| Colonel Gentleman | |
|---|---|
| The Venture Bros. character | |
 | |
| First appearance |
Ghosts of the Sargasso |
| Voiced by |
Christopher McCulloch |
| Real Name |
Horace Gentleman |
| Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Adventurer, author, retired pilot and intelligence agent |
| Relatives |
Mz. Quymn (ex-wife) Tara Quymn (step-daughter) Dean Venture (godson) Lisa (pet dog) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Notable characteristics |
Hatred of robots Proclivity for writing long and strange lists Skilled brawler and sword/cane-fighter Wild romantic/sexual life |
| Current Alliances |
The Action Man (roommate) Rose Whalen (roommate) |
| Prior Alliances |
Kiki (Former lover) Original Team Venture RAF MI5 |
| Enemies |
Brainulo Manotaur (deceased) Scaramantula Fraternity of Torment |
Colonel Horace Gentleman was a member of a the original Team Venture and one of Jonas Venture Sr.'s close friends and allies. He is voiced by Christopher McCulloch.
Character History
Col. Horace Gentleman's early history is largely unknown, but what is known is that he became friends with Jonas Venture Sr. and joined the first Team Venture. He would take part in multiple adventures and at some point married Mz. Quymn and became a young Doctor Tara Quymn's step-father. It is unknown if Gentleman remained married to Quymn throughout his career as both continued to sleep around with several partners, and she has not been seen in Gentleman's life during his old age, indicating that they either had an open marriage, divorced, or she died of unknown circumstances. Gentleman would spend most of his life going on adventures, sleeping with numerous partners of both genders, as he also enjoyed traveling to the Middle East to partying with numerous well-known celebrities. Colonel Gentleman continued to serve with Team Venture for many years and as Jonas' son Rusty Venture grew older, he also joined Jonas and the rest of Team Venture in abusing and hazing Rusty. After Jonas was killed during Movie Night, he and the rest of Team Venture recovered his body from space and attempted to put it back in the PROBLEM machine, but Gentleman had slipped on one of Rusty's old toys that had been lodged in the machine, causing the whole team to fall and drop Jonas's body, shattering it into pieces. In a panic, they only just put his head into the machine and did not tell anyone else what had happened.
He later retired along with the rest of the team and settled down with his young male lover Kiki in Tangiers, Morocco, despite the country's negative attitude towards homosexuality.
By the first season, Colonel Gentleman along with the rest of the original Team Venture was summoned by Hank and Dean to save the kidnapped Rusty Venture from the mad scientist Mike Sorayama. In the end Rusty and Brock managed to escape by themselves, but Brock in a blind rage beat the daylights out of the original Team Venture.
In season 2, Colonel Gentleman was found "dead" by Hank and Dean at his home while they were searching for parts from Jonas's old invention. In truth, Gentleman was not dead but was apparently in a diabetic coma caused when he ate too many Mallomars with a Yoohoo chaser. The reason for doing was due to that he was suffering from depression caused by Kiki leaving him. A mournful Kiki would later return with medicine for Gentleman and apologized for leaving him, however Gentleman proceeded to punch his young partner in the face while angrily yelling that his "tits were back" (due to his many sugary treats). He then angrily chased Kiki about until ravaging him in bed.
Colonel Gentleman joined Team Venture on Spider-Skull Island during the opening of the Venture Museum where he punched Rusty for breaking Dr. Quymn's heart. He then explained to the Venture Bros. about his supposed death really being him in a diabetic coma and how he was saved by a mournful Kiki.
During The Devil's Grip after Rusty Venture's supposed death, Gentleman was given custody of Dean, as he was his godfather, and attempted to raise him in his home in Tangiers. It is later revealed that Kiki had again left him, this time for good, and Gentleman was now living a lonely celibate life. In the end, he and Dean return to the US after finding out Rusty was alive and proceed to have a funeral for Paul Entmann. While the funeral goes on, he tells The Action Man that he's moving back to the United States, and that he has bought a brownstone in New York City and invites the remaining members of Team Venture and Rose Whalen to move in with him, which they do. During that time, he also adopted a black Labrador Retriever that he named Lisa.
