do with any of the previous incarnations. To further add to the confusion, they are all played by the same actor and have the same personality. While he usually is a corporate executive, he has also been a corrupt civil servant and a criminal nobleman. Jönssonligan did not follow this, instead opting to have the equivalent - only using the name Wall-Enberg - be the same character, a shady executive, in all his appearances.
Tropes:
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He frequently hires the gang to help him just to betray them later, with the help of his dragon Bøffen.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: His most frequent role.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: May exaggerate this, assuming all of his appearances are the same character in-universe under different names.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: He may go by different names, or be different characters played by the same actor. This gag may be a comment on how it was normal for actors to return in different roles in Danish film series at the time — a theory supported by that there is a number of other recurring actors in Olsen-Banden too.
Tropes specific to his Swedish counterpart, Wall-Enberg:
- Distracted by the Sexy: In Sickan's words, he "has a weakness for décolletage" and makes it very obvious when he is checking a woman out.
- Karma Houdini: He's only ever caught once, in the first Swedish movie, and apparently it didn't stick. In the others, his only real punishment is that his scheme didn't pay off.
- Non-Action Big Bad: He's a businessman in late-middle age, so he relies either on Biffen or hired goons to do the heavy lifting for him.
- Sinister Shades: Usually wears sunglasses even when indoors.
"Bøffen"/"Biffen"/Johansson
"Bøffen" (literally: The Steak) is Bang-Johansen's employee, whose complicated plans to eliminate Egon usually backfires onto himself. He is a very large and fat man, usually armed with a blunt weapon such as a monkey wrench. Interestingly, he is never referred to as "Bøffen" within the movies, where he's just called "Him" and notably "Det dumme svin/The bastard" by Benny. This last point is averted for the Swedish version of the character, who occasionally gets called "Biffen" (same meaning) by other characters. He is the only character to have been played by the same actor in both the Danish and Norwegian versions of the movies, namely Ove Verner Hansen.
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Bøffen is often very enthusiastic about his work, seeing his instructions to kill Egon as an opportunity to try out new and interesting ways to off someone.
- Flanderization: He goes from being a mere Punch-Clock Villain to full sadist as the Danish series progresses.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: It is never fully explained if Bøffen is the same thug who happens to work for different villains, on one occasion as the private chauffeur for a count, or as a variety of thugs who happens to look like each other. Since he is said to have been said chauffeur from the 8th movie for twenty years, it's probably the latter.
Adaptation-specific tropes:
- Adaptational Nationality: A curious example in the Norwegian version. As mentioned above, Bøffen/Biffen was played by his original actor in the Norwegian adaptation of the movies, meaning that he's explicitly Danish even in the Norwegian movies. However, in the Olsenbanden Jr spin-off, the kid version of Biffen (here presented as a schoolyard bully and clearly intended to be the same character) is Norwegian.
- Composite Character: Downplayed in the Swedish version at one point. In the Danish series' fifth film, an unaware worker accidentally locks Egon into a walk-in freezer. In the Swedish remake of the movie, Biffen takes this guard's place; in fact, the implication changes from the worker genuinely doing it by accident to Biffen having a feeling someone is inside... And therefore deciding to lock him in.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the Swedish films he had a different job and look in the first four movies, with the fourth one even using a different actor. In the third film he was Wall-Enberg's private driver and dressed as such. In the fifth film, Jönssonligan på Mallorca, he did not appear at all and then in Jönssonligan och de svarta diamanten they went back to the driver-look and went with that for the rest of the series.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the Swedish films, comics and games he is referred to as "Johansson" by Wall-Enberg.
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The Other Darrin: In the original series he was played by Weiron Holmberg in the films except Jönssonligan dyker upp igen, were he was played by Lars Dejert.
Detective constable Jensen/Hermansen/Persson
A policeman who is often tasked with tracking down the gang. He has grown unenthusiastic and disillusioned after realising that he can only deal with minor criminals, while the greater injustices taking place in the higher echelons of society are beyond any reach. In times of great agitation however, he will display zealous dedication to justice. Despite being an enforcer of the law, he has great respect for Egon due to his skills.
Tropes:
- Composite Character: In the original Danish movies, the main cop character was the bumbling Mortensen, who was replaced with the far smarter but more cynical Jensen from the fifth movie on. In the Norwegian version, however, the switch never happens and the original cop, here named Hermansen, remains in the series. Interestingly enough, it actually works very well... Because it simply comes across as him undergoing a lot of Character Development. He starts out eager and bumbling, but as the years (and the movies) go by he starts losing his enthusiasm and naivete, growing increasingly smarter, more experienced and more cynical.
- Genre Savvy: He knows only too well that he is not the hero of the story, and has resigned himself to the fact that, unless the criminal drops into his lap, he can't do anything. The best he can do is sit back and explain how the world works.
- Worthy Opponent: Seems to consider Egon one — in part due to his skills, in part because Egon sticks to what Jensen call "illegal crimes", in contrast to the "legal crimes" of powerful people like Bang-Johansen who can not be put behind bars without causing a lot of problems like pulling several ministers down with him.
Detective assistant Holm
Constable Jensen's eager, but bumbling assistant, to whom Jensen often have to explain key plot points and why they can only arrest the small fish.
- The Watson: Serves this role to Jensen. They both usually have a bare minimum of influence on the plot, but are highly important to the exposition of background details.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He seems to think himself the cop in some action-movie about gangsters.
Adaptation-specific characters:
Doris
Harry's girlfriend in the Swedish version. They live together in a house she owned beforehand, and their home seems to become the gang's main base of operations from the third movie on.
Tropes:
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Downplayed as she is rather eccentric herself, but unless everyone else is drinking too she often won't let Harry drink alcohol on her watch.
- The Ditz: Depending on the film she will either be oblivious of her boyfriend's illegal activities, or attempt to help the gang with varying results. In the seventh movie, when the others fail to show up after a heist, she even walks up to somebody working at the building they broke into asking if he had seen anyone trying to break in recently. She also believes the loot in the fifth movie is from a settlement Sickan got for wrongful arrest.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Implied with her and Harry; she is mentioned to have worked as a nurse and, at one point, casually states that "now, broken bones and explosion injuries, I know all about that!" while looking lovingly at him.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: In her first appearance she is established as working as a nurse, in the second she actually has to stop and think for a moment when someone asks her what she works as (settling for a vague "I work in the public sector"), and in her third she has suddenly opened a solarium in Mallorca.
- Nice Guy: She treats everyone else with kindness; while she does make it clear she distrusts Sickan, she never outright kicks him out, and even offers to repair his trousers after he shows up in the house late at night with no explanation.
- Unexplained Accent: Not initially, but later in the series she gains a Norrland accent and occasionally starts using terms more popular there than the rest of the country, such as replacing "väl" with "la".note
