Mr. Burns
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns or C. Montgomery Burns, is a recurring antagonist in the Fox animated television series The Simpsons, voiced initially by Christopher Collins and by Harry Shearer in later episodes. He is the mostly evil, devious, greedy, and wealthy owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and, by extension, Homer Simpson's boss where he has been considered the town villain in some episodes like "It's a Blunderful Life". He is assisted at almost all times by Waylon Smithers, his loyal and sycophantic aide, adviser, confidant, and secret admirer. He is around 156 years old, though sometimes it is implied he is much older. His place of birth is Pangea, revealed in the season 17 episode "The seemingly never-ending story".
Although originally conceived as a one-dimensional, recurring dastardly villain who might occasionally enter the Simpsons' lives and wreak some sort of havoc, Mr. Burns's popularity has led to his repeated inclusion in episodes. He is a stereotype of corporate United States in his unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power, inability to remember his employees' names and lack of concern for their safety and well-being. Reflecting on his advanced age, Mr. Burns is given to expressing dated humor, making references to Jazz Age popular culture, and aspiring to apply obsolete technology to everyday life. Conan O'Brien has called Mr. Burns his favorite character to have written for, due to his arbitrarily old age and extreme wealth.
Mr. Burns's trademark expression is the word "Excellent...", muttered slowly in a low, sinister voice while steepling his fingertips. He occasionally orders Smithers to "release the hounds", so as to let his vicious guard dogs attack any intruders, enemies, or even invited guests. Mr. Burns is Springfield's richest and most powerful citizen. He uses his power and wealth to do whatever he wants, usually without regard for consequences and without interference from the authorities. These qualities led Wizard magazine to rate him the 45th-greatest villain of all time. TV Guide named him #2 in their 2013 list of the 60 nastiest villains of all time. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked him #8 of their "40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time".
Role in ''The Simpsons''
Mr. Burns spends much of his time in his office at the nuclear plant, monitoring his workers via closed-circuit cameras installed throughout the plant. In "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble", Mr. Burns revealed that he was the youngest of a wealthy family with eleven children, and all his siblings died of suspicious causes, leading to him receiving the entire family fortune, although another episode reveals that his surviving younger brother is George Burns. At an early age, Mr. Burns left his family to live with a twisted and heartless billionaire who owned an "atom mill" in Shelbyville. He lived a life of privilege and would amuse himself by injuring immigrant laborers. Mr. Burns later attended Yale University, where he studied science and business, joined Skull and Bones, competed in the "etherweight" wrestling class, and graduated in the class of 1914. At his 25-year college reunion, he became romantically involved with the daughter of an old flame. She would later bear his child, Larry Burns, who was placed for adoption and would later enter Mr. Burns's life briefly. Mr. Burns has been engaged at least three times: to a woman named Gertrude who died of loneliness and rabies, to Marge Simpson's mother Jacqueline Bouvier, and to a meter maid named Gloria.He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a member of Springfield's Flying Hellfish squad under Master Sergeant Abraham Simpson and saw action in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. During the war, Mr. Burns, Abraham Simpson and some of the soldiers found an expensive portrait in a manor in Germany. They locked it in a case and stated the last surviving member would get the painting. Later on, he was shipped to the Pacific Theater and was a co-pilot along with Abe Simpson and his brother, Cyrus. Mr. Burns and Abe were shot down by a kamikaze and stuck on an island. Curiously, in the episode "American History X-cellent", Burns is arrested for art theft, and while he is getting his belongings checked at the prison, a prison guard finds a card that he mistakes as a Social Security card. Burns then yells out "That's just an SS card you dummkopf!" According to The Simpsons Wiki, after Germany had invaded Poland, Burns joined the SS but later defected, and then started service for the US Army. At the end of World War II, he was personally hired by President Harry S. Truman to transport a specially printed trillion-dollar bill to Europe as the United States' contribution to the reconstruction of Europe. As the United States' richest citizen, Mr. Burns was thought to be the most trustworthy. However, he absconded with the bill and kept it in his possession for many years until it was lost to Fidel Castro in "The Trouble with Trillions". In "Homer the Smithers", it is revealed that Mr. Burns's mother is still alive aged 122 years, although Mr. Burns dislikes speaking to her because she had an affair with President William Howard Taft and she refers to him as an "improvident lackwit". Furthermore, because she is so old, the only things she can do are pick up the phone, dial, and yell.
Mr. Burns resides in a vast, ornate mansion on an immense estate called Burns Manor, on the corner of Mammon and Croesus Streets. It is protected by a high wall, an electrified fence, and a pack of vicious attack dogs known as "The Hounds". Mr. Burns routinely subjects Springfield and its residents to his abuse and a general dislike of him subsists throughout the town. Mr. Burns has blackmailed and bribed various officials in Springfield, including Mayor Quimby and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He employed his wealth to make an ultimately unsuccessful run for governor to prevent his plant from being closed for safety violations, only to be denied his chance to be Governor by Marge Simpson. He once blocked out the sun to force Springfield residents to increase their use of electricity produced by his nuclear plant and was subsequently shot by Maggie when he tried to steal candy from her.