In All This and Gargantua-2, he attends the opening of the Gargantua 2 along with Rose and Action Man. While there he is tended to by robots, for whom he has an extreme dislike due to a past event, refusing to forgive them despite Rose's plea. He even throws a robot out an airlock. He does enjoy himself at the station's casino along with his friends. When The Revenge Society attack, he and Action Man recognize Phantom Limb from Jonas Venture's Boys Brigade. When Hank Venture tries to get them to fight back, they refuse as it is too dangerous and the station was insured until Rose decides to help him. This motivates the two men to fight, and Gentlemen attacks Fat Chance before he is thrown away by Richard Impossible. He is injured as result and when the station came under attack he tells them to leave only to be saved by a station robot who carries him to a space shuttle which he takes back to Earth.
In Tanks for Nuthin', he is seen in his new home in New York laughing along with The Action Man and Pete White as they watch a recording of Billy Quiz-boy eating burgers while under the effects of Dr. Venture's mind control gas. Gentleman even tries to "offer" Billy (who is recovering from the effects) the same kind of fast food burgers as Billy bemoans this mockery.
In Red Means Stop, he tells Dr. Venture and Billy Quizboy the story of the original The Blue Morpho. He tells the two that Blue Morpho and Jonas Sr. were friends and when the former died Jonas along with Kano was very depressed, this tale came as a shock to Dr. Venture who never knew his father' bodyguard was the partner of the famous superhero. When Billy brings up Kano's reason for joining Team Venture from the story he heard from the comics, gentleman states not everything those comics were true before going off to sleep.
In The Venture Bros. & The Curse of the Haunted Problem, Colonel Gentleman is having dinner with Action Man, Kano, Rose and Billy. Billy tells them about the supposed haunting of the VenTech Tower and the song that kept playing there, to which the old Team Venture reacts shockingly. Gentleman quickly puts Rose to sleep with a dart that he fires from his cane, and tells Action Man to get them an Uber. He then asks Billy how long Rusty has had the PROBLEM. They rush to VenTech Tower and try to stop Rusty from opening the PROBLEM. As Jonas Venture's comatose head is revealed, Gentleman explains with Action Man how and why Jonas was placed inside the machine.
During Arrears in Science, he is still present in the VenTech Tower lobby. When the original Blue Morpho arrives, they explain to Rusty how Blue Morpho died in a plane crash and was reincarnated as Venturion, later known as Vendata. They also explain the events surrounding Jonas' death during Movie Night at Gargantua 1, when someone had opened the bay doors and gotten the whole crew, including Jonas, killed. When Rusty inquires why only Jonas' head remains, the old Team Venture insist that they found him like that, when in reality Jonas' frozen corpse got shattered as Colonel Gentleman accidentally stepped on Rusty's old toy cowboy. When Action Man suffers a stroke, he and Kano try to get him into a hospital. Pete White uses the Shrink Ray to shrink the old Team Venture so they can get out of the building through a crack in the wall. While trying to grow them back to their original sizes, Pete accidentally used the ray on a cockroach. Dr. Orpheus however turned the situation to their favor, as he used mind control on the cockroach to allow old Team Venture to use it as a ride and get to the hospital. Later, he is seen on top of VenTech Tower with Kano and Rose, telling her that Action Man will survive the stroke induced coma as this isn't the first time it has happened to Action Man.
In Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, Gentleman shoots and destroys the malfunctioning Helper Pod, Master Billy Quizboy, and Pete White were working on. This helps the latter two come to the conclusion that all the HelperPods must be destroyed in order for them to be stopped.
Personality
Colonel Gentleman is usually shown to be a calm and suave individual who always speaks with bravado and eloquence as well as a strong Scottish accent based on Sir Sean Connery. In actuality, like most of his fellow Team Venture comrades, Colonel Gentlemen was an arrogant and uncaring man that would often enjoy pranking and tormenting the young Rusty Venture, and had no problem when it came to romancing others whether they be male or female even while he was on duty. He was also very fond of fighting and loved killing his opponents in bloody battles, just like most of his peers. Despite this, he seems to have become more mellow and caring in his golden years, albeit he still engaged in bloody brawls in bars and will nonchalantly recounted events in which he tormented the young Rusty. Despite his harsh past with Gentleman, Rusty made him the godfather of Dean Venture, most likely because of all the people he knew Colonel Gentleman was the most responsible. Gentleman also openly condemned Jonas Venture for creating Venturion from the remains of their mutual friend Don Fitzcarraldo, better known as The Blue Morpho, claiming he had "gone too far this time."
