Gordon Gekko is a

composite character In a work of media adapted from a real or fictional narrative, a composite character is a character based on more than one individual from the story. Use in film *Several characters in the movie '' 21''. *The character Henry Hurt in the docudra ...

in the 1987 film '' Wall Street'' and its 2010 sequel '' Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'', both directed by Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, whose performance in the first film won him an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for Best Actor. Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser, Gekko is said to be based loosely on several actual financiers, including Stone's own father Louis Stone and corporate raider Asher Edelman. According to Edward R. Pressman, producer of the film, "Originally, there was no one individual who Gekko was modeled on", but added that "Gekko was partly Milken", who was the "

Junk Bond In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events ...

King" of the 1980s. Gekko's "Greed is good" speech was influenced by a commencement address given by Ivan Boesky for the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

School of Business, May 1986, where he commented on the beneficial side of greed. In 2003, the American Film Institute named Gordon Gekko No. 24 on its Top 50 movie villains of all time.

Cultural impact

Gekko has become a symbol in popular culture for unrestrained greed (with the signature line, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"), often in fields outside corporate finance. In the movie '' Boiler Room'', a group of stock brokers (played by

Vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Diesel began auditio ...

Nicky Katt Nicky Katt (born May 11, 1971) is an American actor. Katt often plays unsympathetic characters, such as an irascible motorhead in ''Dazed and Confused,'' an ill-fated white supremacist child rapist in ''A Time to Kill'', and an embittered bu ...

, and

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS education ...

) gather at a friends house and watch ''Wall Street''. The characters begin to perfectly quote Gekko's phone conversation when he first is introduced to Bud. In 2003, the American Film Institute named Gordon Gekko No. 24 on its Top 50 movie villains of all time. On September 25, 2008, Michael Douglas, acting as a UN ambassador for peace, was at the 2008 session of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

. Reporters sought to ask him off-topic questions about Gekko. He was asked whether he "bore some responsibility for the behavior of the greed merchants who had brought the world to its knees". Trying to return to topic, Douglas suggested that "the same level of passion Wall Street investors showed should also apply to getting rid of nuclear weapons." Douglas was also asked to compare

nuclear Armageddon A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear Armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes globally widespread destruction and radioactive fallout. Such a scenar ...

with the "financial Armageddon on Wall Street". After one reporter inquired, "Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?" Douglas stated, "I'm not saying that. And my name is not Gordon. It's a character I played 20 years ago." On October 8, 2008, the character was referenced by Australian Prime Minister

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

in his speech, "The Children of Gordon Gekko" concerning the

financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

. Rudd stated "It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko." In the October 30, 2008, episode of American comedy series ''The Office'', Ryan Howard's Halloween costume is Gordon Gekko. On July 28, 2009, Cardinal

Tarcisio Bertone Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine o ...

cited Gekko's "Greed is good" slogan in a speech to the Italian Senate, saying that the free market had been replaced by a ''greed market'', and also blamed such a mentality for the 2007–2008 financial crisis. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

has used Michael Douglas' Gekko for an anti-insider trading campaign. In 2013, psychiatrists Samuel Leistedt and Paul Linkowski published a study of the portrayal of

psychopath Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been ...

s in film, and cited the Gekko character as a realistic portrayal of the successful, "corporate psychopath": "In terms of a 'successful psychopath, they write, "Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (1987) is probably one of the most interesting, manipulative, psychopathic fictional characters to date." The character Gordon Gekko is commemorated in the scientific name of a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of gecko, '' Cyrtodactylus gordongekkoi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Gordon Gekko", p. 104).

Notes

External links

Speech before stockholdersAnalysis of Gekko's character and legal status
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gekko, Gordon Drama film characters Fictional American Jews Fictional business executives Fictional characters from New York City Film characters introduced in 1987 Fictional white-collar criminals Male characters in film Male film villains Fictional socialites Fictional bankers Fictional philanthropists

Cultural impact

See also

Notes

External links