Dr. Evil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Austin Powers character |
|
|---|---|
 Mike Myers as Dr. Evil |
|
| Dr. Evil (Yuchun Lee) | |
| Birth name | Douglas Powers |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality |  England - .svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Belgium |
| Role | Villain |
| Father | Nigel Powers (biological), Unnamed Boulangerie Owner (adoptive) |
| Mother | Chloe (adoptive deceased) |
| Relationships | Vanessa Kensington (Sister-in-law, deceased), Mr. Bigglesworth (Pet Cat), Frau Farbissina, |
| Children | Scott Evil (Son), Mini-Me (Clone/Son) |
| Filmography | |
| First appearance | Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery |
| Last appearance | Austin Powers in Goldmember |
| Film count | 3 |
| Portrayed by | Mike Myers, Josh Zuckerman, Kevin Spacey |
Dr. Evil (born Douglas Powers) is a fictional character, played by Mike Myers, in the Austin Powers film series. He is the chief villain of the movies, and Austin Powers' nemesis with aspirations of world domination. A parody of any number of James Bond villains, primarily Donald Pleasance's Ernst Stavro Blofeld of SPECTRE. Dr. Evil routinely hatches schemes to terrorize and take over the world, and is typically accompanied by his cat Mr. Bigglesworth and his side-kick Mini-Me.
On May 10, 2007, Mike Myers announced that he is developing a 4th film in the Austin Powers universe; it will focus more on the character of Dr. Evil.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Background
According to his own account in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, delivered in a group therapy session with his estranged son Scott, Dr. Evil's upbringing went as follows:
| “ | The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament... My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds — pretty standard, really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Wilma ritualistically shaved my testicles — there really is nothing like a shorn scrotum — it's breathtaking... I suggest you try it. | ” |
TV versions skipped the hyphenated dialogue and added
| “ | "When I was 18 I went to evil medical school. At age 25 I took up tap dancing. I wanted to be a quadruple threat: an actor, dancer.... | ” |
In the third Austin Powers film, Goldmember, Dr. Evil claims that his adopted mother was the love-slave of the Belgian baker rather than a prostitute.
In Goldmember, Nigel Powers reveals that Dr. Evil is Austin Powers' twin brother and that his real name is Douglas ("Dougie") Powers. He was born on November 12, 1939. He explains that Douglas and Austin were separated as babies following a car explosion, and that he thought that only Austin had survived. Douglas was raised by Belgians, which is what made him so complex and evil. His home town is Bruges, a Dutch-speaking town (despite this, he claims to not know how to speak " Freaky-Deaky Dutch", although this may be an oversight on the writer's part).
He also attended the British Intelligence Academy with Austin (along with Basil Exposition and Number 2), and is angered that Austin won the "International Man of Mystery" award, while he, the academy's best student was overlooked.
In the first film, Dr. Evil is an internationally known criminal genius cryogenically frozen in 1967 and reawakened in 1997. Like Austin Powers, he faces challenges in acclimating to the new period (although he has his staff, who remained behind, to help him).
He often places his little finger near his mouth, especially when excited or to emphasize a statement. Although expanded upon, this signature move may have been taken from "Number 12 Looks Just Like You," an episode of The Twilight Zone in which Dr. Rex uses the same gesture several times. Although the idiosyncrasy was intended to be a humorous "signature move" for Evil, the only apparent reason for Rex's use of it was to differentiate him from several other characters (played by the same actor) who were intentionally physically identical to him. Also the "signature move" of the little finger near the mouth can also be attributed to Bram Stroker's character: the eponymous Dracula.
Evil also repetitively uses the euphemism frickin'. He occasionally uses unnecessary finger quotes around now-familiar technical terms such as laser.
The scar on his face is a reference to similar scars on early 20th century movie villains such as several portrayed by Erich von Stroheim (as well as a homage to Donald Pleasance as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice). This type of scar was usually a remnant of Mensur fencing, an activity in which secretive elite European student groups participate. In Goldmember it is revealed that he has a tattoo on his buttocks that reads "E. Diddy" and he also claimed to have three testicles.