Colonel Gentlemen was quite promiscuous and lecherous in bed, frequently sleeping with both women and many men during his life. He even claims to have done rather "extreme" sexual antics in the bedroom, such as supposedly creating the "Double Frogman/Rusty Venture" and would later document his many sexual escapades in an autobiography and memoirs which hold comments such as "the bitches were in rare form" as well his many affairs with former super villains. His lust for others did not cease even while he was on duty and presumably while he was married to Mz. Quymn. According to the creators of the series, Gentlemen is "beyond sexuality", showing that he has no particular standards when it comes to what partners he sleeps with.
It appears that old age has made Gentleman quite senile, as shown by his rather odd journal where he wrote numerous strange topics such as: "Toys Colonel Gentleman Wishes He Had When He Was a Lad but They Weren't Invented Yet", "Col. Gentleman's Good Names for an Imaginary Friend" and "Col. Gentleman's Hollywood Actresses Who Need a Smack in the Mouth".
Relationships with other Characters
Kiki
Kiki was the manservant and lover of Colonel Gentleman for many years. The two lived together in Gentleman's home in Tangiers, Morocco. Despite being in love with Kiki, Gentleman frequently abused and mistreated him; such as when Kiki helped the Gentleman recover from a coma, Gentleman proceeded to punch him in the face while angrily yelling that his "tits were back" (due to indulging in too many mallomars). He then angrily chased Kiki around the house. Gentleman's abuse towards him built up a resentment that came to a head when Dean came to live with the Gentleman, when it was presumed that his father had died. Kiki returned to Gentleman's home and mistakenly presumed that Dean was Gentleman's "new lover", causing another fight between him and Gentleman to break out. Despite Gentleman's reassurance that Dean was his godson, Kiki washed his hands of Gentleman by telling him that he had a "new man". Gentleman peevishly responded that Kiki's "new man" would kick Kiki out like he does "all his boys" if he ever managed to kick his cocaine habit. They appeared to have broken up for good especially as Gentleman moved to New York City.
Jonas Venture & Team Venture
It was shown that Col. Gentleman possessed a degree of care and trust in Jonas and the team, as he watched (and abused) Rusty whenever they went on adventures. In later years, Gentleman would speak fondly of and on the behalf of Jonas. He was still so close to Team Venture, that he invited them to come live with him at his NYC home and they happily agreed. All of them were aware of the circumstances surrounding Jonas' death and placed his head in PROBLEM to keep him alive and didn't tell Rusty until The Curse of the Haunted Problem. In Arrears in Science, Jonas showed he still cared for his friends in spite of his conditions and called them a great team.
Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture
Rusty and the Colonel are close, going back years to when Rusty was a boy that worked together on adventures. It was Col. Gentleman that forced the boy Rusty to kill a villain that was holding his father Jonas, hostage. As Rusty grew older, he also joined Jonas and the rest of Team Venture in abusing and hazing Rusty such as when he pulled his pants down during Rusty's sixteenth birthday allowing for The Action Man to shrink his penis with a Shrink ray. Despite creating such traumatic experiences for him, Rusty made Gentleman Dean Venture's godfather and considers him a core member of The Venture Family.
Mz. Quymn
Mz. Quymn was the wife of Col. Gentleman. When together, the two evoked the 1960s British spy series The Avengers, with Mz. Quymn filling the Emma Peel role and Gentleman acting as John Steed. Despite being married, the two continued to sleep around with other people, Quymn with Jonas Venture himself, and did not seem to stop or interfere with each other. Indicating that they were either in an open marriage or divorced. In his later years, he does not seem to mention or talk much about her at all, and moved on to Kiki, leaving her fate and their marriage unknown.
Episode Appearances
Season 1
- Ghosts of the Sargasso (flashback)
- Past Tense
- A Very Venture Christmas
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Christmas Songs
Trivia
- Colonel Gentleman is based on British adventurers, primarily Allan Quatermain and James Bond. His appearance and voice are similar to that of Sean Connery, who has played both characters in movies. He also takes many points of inspiration from William S. Burroughs, a writer of the Beat Generation, such as his dwelling in Tangiers, his hedonism, and his sexual proclivities. He is named after Sir Horace Gentleman, the bassist of the band, The Specials.