Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto franchise has provided us with some of the most colorful characters in video game history. From the neon lights of Vice City to the hardened streets of San Andreas, every new Grand Theft Auto has tried to top itself with an increasingly large cast of hustlers and criminals.
The world of Grand Theft Auto is intentionally over-the-top and the most popular characters in franchise history have had outsized personalities to match the game’s often ridiculous gameplay. Sure, some characters are heroes, some are villains and some are just there for comic relief, but just about every character Rockstar’s ever created would have no problem punching you —or an innocent pedestrian— on a whim.
Unhinged characters like Trevor Phillips from GTA V tend to attract the most attention with their despicable behavior but for every one of those, there’s also a gangster with a heart of gold like C.J. Johnson. Grand Theft Auto’s best characters over the years have made a permanent impression on fans thanks to this hidden depth that makes you want to root for them to make it out alive, even while they are causing vehicular destruction all over the city.
As the entire gaming world waits for Rockstar’s next big open world title to hit stores, we thought it’d be fun to take a look back at some of the best characters the developer has given us so far.
Here are the 20 greatest GTA characters of all-time.
20 Who's A Good Dog?
One of the first missions players can tackle in Grand Theft Auto V involves helping Franklin Clinton's friend Lamar Davis hunt down a rival gang member. It's a pretty standard mission, right up until the point where Lamar unleashes the hound. Players can take direct control of Chop and use him to sniff out and chase down the wanted man from his hiding spot.
Chop proves to be a very good boy.
In addition to the novelty of playing Grand Theft Auto as a large Rottweller, Chop also created another first for Rockstar with the opportunity to create a unique smartphone app for the game. Players can customize their pup via the iFruit App, allowing Chop's new owner to customize his collar or teach him new tricks. Chop can also be used on subsequent missions, ferociously charging into battle against Franklin's foes, provided you've kept him happy with a steady diet of treats, of course.
19 The Original Gangster
Grand Theft Auto III gave gamers their first real taste of the brutal open world possibilities that the franchise has become known for, but this game's protagonist is admittedly a bit more quiet than the ones that would follow. Claude goes through the entire game completely mute, which might seem a bit off when compared with later games in the series, but it's actually kind of brilliant in its own way.
Thanks to Claude's silence, players were able to imagine their own take on each of the situations the character found himself in, helping to drive home the idea that it was really the player rampaging through the city looking for trouble instead of a fictional creation. And in the end, who needs to use words to communicate when a shotgun will convey the message just fine.
18 Sir, Yes, Sir
Victor "Vic" Vance, the reluctant protagonist of Vice City Stories starts off the game as an honorable U.S. soldier with a strong set of moral values, right up until his commanding officer gets him involved in trafficking, leading to a dishonorable discharge. Back on the streets of Vice City, Vic and his brother Lance get caught up in all kinds of mayhem, as is expected in any GTA.
But Vic's moral compass still points true.
A large percentage of what Vic does in the game, he does out of love for his brother Pete, who desperately needs some money for his asthma medication. In a franchise filled with tough-talking wiseguys, Vic Vance is proof that even a hardened criminal can still have a heart of gold underneath the rough exterior.
17 Biker Badass
The Lost and the Damned protagonist Johnny Klebitz paints a mean picture with his tattooed body and powerful chopper bike. A sometimes-friend of GTA IV protagonist Niko Bellic, Klebitz is known for his appearances throughout that game and The Ballad of Gay Tony, but it was his headlining role in Damned that endeared him to the GTA fan base.
While Johnny can certainly wreak havoc with the best of them, he's also a man of honor, quick to defend the members of the Lost MC's from rival gangs while insisting that the biker code be upheld at all times.
Sadly, Johnny also made an appearance in GTA V, where his untimely e under the boot of Trevor Phillips served as a form of perverse comic relief during that character's introduction to the game. Rest in peace, biker buddy.
16 The Best Bodyguard Around
While Grand Theft Auto IV took on a more serious tone than Vice City and San Andreas did at times, Rockstar appeared to get back to its roots a bit with the release of DLC expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, with lots of eccentric people and plot lines to keep track of. But while "Tony" headlined the game's title, the DLC's actual protagonist was Luis Fernando Lopez.
Lopez served as Gay Tony's bodyguard prior to the events of the DLC, and eventually shows his loyalty to his boss when he is ordered to end Tony towards the end of the game but decides to whack someone else instead. Lopez also earns a reputation for himself as a womanizer throughout the game, with GTA Wikia listing the names of more than a dozen ladies he's alleged to have gotten real friendly with.
