List of Police Academy characters
This article is a list of characters in the Police Academy film and television series.
Main
Cadet/Off./Sgt. Carey Mahoney
Played by: Steve GuttenbergVoiced by: Ron Rubin
Cadet/Officer Mahoney is the lead character of the first four movies and the cartoon of the series. He is a troublemaking, womanizing cad with a heart of gold. His worst habit is retaliating against insults in bizarrely effective ways. For instance, the last straw before his police career was when he was a parking-lot attendant and was forced to park a car for an abusive customer in a full parking lot; he put the car into a side-wheelie, crashed it between two cars and proudly proclaimed, "It fits!". Since his father was a decorated police officer, Mahoney was given the choice of the police academy or jail by his father's former boss, Captain Reed, who did not want Mahoney's antics to reflect poorly on his father. Captain Reed told him that they can throw him out, but he cannot quit. If he quits, he will head to jail. When he first came here, he did what he could to get thrown out of here. But he grew to love this place and wants to be a cop when he made friends here. He is best known for protecting Commandant Lassard and playing practical jokes on Capt Harris, Mauser, Proctor, Blankes and Copeland, as the five men view Mahoney to be unworthy of being a police officer due to his carefree attitude about life. Despite his womanizing and his habit of breaking the rules, Mahoney is portrayed as being a good and courageous person willing to help those in need, regardless of the consequences. The fact that he graduates with a decoration for bravery speaks to that personal valor. By the third movie, Mahoney's dedication and love for his job as a police officer comes out, as he continually stands up for his cadets, and even gives a speech highlighting how important the cadets are to the Academy and to his peers which inspires the cadets to work harder and achieve their potential. In 4, Mahoney successfully lobbies to have two skateboarders, Arnie and Kyle, placed in the Citizens on Patrol program as an alternative to jail time, reminiscent of how Mahoney himself started in the Academy and had his life turn around for the better.
Mahoney is in the animated series, almost every time along with his partner Jones, and he really like his job. He is absent from the last three films, a change that is unexplained. According to the producers, he was originally in the script for the fifth film, but Guttenberg declined the part, and so the character of [|Nick Lassard] was created to fill-in.
Cadet/Off./Sgt./Lt./Capt. Moses Hightower
Played by: Bubba SmithVoiced by: Greg Morton
Featured in all but the seventh film, Hightower was a florist before joining the academy. He is best known for his immense stature and superhuman strength. Hightower practices for his driving test by ripping the front seat out of a compact car and steering comfortably from the back seat. However, he is the most humble and soft-spoken of all the characters. Despite his gigantic size, Hightower has sometimes admitted that he lacks self-confidence, such as when he tells Mahoney that he has not driven a car since he was twelve years old, and fears that he will fail out of the police academy if he flunks the driving test. His character often breaks things or uses force to threaten the bad guys. Other examples of him using his strength were when he lifted up the practice squad car with Copeland inside, who had insulted his friend Hooks by calling her a "dumb fat jiggaboo". He can also drop easily into good-cop mode, to gain the trust of crooks he is about to arrest. However, he too graduated from the academy with a decoration for bravery, and eventually made lieutenant after wrestling an alligator, a skill he learned growing up in the bayou, in order to save Harris' life. Hightower also uses German Shepherd police dogs in the 3rd and 4th films, suggesting he got certified as a dog handler.
In the sixth movie, in pursuit of the Wilson Heights Gang, the only time he actually acknowledges himself being angry is when he is almost injured by the largest of the Wilson Heights Gang criminals. When he gets up after having construction-zone items fall on him, Hightower notices that his name pin was displaced and says to himself, "Now I'm mad."
Hightower is also in the series, along with Laverne Hooks. When last seen in the live-action series episode "Dr. Hightower", he has been promoted to the rank of captain, and is presented with the "Alumnus of the Year" award.
Cadet/Off./Sgt./Capt. Eugene Tackleberry Sr
Played by: David GrafVoiced by: Dan Hennessey
Tackleberry is in all seven films and is best known for his love of firearms, the military and direct action. He had been a veteran of the US military and a security guard prior to joining the police academy. He joined the police force to see more action but has a poor grasp of the difference between the military and civilian life. This paramilitary lifestyle was instilled into Tackleberry from home; in the first film, he mentions that his firearm was given to him by his mother ; in the 4th installment, Tackleberry comments that weapons-loving senior citizen, Mrs. Lois Feldman, reminded him of his mother. Tackleberry is a bit trigger-happy; a tendency which would have had him court-martialed long ago had it not been for the fact that he actually has good aim. Tackleberry was also known for getting the job done, but with overkill and naivete; example being aiding a little old lady who lost her money in a pay phone by shooting it and making a bunch of money fall in his hands, "Can you identify your quarter, Ma'am". Tackleberry also plays the Saxophone, very well.