In the first Austin Powers film and half of the second, Dr. Evil's eyes are brown, but in the third, Mike Myers wore contact lenses to give his eyes an icy blue color.
[edit] Entourage
Dr. Evil employs a diverse and highly stereotypical group of minions.
[edit] Frau Farbissina
Perhaps closest to Dr. Evil is his assistant, Frau Farbissina, founder of the militant wing of the Salvation Army. In the second film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, after imbibing some of Austin Powers' mojo Dr. Evil becomes temporarily irresistible and they make love. However, this leads to an uncomfortable morning-after encounter. In the closing credits Frau is revealed to be Scott's mother. (In the first film, it is asserted that Scott was created via Dr. Evil's frozen semen.) In Goldmember, Farbissina and Dr. Evil also kiss while he is in prison; although the two enjoyed it (despite Frau having been established as a lesbian in the previous movie), the purpose was to transfer a key to Evil so that he could escape. She is probably a parody on the character Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia With Love, or possibly Irma Bunt from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She does not appear to age as she looked the same as she did in the 1960s as she did in the 1990s, which was used for comedic effect in the film. Dr Evil meets the younger Number Two and comments 'You look so healthy and youthful.' Farbissina's voice is heard offscreen and Dr Evil turns and says, 'And Frau, you look so...' as the audience is shown she has not changed at all, leading Dr Evil to finish with '..ri-ght'.
[edit] Scott Evil
He carries on a strained relationship with his son Scott. In fact, he frequently tries to have Scott killed, but he never succeeds. He liquidates their therapy group, accusing them of being "insolent". Scott is also known for pointing out Dr. Evil's incompetence and immaturity as well as obvious mistakes and flaws in Dr. Evil's plans. For instance, when Dr. Evil demonstrated in question form, why Austin Powers always foils their plans, Scott points out "Because you never kill him when you have the chance and you're a big dope?", which for the most part is true. Dr. Evil mocks Scott and ignores his corrections which often leads to failure. Scott later grows more "evil", thus losing his hair; this gains his father's respect momentarily, especially after Scott provides him a pool filled with sharks with lasers attached to their heads. When Dr. Evil switches sides to help his brother, Austin Powers, save the world, Scott takes over as the head of the evil organization.
[edit] Number 2
Number 2 is the leader of Dr. Evil's industrial empire, Virtucon. A natural businessman, Number 2 is often more concerned about the financial aspects of world domination than the world domination itself. In each successive film, Number 2 has devised various schemes and ventures which would not only garner massive profits for - and expand the power-base of - the Virtucon empire, but would do so legitimately, leaving the authorities with little excuse for apprehending Dr. Evil. Evil, however, refuses to heed Number 2's advice and has often made Number 2 suffer for his insolence, claiming that his strategies in bringing the bacon home are insulting to the ideals of an evil empire. Number 2 is a parody of Emilio Largo (portrayed by Adolfo Celi) from Thunderball, second in command of The SPECTRE terrorist organization.
[edit] Mr. Bigglesworth
| Austin Powers character |
|
|---|---|
 Mr. Bigglesworth hairless |
|
| Mr. Bigglesworth | |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Filmography | |
| First appearance | Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery |
| Last appearance | Austin Powers in Goldmember |
| Film count | 3 |
Mr. Bigglesworth is a fictional cat belonging to Dr. Evil. He was originally similar to Blofeld's cat, a typical white Persian cat from the James Bond movie series.
He was forced to escape hastily with Dr. Evil in a cryogenic capsule, but lost all of his fur owing to an error in the unfreezing process. Mustafa eventually was killed because of his error.
Mr. Bigglesworth has since that time been bald, played by a Sphynx cat. Dr Evil's miniature clone, Mini-Me, has a tiny cat called "Mini Mr. Bigglesworth", presumably also a clone of Mr. Bigglesworth. One of Doctor Evil's lines in the movie to Mini Me is "No Mini Me, we don't gnaw on our kitty." However, in the third installment of the franchise, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Mr. Bigglesworth is not seen once in the entire length of the film, except for promotional shots, the school flashback to when he still had hair, and in the film within the film, Austinpussy. He was, however, in a deleted scene in which Dr. Evil describes what it's like to hold a cat.
