(usually ''Mr. Burns'' or ''C. Montgomery Burns'', even ''"Monty" Burns''), a
Fictional Character , is the owner of the
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in ''
The Simpsons '' cartoon series. He is fabulously
Wealthy , and due to his status as
Springfield 's leading (and perhaps only)
Plutocrat , Burns is able to do whatever he wants with little to no consequences. He is attended at almost all times by
Waylon Smithers , his loyal aide and confidant.
Harry Shearer is the voice behind the character of Mr. Burns, though
Christopher Collins voiced him for the first few episodes. With his unapologetic lack of morals, huge wealth and sprawling influence, Burns represents a cynical view of the "true face" of modern
Corporate America . Burns' parents' names (as stated in ''
The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album '') are Daphne (née Charles) and Clifford; the tree also gives Burns a (rather distant) relationship with
Homer . Both of the names "Montgomery" and "Burns" are
Scottish ; an ethnicity frequently stereotyped for being
Misers . (In one episode a family picture shows Burns or an ancestor in a kilt.)
Matt Groening told the
Portland Tribune that his inspiration for the character's name came from the very large Montgomery Park sign atop a former
Montgomery Ward high-rise in
Portland, Oregon 's Northwest Industrial District. It is also rumored that he took the name from fellow artist
Charles Burns , a classmate at Evergreen University in Olympia, Washington.
It is widely believed that the Matt Groening got inspiration for Mr. Burns' look from due to owning a
Timex factory going through labour issues.
Picture comparison .
Originally, he was called ''Montgomery Burns'', but in "
Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish ," he yelled "You can't do this to me, I'm Charles Montgomery Burns!", which plays on a quotation from
Orson Welles 's ''
Citizen Kane '' ("You can't do this to me, I'm
Charles Foster Kane !"). His catchphrase is the word "Excellent" muttered in a low, sinister voice as he tents his fingertips.
Burns has a seemingly childlike dependence on Smithers, who performs all his tasks from kidnapping
Tom Jones to lying to
Congress to serving
Breakfast .
Burns was originally the real
Villain of the show. However, his very frail, weak body and 19th century mind have become some of the show's running gags.
He is fluent in
German .
See Also: Montgomery Burns (age)
Burns' age is probably one of the most ongoing subjects of discussions amongst viewers of the television show. His birthday is
September 15 , but the year of his birth is uncertain. Mr. Burns' age is most often mentioned as being 104 years, but this does not remain constant and changes throughout the series. It is frequently alluded to that Mr. Burns was born in the late 19th or early 20th century; often it is alluded to that he is over 100 years old. He has been portrayed as being as young as 81 years old.
Mr. Burns' longevity has been credited to
Satan , a weekly operation meant to stave off death for one ''more'' week, blood transfusions using young people's blood, and a state of
Homeostasis created by his having all diseases known to man.
The main article on this subject,
Montgomery Burns (age) , has a more detailed discussion of Mr. Burns' age and reasons for longevity.
See Also: Montgomery Burns (biography)
Occasional flashbacks show his early life. When he was very young he lived happily with his loving, natural parents, little brother
George , and his teddy bear
Bobo , which he recovered from Maggie Simpson. Apparently his parents even called him "Happy." He soon chose to live with a twisted billionaire, again reminiscent of ''Citizen Kane''. His mother is still alive, despite her age being 122 (according to Smithers), and is very resentful of her son; it is mentioned that she had an affair with
US President William Howard Taft , which Burns has never forgiven her for. His memories of his own childhood are generally shown in
Sepia , in the style of late nineteenth-century
Cinema . Some time after this Burns was filling out medical papers and under cause of parents' death put: ''got in my way''.
