Mr. Burns

"Excellent..."

- Mr. Burns' famous catchphrase.

Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, better known as Mr. Burns or simply Burns, is the frequent main antagonist of the famous long-running adult animated comedy television series The Simpsons.

He serves as a minor antagonist in the 2007 theatrical film The Simpsons Movie, the final boss and main antagonist of the popular beat-em up videogame The Simpsons Arcade Game and the main antagonist of the side-scrolling platform game Bart vs. the World.

He is an extremely greedy businessman, and is the richest and most powerful citizen of Springfield. He is the founder and chairman of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a member of the inner circle of the Springfield Republican Party, the boss of Homer Simpson, Lenny, Carl and Waylon Smithers and, finally, the arch enemy of Lisa and Bart Simpson.

He was voiced by the late Christopher Collins (who also played Starscream and Cobra Commander) in his first appearance, then by Harry Shearer for the rest of the series.

History
Charles Montgomery Burns was born on September 15, 1886 to Clifford and Dephane Burns. Unlike his current personality, Young Charles was so happy he was nicknamed "Happy", until his grandfather, Colonel Wainwright Montgomery Burns, lured him away from his parents and raised him as his own son. Although he was seemingly born poor, he was raised in luxury by his grandfather (he later reveals to Bart that he grew up in a wealthy family), who molded him into the heartless man that he is today. When growing up, Burns attended Yale University and studied nuclear physics and business. He graduated in 1914 and went on to pursue business interests including Confederated Slaveholdings.

In 1939, he met Lily Bancroft at his Yale reunion. They would procreate and Lily would give birth to Larry Burns, who would enter Mr. Burns' life years later.

Later that year, Burns enlisted in the Schutzstaffel when Germany invaded Poland. However, when Germany and America declared war, Burns, who came from America, defected against the Nazis, and enlisted in the United States Army in 1941. By 1943, he had been forced to serve in the Flying Hellfish, under Abraham Simpson, when he was caught in a romantic scandal involving blocking a probe from J. Edgar Hoover. He entered a tontine where the last surviving member of the Flying Hellfish would gain a group of priceless German paintings, which he would break when he was discharged from the group after trying to murder Abraham Simpson. In 1945, Burns (likely because of his service and wealth) was hired by President Harry S. Truman yo transport a trillion dollar bill to Europe. Burns absconded with the bill, and kept it in his possession for many years until it was lost to Fidel Castro. Burns subsequently lied about the bill's transportation to the government, which kept it believing Europe had received the bill and was rebuilt until 1998.

By 1950, Burns, who was still serving in the Army, began to serve in the Korean War with the original Flying Hellfish. He was released from military service in 1956. In 1960, Mr. Burns purchased a germ warfare lab, effectively becoming its chairman. Subsequently, his fortune grew. By 1965, he worked as a biochemist and started developing diseases to use against the people of Springfield. His germs were killed when a group of hippies set off and antibiotic bomb in the lab. When they trampled over him, one of the hippies, Mona Simpson (Homer's mother and Abraham's wife), went to help him up, he saw her and angrily vowed her arrest. In 1966, he hosted a fundraiser to help finance the construction of his nuclear power plant, which opened 2 years later.

In 1968, when Homer (12 years old), Lenny, Carl, and Moe camped out near the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, it suffered a near meltdown and almost exploded. However, the meltdown had been averted through unknown means. It was later revealed that during that time, Waylon Smithers Sr., Burns' best friend and assistant, sacrifice himself to save the plant, and his infant son, Waylon Junior.

In 1980, Burns hired Homer Simpson at the plant as a technician after the latter dramatically stormed into his room and demanded a job, promising to be a perfect employee. Burns asked Smithers who he was, and Smithers replied "Homer Simpson". It was also at this time that Burns' catchphrase "Simpson, eh?" originated. He promised to remember that name, although due to his role in the series, he has broken his promise.

In 1989, Homer (who had found a new job as a pinmonkey at Barney's Bowlarama) quit working at the plant, and practiced his newfound freedom by abusing Mr. Burns. However, when Maggie was born, Homer crawled back to Burns for his nuclear-safety job. Burns and Smithers took pleasure in this, and gave him a wall plaque that read "Don't Forget, You're Here Forever".