[edit] Fat Bastard
Fat Bastard is an immensely obese, hardly able to walk (weighing a metric ton) gardener and henchman hailing from Scotland. His extreme size endows Fat Bastard with super-human strength as exhibited by his prowess in the Sumo ring from Goldmember. This makes him a formidable enemy for Austin Powers. Fat Bastard is noted for his foul temper, his frequent flatulence, his vulgar and revolting bad manners and his unusual eating habits, which include Cannibalism, more specifically a taste for Human infants (which he calls "the other other white meat") or anything that looks like a baby, e.g. midgets/dwarves.
[edit] Random Task
Dr. Evil's handyman extraordinaire is Random Task, a Korean ex-wrestler whose personality and assassination style is a parody to that of Oddjob from Goldfinger, except he throws his shoe instead of his hat. Austin later comments on Task's fighting style: "Who throws a shoe? Honestly! I'm gonna have a lump there you idiot! You fight like a woman!" Task repetitively cracks his neck and it is often his job to silently move dead bodies away and move Dr. Evil's chair. Random Task attempts to kill Austin in his Honeymoon suite unsuccessfully as Austin uses the Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger pump on him before Vanessa Kensington breaks a bottle of champagne over his head knocking him unconscious.
[edit] Patty O'Brien
Patty O'Brien is an ex-Irish assassin who is superstitious in leaving a keepsake on his good-luck charm bracelet from every victim he kills. Apparently Scotland Yard has been trying to get a hold of that bracelet for some time. O'Brien explains in his Irish accent: "They're always after me lucky charms!", a reference to an American breakfast cereal television ad. Dr. Evil and Frau insult O'Brien revealing his voice to sound like the Leprechaun mascot from the Lucky Charms advertisement. Unfortunately, O'Brien does not understand the reference. O'Brien attempts to assassinate Austin by choking him with his bracelet in the bathroom stall, but Austin drives his head into the toilet drowning him. O'Brien appears to be somewhat inspired by Red Grant from From Russia With Love. Patty's charms on his bracelet actually look like the marshmallows found in Lucky Charms cereal.
[edit] Mustafa
Mustafa (played by Will Ferrell) was another notable assistant, for he designs the cryogenic freezing process that preserves Dr. Evil for 30 years. In 1969, two years after the 1960s Dr. Evil was frozen, Mustafa was caught by the 1990s Austin Powers (who had followed 90's Dr. Evil through time) and was forced to answer questions on the location of 90's Dr. Evil's hideout (as it turns out, he can't help but answer any question that is asked to him three times). He was silenced by Mini-Me before he could reveal his boss's location and was nearly killed. Mustafa somehow managed to survive until 1997 and saw to it that the 90's Dr. Evil was thawed out, but he gets incinerated after he learns that the cryogenic freezing process has left Mr. Bigglesworth completely furless. He survives this, though it takes two gunshots to silence his complaints of being in great pain, and it is only assumed that he dies.
[edit] Mini-Me
The second film introduces Dr. Evil's clone, Mini-Me, who is 1/8th his size. Dr. Evil considers him more of a real son than Scott, provoking the latter's jealousy. Mini-Me is a parody of Nick Nack from from The Man With The Golden Gun and Tatoo from Fantasy Island (both played by Hervé Villechaize) and the procedure in which he was created is a parody of the plastic surgery that Ernst Stavro Blofeld gave to some of his henchmen in order to duplicate himself in the film Diamonds Are Forever.
[edit] Other assistants
In the opening few minutes of the first film, Dr. Evil has four henchmen, namely Jurgen, Generalissimo, Rita, and Don Luigi, who are all executed because of their failure to kill Austin Powers. Also he has a henchman who has seen Austin Powers do creepy, messed up things behind a curtain or tarp.
[edit] Lairs
Parodying the many Bond villains, Dr. Evil inhabits a sequence of elaborate lairs.
In Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, Dr. Evil's first lair is underground in the Nevada desert, outside Las Vegas; an obvious homage to Diamonds Are Forever.
