Tom the Cat

"Don't...you...believe it!?"

- Tom when he gets a sarcastic result

Tom Cat (full name: Thomas Jasper Cat Sr.), is one of the two titular main protagonists and usually the main antagonist and sometimes an anti-hero of the classic animated series Tom and Jerry.

He is a cat whose breed is still unknown to this day, which is strange considering how long the series has been running. He is mostly bluish gray in color with white paws and a light-blue belly. He also has a tail that is white at the tip. He is sometimes also colored dark blue, but this was only in the earlier episodes. He is Jerry the Mouse's arch-rival and sometimes his best friend.

In 1940, he was voiced by the late Clarence Nash, though his iconic screams and yells were provided by the late William Hanna. In the 1992 animated film Tom and Jerry: The Movie, he was voiced by Richard Kind, who would later play Aubrey James in Gotham.

Cartoons
He is usually the main antagonist in almost every single episode of every series that shows him in it. His antics involve laying traps for Jerry which most of the time end up failing. He doesn't always try to eat the mouse but he will sometimes try to eliminate him, get him out of the house, or even trick him to a lesser extent. His rivalry with Jerry existed even as a kitten.

Considering that Jerry is a pest that isn't welcome in his house, his actions are rather understandable, as it could simply be said that he is trying to do his job as a house cat under his owner's orders. In fact, in some episodes, Jerry even goes too far and becomes the antagonist himself, while Tom becomes the hero.

Movies
He was the villain or one of the villains in a few movies. However, the one movie with his biggest role was Tom & Jerry: The Fast & The Furry. In this movie, he antagonizes every one of the racers who participate in the Fabulous Super Race, resulting in two deaths. Another villainous role was the movie Tom & Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale, In which he plays one of the henchmen of The Cat King and gathers most of his troop to catch Jerry and his friends and stop them from getting to the star.

Deaths
Tom the Cat was killed in the episode The Two Mouseketeers, where he needed to defend the king's food or else the king will decollate Tom. Jerry made him fail doing this, resulting into Tom being beheaded.

Tom also dies at the end of the short Mouse Trouble, blowing himself up with a stick of dynamite meant for Jerry. He is seen floating to heaven dressed as an angel. Tom appears to die in Heavenly Puss after being crushed by a piano, but this turns out to have been all just a dream.

He was obviously revived for later episodes and appearances, perhaps because being a cat he has nine lives.

Tom is also died in 3rd Season 3 from Tom and Jerry Show in Suitable for framing where being exploded by firework after the ghost artist Jerry and Taffy watching them.

Cartoons

 * Many shorts open with him tormenting Jerry despite never being provoked.
 * Frames Spike for stealing the chicken from the refrigerator in Tom's Photo Finish.
 * Terrorizes Tyke by sending him on a high pole in That's My Pup.
 * Pins the blame on Spike the Bulldog for the mess in the house and aggressive behavior and gets him thrown out of the house in Spike Gets Skooled.
 * Terrorizes Nibbles/Tuffy and swats him on the behind with a flyswatter in The Milky Waif.
 * Attempts to eat Jerry's animal friends, such as a duck, a goldfish, and a canary.
 * Attempts to eat Jerry Mouse on certain occasions.
 * Captures Jerry's Mermouse friend to sell her to a museum for money in Tom's Mermouse Mess-Up.
 * Attempts to steal gold from Jerry's claim along with Butch Cat in 24 Karat Kat.

Movies

 * In Blast of To Mars, Tom terrorizes Jerry and accidentally causes the war between Earth and Mars by destroying the Martian city. In his defense, Tom would team-up with Jerry to fix his mistakes (as Tom often does when he goes too far).
 * In Tom and Jerry: The Fast & The Furry, Tom commits, so far, his worst villainous deed, unknowingly and unintentionally causing two deaths while cheating during the Fabulous Super Race. By changing the signal that indicates the route at the Amazonian jungle, Soccer Mom loses her car on quicksand and then gets likely eaten alive by bugs. Later on, when Squirty bites his tail, Tom throws him into a whale and leaves Grammy to drive her car into the whale. When they are revealed to have survived, Tom accidentally blows up their car's balloon and as Grammy and Punchy mistake a backpack for a parachute, they fall to their deaths at the Borneo Island.
 * In The Nutcracker Tale, as one of the evil Cat King's captain, Tom (along with the other alley cats) crashes Jerry's party, imprisons La Petite Ballerina in a birdcage, and traps the toys. Tom also gathers his troops to try to stop Jerry and his friends from reaching the star.

Video Games

 * In the NES game Tom and Jerry: The Ultimate Game of Cat and Mouse, he kidnaps Jerry's nephew Tuffy and locks him up in the attic trunk, leading to Jerry to come to his rescue.
 * In the Game Boy Color game, Tom and Jerry: Mouse Attacks, he kidnaps Jerry's friends and family (Quacker, Uncle Pecos, Tyke, Tuffy and Muscles) and even imprisons Jerry himself under a cup in a mini game.

Trivia

 * In most of his appearances, Tom is show as Jerry's enemy and a protagonist villain, but on some occasions, Tom is portrayed as an anti-hero.
 * His name Tom Cat is most likely a parody of Tomcat, a term used for male cats.
 * Occasionally, Tom is the underdog when the conflicts between him and Jerry are instigated by the latter, often because Jerry is intentionally antagonizing Tom for his own amusement.
 * Both Tom & Jerry can be classified as anti-heroes as both are abusive, cruel, and villainous at times and are the main protagonists of the series.
 * He is very similar to Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes:
 * Both are rivals of the protagonists (Tom to Jerry, and Daffy to Bugs).
 * Both are always physically punished through comedic slapstick.
 * Both rarely get the best of their rivals though sometimes they are victorious.
 * Both hunt mice (Tom hunts Jerry, and Daffy hunts Speedy).
 * Both are incompetent and stupid but clever at times.
 * Both are sometimes heroes and team up with the protagonists to defeat other villains.