In the second film, which he was assigned to work as a motorcycle policeman, it is revealed that, although Tackleberry exerts an image of toughness and masculinity, he was still a virgin at the age of 28-years-old. However, upon meeting his police partner, a beautiful and equally gun-obsessed woman, Sgt. Kathleen Kirkland, he falls in love with her. They get married,, and have a son, Eugene Tackleberry Jr.,, who is every bit as enthusiastic about all of the same things as his parents. This leads to a series of gags involving the Kirkland family, featuring Eugene's father-in-law and brother-in-law, whose jibes and admonishments are usually punctuated by a good-natured-yet-brutal punch to the jaw; meanwhile, mother and daughter both see the sadistic horseplay as all in good fun.
Tackleberry always carries the biggest side arm he can lay his hands on, usually a.44 Magnum,, and has a predilection for using excessively heavy equipment ; in the sixth movie, posing undercover as a taxi driver, he scares off a patron trying to hire his cab by brandishing a grenade. He uses military slang such as "affirmative" and "negative", and the military time system. His personal catchphrase is: "...NOW, Mister!" to scare people. In the fifth movie, he went so far as to wade into the ocean off Miami, draw his gun on an invading shark, and order, "Desist, and leave the swimming area NOW, Mister!". He is happiest weighing the benefits of penetration vs. stopping power. Tackleberry is at heart a benevolent person with a tough exterior. He wants to bury his heavy equipment in anyone he encounters; although he did get selfish when he was allowed to test out certain new firearms at the Annual Police Display in Miami, not wanting to share the guns with other officers. He only gave them up when Callahan coaxed him into handing them over, promising Tackleberry that she would "get some of his very own, just as soon as they get home."
This was exacerbated even further in the animated series, where he used a bazooka. Tackleberry's bazooka was often used for comical effect rather than destruction: for instance in the opening credits where he uses his bazooka to put the missing dot on the 'i' of the 'police academy' sign after Mahoney remarked it was missing; the collapsing screen serving as transition to the start of the episode. Another example is when working an undercover job as an ice cream salesman, he loads ice cream into his bazooka to cover the escaping crooks in a mess. In the "Team Tack" episode of Police Academy: The Series, Tackleberry was a captain, and mentions his wife Kathleen was one as well. Jones and Tackleberry are the only characters to appear in all of the movies, the animated series and the television series. Also, he is the very first character seen in the first Police Academy film. In the live-action TV series, Tackleberry has 2 nephews, Cadets Dirk & Dean Tackleberry, who idolize him as their role model.
Cadet/Off./Sgt. Larvell Jones
Played by: Michael WinslowVoiced by: Greg Morton
Jones was one of the key characters in the series and is famous for making sound effects with his voice. He is one of the characters often remembered from the films, as he uses his vocal ability to make noises to play pranks and deceive both criminals and authority figures. Jones met Mahoney when they were both arrested by cops. Mahoney pulls some strings with Captain Reid to bring Jones with him to the academy. Jones can imitate sounds such as a flat tire, a couple noisily eating fast food, gunfire, and, memorably, a badly dubbed martial arts star. Jones has expertise in martial arts, which he continues to use throughout the series to great success, often mimicking kung fu voice-over, as he does so. Other times he uses his sound-effects ability solely to amuse himself, such as one time at the academy when he imagines himself playing a game of Space Invaders and makes all the known sound effects from that video game. In the sixth movie, he leapt onstage at a nightclub during a blackout, and launched into a string of impressions, thus keeping the audience from rioting. He also has an ability to communicate with parrots, training them to call Captain Harris a "dork". Jones and Tackleberry are the only characters to appear in all of the movies, the animated series and the television series.
The character's vocal ability was an added trait by his actor Michael Winslow, who can make sounds and noises with his voice and mouth in real life. In the animated series, he was partners with Mahoney and in the live action series where he usually visits the academy and help the new cadets out.