Following a successful investment by Number 2, Dr. Evil's lair in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is atop the Space Needle in Seattle, portrayed to be the Starbucks headquarters; later, it is housed first in a volcano with Dr. Evil's face carved into it on a Caribbean island (an homage to both You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die), and then on the moon (the film's final villainous homage, to Moonraker).
For the third film, Austin Powers In Goldmember, Dr. Evil has a new lair behind the famous Hollywood sign and a submarine lair, shaped like himself (an homage to Karl Stromberg's Liparus tanker in The Spy Who Loved Me) and the villain Penguin's submarine which looked like a penguin in the Batman Movie (1966).
[edit] Schemes
Dr. Evil's projects for world domination are often named after pop culture trademarks (Death Star, Alan Parsons Project, Preparation H) and he is often unaware of the accidental pun. For example, when Dr. Evil says he will turn the moon into a "Death Star" (said with finger quotes), Scott laughs and calls him "Darth". Scott also coughs and mutters "Rip-off!" After a slight pause, his father says, "Bless you."
Dr. Evil seems to have a problem in general with understanding money, especially regarding the modern American economy and inflation. In the first film, he intends to hold the world ransom for $1 million, but doesn't understand that $1 million isn't as large a sum of money as it was in the 1960s, because of inflation, and the demand causes the U.N. to burst out laughing. In the second film, however, Dr. Evil goes back to 1969 and plans to hold the world ransom for $100 billion, an amount of money that didn't exist back then, and when he tells the amount to the President, he receives a similar reaction from the first film when the President and his cabinet laugh at him. In the second film, Dr. Evil says, "Why make trillions when we can make...BILLIONS?," not knowing that trillions are larger than billions. In the third movie, he demands "1 billion, gagillion, fafillion, shabolubalu million illion yillion...yen." This time his demand is met with simple confusion from the world leaders.
One of Dr. Evil's greatest desires is to have "frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads," and is disappointed when he can't have the sharks because of laws on endangered species. Instead, Number 2 gives him mutated sea bass, which Dr. Evil grudgingly accepts, muttering "well, it's a start" (they were ill-tempered, as the bass do manage to eat the head of one unfortunate henchman hired by Dr. Evil). Scott, however, manages to get him said sharks in the third film as a father-son gift.
Dr. Evil can't resist cracking puns at his own work (he says his submarine lair is "long and hard and full of seamen"). As with Auric Goldfinger, he creates models of his plans, worried that they are too complicated for his minions to understand. He also cares nothing for the companies (Virtucon, Starbucks, Hollywood Talent Agency) that fund his plans, ignoring all suggestions from Number 2 on how to increase the profit of such companies.
[edit] Parody
[edit] The James Bond Films
Just as Austin Powers lampoons James Bond, Dr. Evil parodies several James Bond villains. The first is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, as portrayed by Donald Pleasence in the film You Only Live Twice. (Curiously, Pleasence was a regular to the Halloween movie series, whose villain is named Michael Myers.) Blofeld has a white Persian cat, parodied by Dr. Evil's Mr. Bigglesworth.
Dr. Evil also wears clothing with a strong resemblance to Julius No, played by another Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman, from the film Dr. No, specifically gray Nehru Jacket jumpsuits and similar anti-radiation suits. Some aspects, including some of his quotes and his henchman Random Task, parody elements from Goldfinger.
While Dr. Evil is primarily a send-up of the 1960s Sean Connery-era Bond villains, the 1970s Roger Moore-era also gets skewered: the interior of Dr. Evil's space station in The Spy Who Shagged Me resembles Sir Hugo Drax's space station from Moonraker, and the film's title spoofs The Spy Who Loved Me. Dr. Evil has three testicles, as is proven in Goldmember when he checks to see that "they're all there" following a rather painful blow to his groin. This is most likely a nod to James Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga from 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun, who had three nipples. Mini-Me may also be another reference to Scaramanga, who had a dwarf servant named Nick Nack.
[edit] Others
Some of Dr. Evil's facial and vocal expressions are allegedly patterned after Lorne Michaels, producer of television's Saturday Night Live, where Myers worked for a number of years. As Dr. Evil, Myers occasionally affects an Ontario accent, reflecting his upbringing.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Dr. Evil at the Internet Movie Database
|
||||||||||||||||
