Duke Red

Despite almost never taking a starring role Duke Red is without a doubt one of Tezukas major stars. Whether hes been cast as a bandit a pirate a university professor or a judge his classy aristocratic style and largerthanlife performances steal any scene hes in. Although he has a wide range of performance experience he is usually cast in the role of the refined criminal mastermind a politician with an ominous air or a captain of industry with devious intent and is more often than not surrounded by a gang of henchmen including Hamegg and Acetylene Lamp to do his bidding. Duke Red first burst onto the stage with his debut and namesake role in Metropolis 1949 as the head of the notorious Red Party. Since then he has gone on to many prominent and memorable roles notably as Judge Porfiry in Crime and Punishment 1953 Wild Bill Hecock in Age of Adventure 195153 and Mr. Nikula in Black Jack 197383. He also had a less well known but humourously appropriate appearance as the title character in Cyrano the Hero 1954 one of his only starring roles. In the Metropolis film incarnation of Duke Red he is a plutocrat who funds both the Ziggurat a skyscrapersized machine built to spread the mankinds power across the world and the Marduk a vigilante group for suppressing malfunctioning robots. He also commissioned Timas creation who resembles his deceased daughter to act as the core controller to the Ziggurat.