The Burns family owned "
Atom Mills " at the start of the
20th Century , employing strong laborers to split
Atom s by repeatedly hitting anvils with sledgehammers (his grandfather once had an employee walled up alive in an abandoned
Coke oven for stealing six atoms). As a privileged child, Burns amused himself by injuring hapless immigrant laborers (one episode showed a very young Monty kicking a
Coney Island worker.) Burns imagines that such activity is still a socially-acceptable amusement for the well-to-do. He and his family members are usually portrayed as archetypal early
Capitalist exploiters - he employs immigrant workers at slave-labor wages, he claims to have ridden a fat man to work for a time, and when
Marge suggested "theme days" to improve worker morale, he leapt at the idea of "Child Labor Day". When spying on his workers via his security camera network, he inevitably refers to them using archaic, derogatory terms.
Burns graduated from
Yale University in
1914 where he was tapped for the infamous
Skull And Bones secret society. He may have had an affair with
Countess Von Zeppelin . He claims to have personally known
President Calvin Coolidge .
In
1939 , Burns went to his 25
th college reunion and met Lily Bancroft, the daughter of an old flame. Their brief affair resulted in Lily giving birth to
Larry Burns . Her family forced her to give up Larry to an orphanage, then, according to Burns, they "bundled her up to a convent in the South Seas." He did not meet his son until an adult Larry's quest to find his biological father brought him to Springfield. When it became obvious that Burns was more than a bit embarrassed by his boorish progeny, Homer hatched a crazy scheme to "kidnap" Larry in an effort to get Burns to love him. However, the plan backfired, and Larry left Springfield.
In "C.E. D'OH," Burns reveals that he had a fiancée named Gertrude. But he was such a
Workaholic , he not only missed the
Wedding but their
Divorce , too: "She died of loneliness. Loneliness and rabies."
Burns served in the ). However, Burns may also have worked for (or traded with)
Nazi Germany , as he remarks, "''
Schindler and I are like peas in a pod. We're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis; but mine worked, damn it!''". Burns's close relations with an
Anachronistic Version Of Germany are supported by the fact that an
Otto Von Bismarck look-alike, complete with handlebar moustache and
Pickelhaube helmet, was the only guest on his side in his failed attempt to marry
Marge Simpson's mother
Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier . When Burns meets with a German business consortium to discuss selling the nuclear plant, it is revealed that he speaks fluent German. In the episode ''
Midnight RX '', Mr. Burns describes how he flew the ''plywood pelican'' six feet above the ground for four feet until he learnt that rain made it catch fire. After that he said the Fuhrer fired him, further implying a possible link with the Nazis.
At the end of the war he was personally hired by President
Harry S. Truman to transport a specially-printed
Trillion -dollar bill that was the
American Government's original contribution to the
Reconstruction Of Europe , but this bill vanished for many years. Though it was discovered to be carried on his person, besides a single failed arrest attempt there was no known investigation or attempt to retrieve the stolen bill. (It is implied he was charged with a crime but acquitted through
Bribery .) The bill is currently in the hands of
Fidel Castro , who stole it when Burns attempted to buy
Cuba .
During the at all! And all this time I was smoking harmless tobacco!''"
He has owned the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant for the last 50 or so years; several incidents have occurred where he has lost the plant: Briefly when Homer and Lisa staged a hostile takeover, when he found out he was flat broke, sold it to Germans, and when he lost it all in a bet with the rich Texan (episode 1706), obtaining a
Monopoly over Springfield's energy resources. He also owns the water works and the
Hotel on
Baltic Avenue . Burns has been known to use his control over the city's energy to blackmail mayor
Joe Quimby , and the town in general.
He has occasionally run other
Businesses in Springfield, most notably the Monty Burns
Casino , which operated for several years after Springfield legalized
Gambling . He co-owned the "Li'l Lisa"
Slurry Recycling plant and once slant-drilled for oil under
Springfield Elementary School . There has also been reference to possible control of an anti-democratic rebel force in South America (he mentions this to the SNPP workers before realizing he's giving the wrong speech).
Burns resides in a vast, ornate mansion on an immense estate called Burns Manor, located at the corner of
Croesus and
Mammon streets in Springfield (his address is 1000 Mammon Street). His estate is also the site of the annual company picnic.