Burns currently owns and manages the power plant, although he had lost control over it many times, including when he sold it to a German conglomerate and when it was taken over by hip-hop mogul Jay G.

Personality
Mr. Burns embodies a number of stereotypes about corporate America, as he has an unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power, even through criminal means if necessary. This was shown when he briefly tried to run for Governor in order to prevent his plant from being shut down, and the time when he tried to sell uranium rods to terrorists for profit. Burns also embodies the stereotype of a manager by forgetting his employees' names (especially Homer's, despite it appearing that they interact more than Burns does with most of his employees), though this can be attributed to his senility. Burns is also unconcerned and dispassionate for his employees' safety and well-being, even laughing at the sight of a window washer falling from a great height of a building. His aspirations to apply obsolete technology to everyday life or references to Victorian-era people or places provide a common source of humor on the show.

Despite his evil nature, Burns is able to shed a sense of kindness, as he sympathized over Homer's loss of his new hair as everyone in the plant only took Homer for granted because of his hairstyle. He is also pretty close to his right-hand man Waylon Smithers due to the latter's loyalty; even taking him in as his own son following the death of Waylon's father, who sacrificed himself to prevent a meltdown during the 1960s. He also cherished his lost teddy bear Bobo as it reminds him of the innocence that he lost when he was a child, even telling Homer's youngest daughter Maggie to hold on Bobo after seeing how much she loved it.

Property
The following is a list of facilities that Mr. Burns owns and are part of the Burns Empire.
 * Springfield Nuclear Power Plant (current owner)
 * Isotope Stadium
 * Springfield Estadio de Toros (initially the Duff Beer Krusty Burger Buzz Cola Costington's Department Store Kwik-E-Mart Stupid Flanders Park)
 * Springfield Monorail
 * Montgomery Burns State Prison
 * Springfield Concert Hall
 * Mr. Burns Basketball Stadium
 * S.N.P.P. Cafeteria
 * Montgomery Burns Institute For Soul Extraction (non-canon)
 * Mr. Burns' Casino
 * Springfield Opera House
 * Springfield Elementary School and Prison
 * Springfield Sports Arena
 * Springfield Atoms Stadium
 * Naming Rights Available
 * Spellympic Village (Part-owner)
 * Little Lisa Recycling Plant
 * Burns Slant Drilling Co.
 * Germ Warfare Laboratory (formerly)
 * Baltic Avenue Hotel
 * Water Works
 * Electricity Company
 * Ticketmaster
 * Burns University

Health
Due to his unnaturaly long life span, Mr. Burns is shown to have numerous physical ailments that has passed up to him throughout most of the series, such as being infertile with a green glow due to many years of running his plant. Because of this, he is shown to be physcially weak in nature as he is unable to perform any normal physical tasks, such as wrestling a teddy bear from an infant, taking a picture of several school students, or even crushing a tiny ant with his foot.

Despite his poor health, Mr. Burns has utilized his wealth to provide himself the best health care in Springfield that anyone can receive; he even had to provide himself painful medical treatments that involves chiropractics and painkillers which leave him disoriented in order to cheat death ever single week. In the episode The Fool Monty after having amnesia, a recovering Burns is surprised to learn that the feeling of spite is what keeping him alive due to his enjoyment of making people's lives miserable and earning their hate.

Trivia

 * Along with Sideshow Bob, Kang and Kodos, Mr. Burns serves as one of the main antagonists of the franchise; however, in The Simpsons Movie, they are all outranked by Russ Cargill.
 * Mr. Burns' net worth is arguably $1,800,037,022, as mentioned in the episode "The Burns and the Bees".
 * Mr. Burns signs his will as "Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns" in the episode of season 22, "Flaming Moe", which implies that he is related to Adolf Hitler and a descendant of the House of Plantagenet.
 * He is also one of the many Simpsons characters who guest star on the Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy".
 * Burns seems to be modeled after Jacob Rothschild and Janez Janša. He also shares a few similarities with both of them.
 * Some sources say that instead of Burns opening the plant (which actually happened), he purchased it in 1974.