In the world of gaming, few franchises can boast as many memorable characters as the Grand Theft Auto series. It’s hard to forget people like Trevor Phillips, whose random acts of violence make Alex Delarge of Clockwork Orange fame appear an ideal citizen, or CJ, a somewhat reluctant hood dragged back into the life of crime. Even Claude, the strangely dressed and silent protagonist of GTA III is memorable – but what about the games’ side characters? I’m willing to bet there’s a whole host of characters that you interacted with, did missions for, and possibly bro’d out with, that you’ve now booted out of bed in favor of the new hotness. In this article, I’ve dug into the franchise’s history to find characters from the games that may have escaped your memory.
From blind race car drivers to peyote growing conspiracy theorists, and from failing rappers to the worst gamer kid imaginable, you’ll find them on this list. It’s easy to forget one or two, but some of these relatively minor characters have been some of the best, most terrifying, or absolute worst ones in the series. I’m going to start out relatively easy, before moving on to more challenging characters from some of the older GTA games. If you manage to score 25, you’re a true fan, who should probably host lectures on the world of GTA. Get 20, and I’ll be very impressed, and get fewer than 10, and you need to go back and replay these games!
25 An Ungrateful And Immature Manchild
This character, featured in GTA V, is deeply, deeply insufferable. A man-child with a penchant for spending all hours of the day avoiding work and swearing at kids on Righteous Slaughter. When he’s not doing this, he’s smoking industrial amounts of weed and loafing around, or trying to befriend gang members by being massively awkward. Either that, or drugging their dad, you know, as you do.
Easily spotted in the wild, thanks to his taste in jerseys, chains, and an unfortunate tattoo on his neck, he’s easily as round as he is tall, and will likely try to strike up a one-sided conversation with you about video games, or their deadbeat Dad. Oh, and their taste in car customization is the most garish thing this side of mid-00s Pimp My Ride.
Answer: Jimmy De Santa
24 A Machismo Bodybuilder With A Predilection For Shark Hormones
Found in Liberty City, this character will talk ENDLESSLY about his workout routine, how much he benches, and how much the ladies love him. This endless energy apparently comes from his use of bull shark testosterone, which he’s also been known to try and sell. As much as he seems to think women love him, he’s also rampantly misogynist, and is likely actually so deep in the closet he should be meeting Mr. Tumnus sometime soon, expressing a “joking” attraction to Roman. Hope he likes bowling!
His day-to-day lifestyle is built around running a luxury garage in Broker, and flashes his cash around by driving a gold Huntley Sport. Many of his tattoos, written in Chinese script, actually hide hidden derogatory messages, including one that calls him a “background actor.”
Answer: Brucie Kibbutz
23 A Simple Meth Head Whose Cousin Is Deeply Unlucky
This desert dweller is an unfortunate soul. Essentially serving as a slave to Trevor Phillips, he accompanies him around as he carries out his anarchic acts of violence, mostly seeming to serve as a simple observer, rather than active participant. Trevor doesn’t need any bodyguards, I guess. He appears to be a fan of the Insane Clown Posse, and also had his friends disappeared by Trevor, which he takes to be a weird accident.
His true misfortune is still to come, however. His meek cousin, Floyd, works as a stevedore at Los Santos’ docks, and, unfortunately, along with his fiancée, appears to get under Trevor’s paper-thin skin, resulting in their brutal demise. Afterwards, Trevor takes this character to a strip club, instructing the ladies to give them a warm welcome.
Answer: Wade Hebert
22 Beneath The Bowler Lies Betrayal
This character is famous for two things: his appetite, and his betrayal. As well as ordering record breaking amounts of food from Cluckin’ Bell, he was originally a high-ranking member of the Grove Street Families, and one of the more welcoming members to CJ. However, later in the game, his desire to sell crack and make fat stacks leads him to betray his brothers-in-green and defect over to the Ballas. He later begins to make deals with just about every gang going to ensure he continues to make his money. What does he spend the money on? A huge, huge crack fortress, which he defends to the death.