Burns's sprawling estate is protected by a high wall, electrified fence, attack dogs (the source of one of his catchphrases, "Release the hounds"), ''
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz ''-style guards, and his personal paramilitary force. The estate includes a
Robot ic
Richard Simmons (only seen in out-take footage in
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular ), a room with
A Thousand Monkeys At A Thousand Typewriters , a
Bottomless Pit (for all intents and purposes), a human
Chess board (formerly a
Tennis Court ), the largest
Television in the free world, a Hall of Patriots commemorating his ancestors, and rare historical artifacts including the only existing nude photo of
Mark Twain , the suit
Charlie Chaplin was buried in,
King Arthur 's mythical sword
Excalibur , and a rare first draft of the
Constitution with the word "suckers" in it. His home also contains "the playroom" - a theatre showing round-the clock plays (regardless of whether or not anyone is actually watching), a laboratory filled with bizarre equipment, and a safe containing a
Beefeater guard. Instead of making his bed, Burns drops the bed through the floor into an
Incinerator and after the floor closes, a brand new bed comes out of the wall. Various other contraptions in his home include automatic metal restraints on his dining chairs, an elaborate miniature railway (which disappears through a hole in the wall and frequently returns with snow on it) and an automatic dresser. Burns also controls a unit of
Paramilitary riot police which he uses to intimidate people, including using them to beat up guests at his birthday party.
Burns's office at the nuclear plant contains similarly odd features. One wall can be raised to reveal various things, including his team of highly-trained
Lawyer s, a special microbe-resistant chamber in which he plans to shelter during a
Flu epidemic, a two-seat escape pod— Smithers assumes the second seat is for him, but in fact Burns likes to put his feet up. The office also contains a ceiling-mounted suction tube which he can use to transport dissident workers to
Morocco . A gigantic stuffed polar bear which has a secret tunnel under it that leads to the old quarry can be seen in the corner and the floor of the office opens up to a miniature scale model of Springfield. He uses this model to demonstrate his sun-blocker in "Who Shot Mr. Burns?". He also riddles the office with trap doors and giant metric weights for use against workers. Apparently his entire office can be rotated so that his window has different views. A sliding wall reveals the headquarters of the "
League Of Evil ", a cabal which consisted of a
Mad Scientist (possibly Graeme from
The Goodies ), a
WWI-era German Officer , a
Cowboy , a
US Air Force Officer , and a
Samurai . When Burns calls upon them, however, he finds nothing but their skeletal remains sitting at a conference table, having died due to the lack of air behind the wall. Mr. Burns also had a unit of
Winged Monkeys . However, these were little more than live monkeys with what looked like wings. When Burns unleashed them to go after Homer and Mindy, they jumped out the window and fell to their deaths. Burns then looked at Smithers and said "continue the research".
Burns's telephone number is 636-
555 -0001 in '
Lisa's Date With Density ', and 636-
555 -0113 in '
A Tale Of Two Springfields '. His
Social Security Number is 000-00-0002("damn Roosevelt"). The specific number is also intended to imply that Roosevelt himself was the first person to be assigned a social security number and Burns was the second, so Burns is irritated that someone got to the 'first' number ahead of him.
In ") There have been subsequent indications that Maggie might have shot him intentionally.
It is not known who presently stands to inherit his wealth (his manservant and sole confidante,
Waylon Smithers , is to be buried alive in Burns' coffin). He chose
Bart Simpson as his heir for a period — Burns attempted to isolate Bart from his family and mold him into his own image, but this failed when Bart still displayed loyalty to his family by refusing to fire Homer, and Burns disowned him. Burns may leave his money to the
Egg Advisory Council , as he stated he would do this when he felt he had failed to find a suitable heir. He has been engaged at least twice in recent years, to
Jacqueline Bouvier and a policewoman named Gloria, but both women left him before the marriage actually took place. It is possible Larry Burns would inherit it (though Burns would later indicate he knew of Larry's existence,in the episode where he adopts Bart he claims to have never fathered a child.)
