Rufus Sorghum



Rufus Sorghum is a supporting antagonist of the 2019 Disney film Dumbo. He is an abusive animal caretaker working for the Medici Brothers' Circus until his death.

He was portrayed by Phil Zimmerman.

Biography
Rufus was one of the animal caretakers in the circus, but unlike most of the troupe, he is particularly abusive towards the animals (especially the elephants). He was first seen forcing the elephants to exit their box car until there was one left: Mrs. Jumbo. He tried to use his whip to force her out, but Holt Farrier arrives to the scene with his kids, telling Rufus to stop. However, Rufus refuses by mocking Holt over the loss of right arm and wife Annie (who died from a flu outbreak) before trying to whip Mrs. Jumbo, prompting an angry Holt to punch Rufus in the face for it. Holt and his children soon learned that Mrs. Jumbo was acting strange because she has given birth to a new baby elephant with large ears.

During the circus' next performance in Missouri, the baby elephant (named Dumbo) became ridiculed by the audience after his ears are exposed to the public. Rufus (with an evil smirk) taunts Mrs. Jumbo about the incident and that she can't do anything to protect her child. This provoked an enraged Mrs. Jumbo to to burst into the tent to protect her son from the audience, right before Holt almost tried to calm her down by assuring that no one will hurt her son. However, witnessing this, Rufus grew angry and takes out his whip, provoking Mrs. Jumbo once again to go berserk. Holt angrily orders Rufus to stop, but the latter refuses by calling Mrs. Jumbo a 'mad elephant'. This caused Mrs. Jumbo to knock over a large post, setting the tent to fall over and sending people into panic. As Rufus hides behind the bleachers laughing at everyone panicking, he is shocked to see the post falling over him, crushing him to death.

Rufus' body is last seen being carried away to the morgue. However, despite his death, the troupe don't seem him to miss him as they are aware of his actions; nevertheless, Rufus' actions were enough to force an uneasy Medici to sell away Mrs. Jumbo to prevent a public relations problem. Mrs. Jumbo would later be sold to V.A. Vandevere until she was freed by Dumbo and the troupe.