In "Rosebud" from Season 5, his birthday is given as September 15. Mr. Burns's extreme old age is a frequent source of humor on the show. He is occasionally referred to as "Springfield's oldest resident"; in Season 2's "Simpson and Delilah", he told Homer that he is 81, although, in several later episodes, he is shown to be 104. When Smithers informs him that Mr. Burns's credit card PIN is his age, he types four digits in his answer. It is also mentioned that half of his age is 78, making him 156 years old. When Lisa Simpson is researching her ancestors from the American Civil War, she comes across a Colonel Burns in the journal, presumably one of Mr. Burns's earlier ancestors. However, when Lisa mentions him, Mr. Burns replies by saying that he has not heard his father's name in years. The episode reveals that Mr. Burns's father was a slaveowning Southern plantation owner who inspired the character Simon Legree from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and that Homer and Grampa are descended from Colonel Burns's runaway slave Virgil who fled to British Canada with Mabel Simpson on the Underground Railroad. In other episodes, Mr. Burns's birthplace is apparently Pangea, his national anthem implies he was both from Austria-Hungary and unaware of its collapse in World War I, and he mentions the possibility of an update on the Siege of Khartoum, implying that he was aware of current events as early as 1884. In other episodes, he has instructed a postal clerk to send a telegram to the Prussian consulate in Siam via autogyro, and believes a nickel will buy "a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel, with enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the Polo Grounds." Mr. Burns frequently answers the telephone with the archaic salutation "Ahoy-hoy", which was proposed by Alexander Graham Bell, but has long since been superseded by "Hello". In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns's investment portfolio is revealed to consist of long-defunct and obsolete companies such as "Confederated Slave Holdings", and he learns about the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression for the first time after checking a very old stock-ticker.
Mr. Burns's state of mind is the subject of frequent jokes on the show. At times, he appears to be completely removed from reality and modern conventions. He continually fails to recognize Homer Simpson or remember his name, even though many of the recent major events in Mr. Burns's life have involved Homer in some way. Mr. Burns is, for the most part, unaware of the townspeople's general dislike of him. He also displays mannerisms that are considered outdated, such as practicing phrenology, writing with a quill pen, and using an antique view camera to take photographs. He is also angered when Springfield Elementary children mock his dated car, saying it was "the first car to outrun a man!" Mr. Burns refers to many celebrities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the present tense, assuming they are still alive. In "Homer at the Bat", Mr. Burns instructs Smithers to recruit dead-ball-era players, such as Honus Wagner and Cap Anson for the plant's softball team, and has to be told that all of them died long ago. He also once rewarded Homer for being the first to arrive at work with a ticket to the 1939 World's Fair. However, despite his obvious senility and social ineptitude, Mr. Burns is an extraordinarily clever businessman, as he has lost his fortune several times, only to regain it a very brief time later. In the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns loses his fortune and regains it by opening a recycling plant, which allows him to regain his nuclear power plant. Additionally, in the episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", Mr. Burns loses both his fortune and nuclear power plant to the Rich Texan after losing a scavenger hunt, but eventually gains both back after a series of events that includes him briefly working at Moe's Tavern.
Mr. Burns is physically weak and emaciated and is often shown to have little more strength than an infant. In "The Mansion Family", doctors at the Mayo Clinic discover that Mr. Burns has contracted every known human disease, as well as several that were discovered during his checkup, but that they have canceled each other out in a condition they call "Three Stooges syndrome;" although a doctor warns him that his physical health is extremely fragile and that "even a slight breeze" could upset the balance between his diseases, Mr. Burns misinterprets his condition to believe that he is invincible. In the intro of The Simpsons Movie, Mr. Burns is seen in his bathroom trying to brush his teeth. After Smithers applies the toothpaste onto his brush, he falls over. In "Rosebud" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", he needed a great deal of effort to wrench items from Maggie. He has difficulty performing such simple actions as giving a thumbs-up, and crushing an insect by stepping on it, or using a door-knocker. In one instance, when he is told to jump out of his burning mansion onto a life net, he drops at the speed of a feather, floats onto some power lines, and is electrified. He pitched the opening baseball at a game in "Dancin' Homer", but was only able to throw it a small distance, which drew mocking laughter from the crowd. When Mr. Burns joined Homer's bowling team in "Team Homer", he was barely able to roll the ball down the lane. In season five's "Burns' Heir", Smithers puts a sponge on Mr. Burns's head before leaving the bathroom, causing him to nearly drown in the tub from its weight. In "Lady Bouvier's Lover", however, he shows himself as a lively, excellent dancer.
Mr. Burns also had a teddy bear named "Bobo" that he loved as a child, revealed in the episode "Rosebud". The stuffed animal was lost and eventually, the stuffed bear became a toy for Maggie. In "American History X-cellent", Mr. Burns gets sent to jail because he is in possession of stolen paintings. In the same episode, it is implied that he was once in the SS. Another episode has him exclaim that he and Oskar Schindler had much in common, as they both made shells for the Nazis, "but mine worked, damn it!"