As well as the massive amount of fast food wrappers left in his wake, you can also easily identify him by his bowler hat. Oh, and keep an eye open when trains go by. He loves to follow them.
Answer: Big Smoke
21 Truly Psychopathic Law Enforcement
This FIB agent puts forth the image of being a successful and decorated officer of the law, even hosting his own TV show, The Underbelly Of Paradise. While this image isn’t 100% incorrect, the methods he uses are…let’s say, not up to code. He’s secretly well-known to be corrupt, and on the payroll of several wealthy businessmen, including Devin Weston. His corruption doesn’t end there. He’s effectively a one-man Gitmo, kidnapping an apparently innocent man, Ferdinand Kerimov, from the IAA, and having Trevor torture him to within an inch of his life, before attempting to have him bundled out of the country.
He employs the trio of protagonists for a number of robberies, for which they are rewarded with a pittance of the money gained. When he is eventually caught, he attempts to pin the blame on Dave Norton and Michael, but is killed while filming his TV show.
Answer: Steve Haines
20 An Arms Dealer With A Heart Of Gold
This character serves as a way to get around Liberty City’s apparently strict gun laws. If you need weaponry, instead of simply strolling into an Ammu-Nation, you need to call up this guy, who’ll sell you firearms out of the back of his car. Despite his (to Niko) almost incomprehensible speech, this character becomes a firm friend of Niko’s over the course of the game, and attends Roman’s wedding at the game’s end. He’s often accompanied by the character Real Badman, whose thick Jamaican patois is completely incomprehensible to Niko, with this character having to serve as a translator.
He’s also not just a gun vendor. He’ll also accompany Niko on many missions, including one involving a helicopter chase, which reaches a crescendo when this character shoots down the enemy chopper with a rocket launcher on the order of the government.
Answer: Little Jacob
19 A Gangster Who’s Owed No Respect
From one betrayer to another, this guy is yet another gangster who is won over to the purple side of town. Getting out of prison early in the game, he meets up with Franklin and Lamar, seeming to believe he is still owed as much respect as he got when the other two were kids. He intends to trap Franklin and Lamar in a Grove Street drug deal, but when Trevor comes along and susses out the scheme, they are all able to escape unharmed. Despite Franklin’s protestations, Lamar refuses to believe that he has turned, and instead, is enticed to visit a sawmill in Paleto Bay, resulting in a shootout that almost gets all of GTA V’s protagonists killed.
This character also has an immensely short fuse, which Franklin’s jokes about prison seem to trigger almost too well.
Answer: Stretch, AKA Harold Joseph
18 A Seedy Celebrity
This character, a radio DJ and TV presenter has somehow managed to remain in gainful employment throughout the series, despite displaying a level of media training that makes the average Big Brother contestant look like Walter Cronkite. This character’s career began on Vice City’s V-Rock radio station, before presenting a talk show on WCTR, and getting two radio jobs in Liberty City, losing the first because of a corruption scandal. Corruption, is, frankly, the least of his worries. He’s also a pervert of many peccadilloes, as can be seen by his behavior towards Tracey De Santa as host of the talent show Fame or Shame. He can also be extraordinarily violent, assaulting a hot dog vendor live on air in one famous incident.
Justice, however, comes to him in the terrifying shape of Trevor Phillips, who films the star performing a humiliating dance in his underwear.
Answer: Lazlow Jones
17 A Former Accountant Turned Conspiracy Nut
Another close companion of Trevor Phillips, and boy has he suffered for it. This character began as a normal guy who worked as an accountant but Trevor’s anarchic worldview of drugs, violence, and insanity tore him away from all that. Now he hosts a radio show on Blaine County Radio, where he discusses the many misgivings he has with the government and their supposed dark doings. He also helps Trevor out on numerous missions, serving as a sycophantic lackey to the violent sociopath. When Trevor goes on his journey to Los Santos, he leaves this character in charge of Trevor Phillips Enterprises, which he handles with a good amount of aplomb, despite the triads who are investigating Trevor’s trailer and meth lab. He also appears to dislike Michael, though this may be an aspect of his paranoia, or due to Michael’s betrayal of Trevor.