In an attempt to lure people away from the growing cult of the "Movementarians", Burns attempted to start his own religion, with himself as its god. After Smithers advised him not to adopt the K from the logo of
Special K cereal or a Mickey Mouse-style symbol as its motif, the religion's symbol was decided as a Christmas Tree with a giant "B" on the front. At the grand opening of his new religion, Burns used special effects and his riot police to try and awe the crowd. However, a spark from a
Catherine Wheel ignited his fake beard and body suit, resulting in him falling from his balcony after Smithers tried to extinguish the flames.
Burns is apparently an important figure in an obscure
Latin America n state. When addressing his workers at the power plant, he mixes up his speeches and tells the crowd ''"Compadres, it is imperative that we crush the freedom fighters before the start of the rainy season. And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya"''.
- A staunchly Conservative Republican
- ---The head of Springfield's local Republican Party (other members have included Sideshow Bob , the Rich Texan , Rainer Wolfcastle , Dr. Hibbert , Krusty The Clown , Bob Dole , Ralph Nader , and Count Dracula ). In a parody of Rupert Murdoch , he once attempted to buy every media outlet in Springfield but his plans failed after Lisa started her own newspaper.
- A member of the "Excluders Club" (episode 1706).
- Member of Skull And Bones
- Member of the Stonecutters (was ranked below Lenny, quit later with everyone but Homer)
- Member of , the organization formed by the former members of the Stonecutters based in an ice cream shop upon their rage at their messiah (Homer).
- Flying Hellfish Squad (former member, part of a pact regarding the ownership of fine artwork)
- Head of the Burns Religion founded against the Movementarians.
Because of his age, Burns is very physically weak, often to the point where he seems to straddle the line between life and death. In fact, in one episode, he is told by a doctor that he has every disease known to Man. He often has great difficulty doing the most basic physical tasks, such as giving a thumbs-up or stepping on an ant. A single is desiccated and shrunken to the size of a
Cherry , and on one occasion, Burns'
Brain fell out through his ear. Another time, his
Lung s came out through his mouth and acted like an
Airbag . It has been hinted that Burns can survive without his heart - he stated that when some paper money struck his chest, "had my heart been inside at the time, it could have been fatal". This seems to be a reference to the Russian tale of
Koschei , who hid his heart (or soul) to achieve immortality. He is also light enough to be pushed over by an
Ant . Once, accidentally, Smithers let a
Bathing Sponge fall atop Burns' head, leading him to sink in his bathtub (this time, to the point his life flashed before his eyes). He is so old he bleeds
Smoke if his finger is pricked. He wears
Dentures (that replace themselves with a cash register bell "cha-ching"), as evidenced in "Homer the Smithers" ("Hmm... I think I'll have
Fangs today"). Another time, he tells Smithers he must have his brain flushed out with
Vinegar and his eyes "re-balled". Smithers then tells Burns his knees will be "back from the shop tomorrow".
Burns appears to be 5' 8" - 5' 10".
See Also: Montgomery Burns (state of mind)
Mr. Burns is fully alert and untouched by senility, but also wildly out of touch with the modern world. For a detailed list of instances where this was portrayed please see the main article:
Montgomery Burns (state Of Mind) .
Mr. Burns perpetually forgetting Homer Simpsons' name is a running gag on the show.
Generally, Mr. Burns' "out of touch" state of mind is illustrated when he:
- Uses words and phrases that are no longer in usage.
- Conducts himself in accordance with antiquated norms of behavior.
- Refers to deceased persons as if they were still alive.
- Refers to historical organizations, countries, institutions, etc. as if they were in existence in the present day.