15 Don't Worry, Be Happy
Yusuf Amir is rich and he feels great. More importantly, he wants you and everyone else around him to know that he's rich and feels great. Amir is briefly mentioned in GTA IV but really comes into this own during the Gay Tony expansion. He takes a liking to Luis Lopez, the DLC's protagonist that you just read about, and enjoys showing off all of his expensive gadgets and toys. Yusuf is a successful real estate developer with a taste for the color gold, which makes us wonder if perhaps a current President of the United States played a role in influencing Rockstar's creation.
Yusuf maintains his carefree and relaxed attitude throughtout the game and it is implied that he eventually went into business with both Lopez and Gay Tony at the conclusion of the game, franchsing one of Tony's existing nightclubs.
14 Son, I Am Disappoint
There are deadbeat kids and then there's Jimmy De Santa. If he's not playing video games, he's smoking pot, and if he's not smoking pot, he's playing video games. To be fair, it's not entirely Jimmy's fault, as having Michael De Santa for a father can really leave some emotional scars. Still, Jimmy's lack of motivation is a problem and father and son spend most of Grand Theft Auto V attempting to understand and tolerate each other.
In the end, Jimmy does take a few steps towards improving his life, even starting to exercise just a bit before the game reaches its climax. Whether or not he and his father will ever truly work things out depends in part on which ending you get, but this being a gaming site, we were pleased to see Rockstar imply that hardcore gamer Jimmy might just turn out OK in the end after all.
13 Making Crime Look Good
Lance Vance can dance and he will look better than you while he's doing it. Lance is a cocaine dealer who gets into the business with his older brother Victor. Lance flies the helicopter to the business meetings while Vic conducts the actual deals. Just go with it.
All the while, Lance is dressed up better than just about anyone in Vice City, often seen wearing a white suit with a purple shirt underneath. In Vice City Stories, he opts for an entirely blue get-up, which you can see above. Sure, he ended up double-crossing Tommy Vercetti but you've never seen a better-dressed villain anywhere outside of a James Bond movie.
Fun fact about Lance: he was voiced by Phillip Michael Thomas, who played Ricardo Tubbs on Miami Vice in the 1980s.
12 Be Genetically Different, Baby
Brucie Kibbutz from Grand Theft Auto IV is one of those characters that fans will either love or absolutely hate with no opinions in between. A caricature of the stereotypical muscled out "bro", Brucie had some of the most memorable lines in the game and was never afraid to point out that he was genetically superior to everyone around him, at least when it came to the muscle department. As for the brain department, eh, not so much, but good luck to the person brave enough to actually tell him that.
What he lacks in brains, he makes up for with pecs.
Even if you couldn't stand the guy, there's no doubt he's clearly one of the most memorable characters from an entry in the franchise that felt a little bit short on over-the-top characters, at least when compared to other recent games in the series.
11 Eat Your Heart Out, Lindsay Lohan
Here at The Gamer, we're known to be fans of Lindsay Lohan, but it turns out that Lindsay is absolutely not a fan of Grand Theft Auto V. The actress sued GTA publisher Take-Two after GTA V's release, claiming the character of Lacey Jonas shared too many similarities with Lohan's own troubled career. Lohan further alleged that the Red Bikini Girl used in many promotional materials for the game bared a striking resemblance to herself.
Take-Two responded that Lohan's lawsuit amounted to nothing more than a publicity stunt and the court system ended up agreeing, ruling in the publisher's favor after a two-year battle.
10 Every Criminal Needs A Lawyer
If you know you're going to be breaking the law on a regular basis as do most of GTA's main protagonists, it can't hurt to keep an equally sleazy lawyer on your speed dial. Ken Rosenberg fits this description nicely, although good luck getting him to help you when he's got so many of his own problems to deal with.
Another character to show up in more than one game (Vice City and San Andreas), Rosenberg had a serious thing for cocaine through much of the 80s, but don't expect him to blame his item use for his many issues. For what it's worth, Rosenberg did clean up his act by the end of San Andreas, at least enough anyway to help a rapper managed by Carl Johnson get his first gold record.
9 Up In The Club
Grand Theft Auto V is approaching five years on the marketplace in 2018 and you still can't watch a Twitch streamer play the game without someone in the chat telling him to "go to the strip club!" Grand Theft Auto has always been a franchise willing to go further than anyone else but V really took things to a whole different level, featuring dancers and a blatant disregard for censors.
It's true that these one-name ladies like "Juliet" are not really "main" characters for the franchise, but you'd be hard-pressed to find another group of NPCs in the game that are more popular than these ladies have been for the last half-decade and counting.
8 Samuel L. Jackson's Finest Work
When you think of the career of Samuel L. Jackson, movies like Pulp Fiction or even Snakes on a Plane probably come to mind. But longtime video game fans will likely point to Jackson's voice acting performance as San Andreas police officer Frank Tenpenny as a true masterpiece.
"I'll take you all. You're mine. Mine! I run this town!"