Answer: Ron Jakowski
16 C.R.A.S.H. And Burn
As well as dealing with gang members, CJ also has to deal with the blackmail and extortion from this character throughout San Andreas. A cop so crooked, it’s a wonder he doesn’t resemble a fruit loop, this officer is in charge of the LSPD’s anti-gang program, but is in fact in deep with them, demanding cash in exchange for their freedom. Accompanied everywhere by a pair of corrupt buddies, this character meets CJ at the very beginning of the game, warning him of grave consequences should he go against his wishes.
Readily committing vast amounts of police brutality, he meets his end at the very end of the game in the form of a car crash. His dying words are cries that all he was doing was taking out “the trash.”
Answer: Officer Frank Tenpenny
15 The Most Authentic Boy-N-The-Hood
This Eazy-E lookalike from GTA: San Andreas follows the trajectory of apparently half of the Grove Street Families, defecting to the Ballas later in the game. Beginning as a small time cook of crack, this character has a history of violence, including assaulting a teacher at school for wearing purple, though he thinks that he’s too smart for school. He appears to be fairly hopeless as a gangster to begin with, failing at even robbing a pizza joint, but ends up as a high-ranking member of the Ballas, after meeting with them and C.R.A.S.H. in the mission “The Green Sabre.” With the help of the Triads, CJ tracks him down to Pier 69 in San Fierro, where he is shot while trying to swim to freedom. Turns out that betraying CJ was Eazy Er Said Than Dunn.
Answer: Ryder
14 A Bonnie And Clyde Story Gone Wrong, Or, The Girl So Nice She Featured Twice
This character was a big deal in the 1990s crime scene it seems. First appearing in San Andreas as a girlfriend of CJ, who she robs a gas station, betting shop, and a liquor store with. However, despite this love built on crime, she and CJ eventually break up, with her almost immediately hooking up with, guess who, that’s right, the ever-quiet figure of Claude. This relationship also doesn’t last. Her last appearance in San Andreas is her phoning CJ while getting down with Claude to taunt him. She and Claude commit a crime spree across America on the way to Liberty City, where she shoots Claude and calls him “small time” during a robbery. He gets his revenge later, however, killing this character by shooting down a helicopter she’s attempting to flee in.
Answer: Catalina
13 Miami Vice Made Polygons
The award for the most 1980s man ever to feature in a video game must surely go to this character. Featured in Vice City, he wears the ubiquitous Floridian suit of the era, and is voiced by Philip Michael Thomas, famous for his portrayal of Ricardo Tubbs in Miami Vice. He first fights alongside Tommy Vercetti, serving as his brother-in-arms after meeting him when he kills Leo Teal, a chef-cum-hitman who is beaten to death by Tommy. He is later revealed to have conspired against Tommy, which results in his death via samurai sword at the hands of Tommy.
When not being an amateur Pablo Escobar, this character can occasionally be seen doing a David Brent style dance, or behind the wheel of his white Infernus sports car.
Answer: Lance Vance
12 An Aging Starchild Who’s Born To Be Wild
This character may appear to be a failed seeker, an acid refugee of the sixties, living out his life in the wilds of San Andreas, but he is far more than meets the eye. In fact, as well as having some of the dankest fields around (and one of the worst cars,) he also gives CJ some of the most interesting missions in the entire game. As part of this conspiracy theorists’ story arc, you’ll steal a combine harvester (chopping up hillbillies along the way), break into Area 69 to steal a jetpack, as well as redistributing some green alien goo from a heavily armed train into his grateful arms.
Once his mission arc is over, you’ll still see him again, tripping massively in the desert in the company of an English rockstar. He’ll also give you a call after Tenpenny’s death, congratulating you on beating the system.
