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Gordon Gekko
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Gordon Gekko is a fictional character from the 1987 film Wall Street by director Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor-producer Michael Douglas, in a performance that won him an Oscar for Best Actor. Gekko may return in Money Never Sleeps which is currently in pre-production.
Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley WeiserProject X *''Wall Street ...
, Gekko is claimed to be based loosely on arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, who gave a speech on greed at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, and real-life activist investor / corporate raider Carl Icahn.
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Encyclopedia
Gordon Gekko is a fictional character from the 1987 film Wall Street by director Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor-producer Michael Douglas, in a performance that won him an Oscar for Best Actor. Gekko may return in Money Never Sleeps which is currently in pre-production.
Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley WeiserProject X *''Wall Street ...
, Gekko is claimed to be based loosely on arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, who gave a speech on greed at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, and real-life activist investor / corporate raider Carl Icahn. According to Edward R. Pressman, producer of the film, "Originally, there was no one individual who Gekko was modelled on," he adds. "But Gekko was partly Milken", who was the "Junk Bond King" of the 1980s, and indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud in 1989.
In 2002 Gordon Gekko was named one of the Fifteen Richest Fictional Characters according to Forbes who attributed him with 8.5 billion dollars. In 2003, the AFI named him number 24 of the top 50 movie villains of all time.
Fashion
Gekko's clothing selections were both a nod to 1980s corporate culture fashion trends and an innovator in those trends. The colorful suspenders, shiny shoulder-padded suits and permanently slicked-back hair became the 'official look' of power and fortune.
Gekko's trouser braces were manufactured by Albert Thurston Ltd. The blue braces with singular white stripe are Eton College colours.
Cultural symbol
Gekko has become a symbol in popular culture for unrestrained greed (with the signature line, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"), often in fields outside corporate finance.
On September 25, 2008 Michael Douglas, acting as a UN ambassador for peace, was at the 2008 session of the United Nations General Assembly advocating that the decade-old Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty be ratified by the nine nations yet to do so - USA, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, China, Egypt and North Korea. He accompanied Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, the foreign ministers of Austria and Costa Rica, former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and former US defense secretary William Perry. Due to the ongoing political debate over a bailout to address the Financial crisis of 2007-2008 reporters sought to ask him off topic questions about Gordon Gekko; "Douglas was asked whether he bore some responsibility for the behaviour of the greed merchants who had brought the world to its knees thanks to his (aka Gekko's) encouragement." Trying to return to topic Douglas tried to "suggest that the same level of passion Wall Street investors showed should also apply to getting rid of nuclear weapons." The actor was also asked to compare nuclear Armageddon with the "financial Armageddon on Wall Street". After one reporter inquired "Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?" Douglas stated "I'm not saying that. And my name is not Gordon. It's a character I played 20 years ago."
On October 8, 2008 the character was referenced in a speech by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his speech "The Children of Gordon Gekko" concerning the Financial crisis of 2007-2008. Rudd stated “It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko.”
In the episode of the American version of The Office entitled "Employee Transfer," Ryan Howard dresses as Gordon Gekko for Halloween.
Trivia
In 1993 the Indian herpetologist Indraneil Das named a new species of gecko (a lizard) from Lombok, Indonesia, Cnemaspis gordongekkoi, although it is now known as Cyrtodactylus gordongekkoi. The etymology reads "In honour of the film Wall Street (Stone, 1987)." ref: Das, I. 1993 Cnemaspis gordongekkoi, a new gecko from Lombok, Indonesia, and the biogeography of Oriental species of Cnemaspis (Squamata: Sauria: Gekkonidae). Hamadryad 18:1-9.
Footnotes
External links
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