Scrooge McDuck (1867-1967) is a comic book and cartoon fictional character, created by artist Carl Barks for Walt Disney Corporation. He first appeared in the story "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in December, 1947. He was also cast as the star of the Disney animated series Duck Tales, which aired in the early 1990s and produced several spin-off cartoon series.
Scrooge becomes arguably the richest duck in the world, rivalled by Flintheart Glomgold and John D. Rockerduck, having worked his way up the financial ladder from humble immigrant roots to fantasticillionaire status. He keeps his wealth in a massive money bin overlooking the city of Duckburg. A shrewd businessman and noted tightwad, his hobbies include diving into his money like a dolphin, burrowing through it like a gopher, and throwing coins into the air to feel them fall upon his skull. He is also the richest member of The Billionaires Club of Duckburg, a society which includes the most successful businessmen of the world and allows them to keep connections to each other. Glomgold and Rockerduck are also influential members of the Club.
Keeping all one's money out of circulation is not the best investment strategy. This was addressed in "Scrooge McDuck and Money", a short cartoon released in 1967 that promoted money sense, where McDuck stated to his nephews that the money in his bin is but a percentage of his total wealth. The rest is invested in his worldwide financial empire.
Both as a businessman and as a treasure hunter Scrooge is noted for his need to set new goals in addition to those he has already achieved and face new challenges in addition to those he has already successfully faced. As Carl Barks described his character, for Scrooge there is "Always Another Rainbow". The later phrase provided the title for one of Barks' better known paintings depicting Scrooge. Periods of inactivity between adventures and lack of serious challenges tend to be depressing for him after a while. Some stories depict this phase to have negative effects to his health. In extended periods of them which include his retirement between 1942 and 1947, Scrooge is depicted as even suffering from symptoms of Clinical depression.
Scrooge seems to have a natural talent in learning and speaking the various languages he comes into contact with. In addition to his native English language Scrooge has usually been depicted as being fluent in Arabic, Dutch, Mongolian, Spanish and various dialects of the Chinese language after living for a while in regions of the world where those languages are spoken. Occasionally he is depicted as having at least working knowledge of several other languages.
Scrooge is not formally educated, as he quit school at an early age. However he has a sharp mind and is always ready to learn new skills.
Due to his secondary occupation as a treasure hunter, Scrooge has become something of a scholar and an amateur archaeologist. Starting with Barks several creators of his stories have explained how Scrooge becomes aware of the treasures he decides to pursue. This often involves periods of conducting research in various written sources in search of passages that might lead him to a treasure. Often he decides to investigate for the possible historical truth behind old legends or discovers obscure references to the activities of ancient conquerors, explorers and military leaders that he considers interesting enough to begin a new treasure hunting expedition.
As a result of his researches, Scrooge has collected an extensive personal library which includes many rare written sources. In Barks' and Rosa's stories among the prized pieces of this library is an almost complete collection of Spanish and Dutch naval logs of the 16th and 17th centuries. Their references to the fates of other ships have often allowed Scrooge to locate sunken ships and recover their treasures from their underwater graves. Mostly self-taught as he is, Scrooge is a firm believer in the saying "Knowledge is Power".
As a businessman Scrooge often resorts to ruthless tactics and deception. He seems to have gained significant experience in manipulating people and events towards his own ends. Most often in stories by Guido Martina and occasionally by others, Scrooge is noted for his cynicism, especially towards ideas of morality when it comes to business and the pursuit of set goals. This has been noted by some as not being part of Barks' original depiction of the character but it has since come to be accepted as a valid interpretation of his way of thinking.
However Scrooge does seem to have a personal sense of honesty that offers him an amount of self-control. As a result Scrooge can often be seen contemplating his course of action, while divided between adopting a ruthless pursuit of his current goal and using tactics which he considers more honest. In times he can sacrifice this goal in order to remain within the limits of this sense of honesty. Several fans of the character have come to consider these depictions of him as adding to the depth of his personality, because based on the decisions he takes Scrooge can be both the hero and the villain of his stories. This is one thing he has in common with his nephew Donald Duck and a main difference they have with the generally ethical Mickey Mouse.
Scrooge has a fairly nasty temper and rarely hesitates to use violence against those who provoke his anger. But he is strictly against using lethal force. On occasion he has even saved the lives of enemies who had threatened his own life but were in danger of losing theirs. According to his explanation this is in order to save himself of feeling guilt over their deaths. He certainly awaits no gratitude from them. He has expressed his belief that only in fairy tales do bad people turn good and that he is old enough to not believe in fairy tales.
Scrooge's nephew is noted bumbler Donald Duck. His grandnephews are the triplets Huey, Dewey and Louie.
The character of Scrooge McDuck takes his name from Charles Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol.
Although more details are constantly added to this character's biography by many different creators some important "facts" include, but are not limited to, the following:
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See also