Answer: The Truth
11 A Female Drug Dealer Who Takes No Messing
This character, featured in both GTA IV and its expansion, The Lost and Damned is a murderous Puerto Rican drug dealer, at home in what she describes as a man’s world. With a criminal record as long as a light opera, over the course of the game, she sells everything from heroin to crack cocaine. She also doesn’t stand for hypocrisy, killing the lying and deceptive former gangster Manny Escuela and his cameraman in a coke-fuelled fit of anger, with Niko having to dispose of the bodies. While this may seem to be the gravest crime she commits in the game, it’s not the one that leads to her eventual arrest. Instead, if you call her later in The Lost and Damned, you’ll hear her frantically disposing of evidence before she’s raided. All this is for naught, however, and she goes down for 300 years.
Answer: Elizabeta Torres
10 He Wants What?
This Dubai-born gangster, voiced by British comedian Omid Djalili, is a mainstay in The Ballad of Gay Tony, giving Luis some of the best missions in the game, and becoming friends with him in the process. While he can be seen as being very selfish, and also VERY anti-union, this character can be generous too. He gives Luis his golden car, which also contains a very nice surprise in its glovebox in the shape of the game’s Gold SMG, and will also readily help out Luis, not with conventional weaponry, no, but with a Buzzard attack helicopter. However, his most memorable mission is far and away instructing the player to steal a subway car, which he wants as a decoration, using a Skyhook cargo bob.
Answer: Yusuf Amir
9 A Terrible Rapper With A Murderous Streak
This character is an absolute mess when you first meet him in San Andreas. A terrible criminal, he is rejected as a member of the Grove Street Families, despite friendships with Sweet and Big Smoke. In a desperate attempt to gain street cred, he serves jail time for some traffic violations, and works at Burger Shot as a cleaner. Desperate to fulfill his dreams, despite possibly having the worst voice in rap history, he has successful rapper Madd Dogg’s manager killed by CJ, whose lyric book he has CJ steal. He then plagiarizes his way to the top, eventually ending up with Big Smoke as his totally legit manager, which Smoke uses as a way to launder his cash. Following Smoke’s death, this rapper disappears from the face of Earth, but not before Madd Dogg gets his royalties.
Answer: OG Loc
8 A Blind Racer With Preternatural Driving Abilities
This character seemingly has it all. A triad boss, a street racer, and an excellent gunman – there’s only one slight problem. He’s blind. However, he doesn’t let it get in the way of his career, owning the Four Dragons casino in Las Venturas. Nicknamed The Lucky Mole, he’s well-known for his luck, which CJ can apparently break on occasion, such as when he’s playing Blackjack and gets a total of 47, or runs into walls during missions. His Triad compatriots have been known to help him out on occasion, too.
In a game so rife with betrayal, this character is remarkably honorable and friendly, and stays by CJ’s side ‘til the end of the game, helping him deal with his foes, and helping him rob Caligula’s Palace.
Answer: Wu Zi Mu
7 A Rockstar By Rockstar
This character, a cockney music mogul, is the manager of the band Love Fist, a hard rock act modeled on Motley Crue, and just as decadent. His predilections include doing a Tim Allen amount of drugs, and he is accompanied by his protégé Maccer, who just can’t stop bashing the bishop. In Vice City, he provides intel to Tommy Vercetti that lets him kill Leo Teal, despite no love being lost between this character and Tommy. In San Andreas, this character appears as the manager of a new English band The Gurning Chimps, whose music likely sounds exactly what you’d expect some chimps to make. Being overtly simian would also explain Maccer’s antics. You can find him tripping out in the desert with The Truth late in the game, or producing for Madd Dogg.
Answer: Kent Paul
6 Not Such An Easy Rider
This character from GTA: The Lost And Damned is basically every biker cliché possible squeezed into one individual. Upon his release from prison at the beginning of the game, he’s infuriated that Johnny gave his bike to the Angels of Death as a mechanical olive branch, and demands he steal it back. This leads to a massacre which in turn leads to the reigniting of a gang war which rivals Call of Duty for its body count. However, he’s far from a simple leather-bound lunatic who can be easily dealt with. Instead, he finds some heroin during a massacre of the Angels, and decides to go against the gang’s moral code and sell it. He also betrays Johnny willingly to the Triads. Eventually, he winds up getting arrested by the LSPD, but was about to testify against Johnny, which leads to a raid on the Alderney jail and his death.
Answer: Billy Grey