The character of C. M. Burns was originally modeled after shipping magnate and owner of the
Timex watch brand. Harry Shearer originally based Mr. Burns' voice on
President Of The United States Ronald Reagan . A popular
Sea Story in the U.S. Navy nuclear community is that the character was based on Admiral
Hyman G. Rickover , for many years the head of the Navy's nuclear program and famous for his eccentricities. Another popular theory is that Burns' physiology resembles that of the late actor Julian Beck. Students of Harvard University (many Simpsons' writers are alumni) claim that Mr. Burns' economics and uberconservative nature are based upon
Marty Feldstein , an economics professor there, or
Michael Sandel , a philosopher. Some have also proposed that he is based on
John D. Rockefeller , citing Mr. Burns's brutally
Monopolistic nature and the fact that both worked in the energy industry. Another theory proposes that Mr. Burns is in fact based on Matt Groening's high school civics teacher, David Bailey, whose physical appearance is very similar to that of Burns. Legend has it that Matt Groening did not do well in David Bailey's class, and the two did not get along well.
Burns is also a conglomeration of villain archetypes. Among the many inspirations are:
- The
- from Star Wars often accompanies him.
- The Grinch : When Burns turned off Springfield's electricity, he was surprised to find the townspeople unbowed and singing. As he put it:
: ''"Look at them all, through the darkness I'm bringing''
: ''They're not sad at all. They're actually singing!''
: ''They sing without juicers''
: ''They sing without blenders''
: ''They sing without flungers, capdabblers and smendlers!"
In addition, Mr. Burns is credited with stealing Christmas from
1981 -
1985 .
#Mr Burns also looks like Mr Robert Brain Parker of Newall Green(scum) Manchester.
''This is a list of Simpsons episodes in which Mr. Burns plays a substantial role in driving the plot, not simply a supporting role.''
- Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish (Season 2, Episode 4)
- Brush With Greatness (Season 2, Episode 18)
- Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk (Season 3, Episode 11)
- Rosebud (Season 5, Episode 4)
- (Season 5, Episode 10)
- Burns' Heir (Season 5, Episode 18)
- Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Season 6, Episode 25 & Season 7, Episode 1)
- Mountain Of Madness (Season 8, Episode 12)
- The Trouble With Trillions (Season 9, Episode 20)
- , where Mr. Burns is the main villain and the final boss of the ''Simpsons'' arcade game. In the eighth and last stage, he attempts to destroy the Simpsons using a large mechanical walker, which changes forms as it takes damage.
- , where Mr. Burns is the main villain in the "Bart vs The World" video game. In it Bart wins a drawing contest on the Krusty the Clown show with a really poor drawning. The prize is a tour of the world. However, it transpires that Mr.Burns has bribed the judges of the drawing contest and wants to kill off the Simpsons once and for all. He enlists his relatives who live in each country Bart visits. At the end of each country Bart has to battle the relative of Mr.Burns, (who look very similar to Springfield's Mr.Burns). Upon defeating each Burns scion , Bart manages to advance to the next level.
- ''' created for solving Springfield pollution and vehicle problems, after he hears the invention. In this mission, as Professor Frink, drop Mayor Quimby off City Hall, but watch out for Mr. Burns. In Mission 10, defeat Mr. Burns by smashing the statues in his garden, otherwise, you fail this mission when Mr. Burns bumps you. In the closing cutscene, after the million dollars is at Mr. Burns' door, Mr. Burns returns the buses, and washes his hands.
- , where, in the 'Bartman' stage, missiles fire at Bart from the Nuclear Plant, and clouds of radiation bar the way. Burns is the stage boss, piloting a WWII bi-plane. Smithers makes two appearances beforehand, piloting a blimp that fires large rockets. Burns also appears as statues on the Springfield Empire State Building.
- , where, in mission 7 in level 1, Mr. Burns fired Homer Simpson, after he harassed him. In mission 5 in level 7, Mr. Burns gives Homer the map of where the nuclear waste is. Although he doesn't drive any of the cars, two of his cars are availabale - his limo (driven by Smithers) and the Stutz Bearcrat. You can also enter his mansion on level 4 (and on level 1 if you use a glitch and the Jumping-Car cheat code in-game, but there is nothing in it).
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