Swan (Phantom of the Paradise)

"Get this fag out of here."

- Swan telling his assassin to remove Winslow from his sight.

Swan is the main antagonist of Phantom of the Paradise. He is the satanic owner of Death Records.

He was portrayed by Paul Williams, who also voiced Catrina's henchman Rep in the My Little Pony episode "Escape from Catrina".

Role
Swan was quite vain, and feared his face being "ravaged" by old age. To prevent this, he tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists, but the devil appeared before him in the form of his reflection in the mirror, and made a deal with him for eternal youth and immortality, which he would lose if the tape that first recorded this deal were to be destroyed. His image in the tape would age in his place, and because any pictures taken of him would show his true age, he no longer allowed pictures to be taken of him.

Swan became extremely popular and worshipped by the people, along with his band, the Juicy Fruits.

When Swan was opening up his new concert hall, the Paradise, after being fired by one of his performers, he and his henchman, Arnold Philbin, heard composer Winslow Leach singing his song, Faust, so he decided to use it to open the Paradise. Rather than do so with Winslow's knowledge or give him the credit, Swan had Philbin take a sheet of Winslow's music under the pretense of producing an album. After not hearing from Swan for a month, Winslow tried to reconnect with him, but was kicked out of Death Records repeatedly, and on the last occasion beaten up, before two corrupt cops on Swan's payroll planted drugs and framed him. Winslow was arrested and sent to Sing Sing, a prison owned by Swan, where his teeth were pulled, before he escaped and vandalized Death Records, only to be severely disfigured and lose his voice.

Winslow was presumed dead, but returned; with a menacing costume and now known as the Phantom, he blew up one of Swan's cars in an attempt to kill the Juicy Fruits. Swan confronted Winslow and made a deal with him, to write songs for him and no longer terrorize the Paradise. Swan gave him a new voice through a machine, and though part of their deal was for Phoenix to sing Winslow's songs, Swan (unbeknownst to Winslow) rejected her because she was perfect and he hated perfection in anyone but himself. So instead Swan put a gay male singer named Beef on the stage as the lead role and made Phoenix a backup singer.

Eventually Swan had two of his guards seal Winslow in his room with bricks, taking all his music. Winslow broke out killed Beef, forcing Phoenix to sing in his place. Phoenix became popular and Swan seemingly fell in love with her. Seeing Phoenix with Swan and knowing he would betray her, Winslow attempted suicide, but survived due to his deal with Swan, signed in blood, which made him immortal for as long as Swan lived. When Winslow stabbed Swan, he found Swan to be immortal as well, saying he was also under contract.

Winslow watched a tape containing all of Swan's deals, including his deal with the devil, and ending with Swan's plans to assassinate Phoenix during their wedding to create a major event on live television. Because the wedding would be recorded and broadcasted, Swan wore a mask so his true face wouldn't be seen. Winslow destroyed Swan's tape (which he did not seem to make any effort to protect despite the devil's warnings) and, after preventing Swan's assassin from shooting Phoenix (killing Philbin instead), he removed Swan's mask, revealing his now-deformed face and exposing him as a monster on live television. Swan attempted to strangle Phoenix, but Winslow stabbed him multiple times. Once the mortal injury was inflicted, Winslow's self-inflicted stab wound opened, slowly killing him while an audience member stabbed Swan an extra time. The crowd held Swan above their heads as he died in their arms.

Trivia

 * His deal with the devil mirrors that of Dorian Gray, except Dorian had a picture age in his place, and would lose his immortality if he looked upon it. This weakness does not seem to apply to Swan, who was requested to watch the tape often to see what he would have looked like without his eternal youth.
 * Swan's deal appears to work slightly differently than Winslow's; when Winslow killed Swan and lost his immortality, his stab wound from his attempted suicide opened. However, when Swan lost his immortality, he did not immediately sport any wounds despite Winslow having stabbed him earlier.
 * Swan does not sing any songs in the film; however, some songs are sung by Paul Williams, either in the background or by Winslow using a machine designed by Swan to sound like him.