Tenpenny is eventually revealed as the main antagonist of the game and shown to have no problem giving in to his brutal impulses, dishing out verbal and physical attacks to all around him. By the end, Tenpenny goes on a desperate rampage complete with a monologue fit for an actor of Jackson's abilities.
7 Don't Touch That Dial
Lazlow Jones is a unique character within the world of GTA as he is actually based on a man who shares his name and career in the real world. The real Lazlow Jones is a New York City-based talk show host who has been involved in writing, producing and providing the voice work for in-game Lazlow going all the way back to Grand Theft Auto III.
Lazlow has traditionally just served as the voice on the radio heard reading insane commercials or news reports in between songs, but for Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar actually gave him an on-screen persona, as the face of Fame or Shame.
Lazlow is the only character to appear in every major Grand Theft Auto game since III with the only exceptions being Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
6 Boy in the Hood
When we first see him at the start of Grand Theft Auto V, Franklin Clinton is tired of living with his aunt, tired of boosting cars and tired of the small-time. He dreams of something bigger for his life, or as he told his friend Lamar Davis:
"Look homie, I don't mind dying. You feel me? But I just want to die over something that matters, homie."
Enter Michael De Santa and Trevor Phillips, and Mr. Clinton's young life is changed forever. Out of all of the colorful characters in GTA V, it's pretty clear that Franklin receives the most development over the course of the game. We get to watch him go from working a repo job to tackling his first heist and then onwards and upwards to even bigger things.
5 Yugoslavia Sends Its Regards
Niko Bellic fought in the Yugoslav Wars in his home country before moving to Liberty City to work for an organized crime group. He says during the game that he came to America to pursue the American dream, but upon arrival, he found it hard to make ends meet, which is what pushed him towards the path he travels throughout Grand Theft Auto IV.
"Life is complicated. I smuggled people. Sold people. Perhaps here... things will be different."
In short, Niko is unlike just about every other protagonist or major character in GTA history. Rockstar made a conscious decision to take a more serious approach to the game's story and overall tone. Whether or not it worked is a question that's still up for debate in some corners of the fanbase, but it's clear that Niko stands alone as a unique character in Grand Theft Auto's storied past.
4 When A Midlife Crisis Can Get You...
Michael De Santa begins Grand Theft Auto V on his therapist's couch, bemoaning everything that has gone wrong in his life. He's a washed-up has-been, pining for the days when he used to be able to take on the world and take down just about anything as a professional criminal.
In GTA V, we get to watch Michael brush off the rust and begin to relive his glory days with the help of a couple of friends. It's strange, we normally see GTA protagonists start from nothing and build their way up to the top but with Michael, he's already accomplished a lot in his life... the question is, will jumping back in restore him to his former glory or will it only serve to put his family and himself at risk?
3 Tony Montana Ain't Got Nothing On Me
The main protagonist of Vice City, Tommy Vercetti came to us essentially ripped right out of Scarface. Like Tony Montana, Tommy Vercetti ended up in Miami/Vice City after being forced into exile and both arrive in the city wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Even the inside of Tommy Vercetti's mansion is modeled to look like Tony Montana's.
Tommy also ends up with a prime spot on our list because he was the first main GTA protagonist to have voice lines, performed by Ray Liotta. Later GTA protagonists like Carl Johnson and the GTA V trio might have had more depth, but as far as true tough guys go, Tommy Vercetti was the real deal.
2 Grove Street Life
Carl "CJ" Johnson begins San Andreas as second-in-command of the Grove Street Families, a Los Santos-based gang. The problem though, is that said gang has lost most of its power while CJ was away in Liberty City. CJ spends most of the game trying to restore his family's name while also dealing with police corruption thanks to the efforts of officer Frank Tenpenny.
But perhaps the best part of playing as CJ in San Andreas is the fact that you can customize him in some truly unique ways. "Fat CJ" was definitely a thing back in the day and it was also possible to get him a religious tattoo, even though that's not something you'd expect a gang banger to have. The GTA Wikia also notes that Johnson was the most customizable character in GTA history until the invention of avatars in Grand Theft Auto Online.
1 Just Plain Crazy
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has featured just about every possible kind of degenerate over the years, which means every new installment needs to keep upping the ante to entertain fans. And that is precisely how Rockstar managed to come up with the quite literally insane Trevor Phillips in Grand Theft Auto V.
As we alluded to earlier, you know you're in for a crazy time when the man ends
a former GTA protagonist in his opening scene in the game. From there, the mayhem only increases with Trevor capable of flying off the hinge at even the slightest provocation.
To be honest, we're not sure Rockstar will ever be able to top what Trevor Phillps (and voice actor Steven Ogg) brought to the table, but with Grand Theft Auto VI presumably coming at some point in the distant future, we can't wait to see them try.