| “ | I don't give a rat's ass for the voters! All I care about is the money, and the power that'll give me the money. That's why I'm a success and you're not! America for the Americans. You believe that nonsense? You're stupider than I thought! I'd sell my soul to the Japanese if they made me an offer. And as for you, don't come suckering around me if you want something! The only thing you'll get from me is this! | „ |
| ~ Big Ben says in front of the cameras, what his real interests are. |
Benjamin "Big Ben" Healy Sr. is one of the main antagonists of the Problem Child comedy franchise. He appears as a secondary antagonist in the first and second film, as a minor antagonist in the third film, and as a supporting antagonist in the animated series. He is the father of Ben Healy Jr. (whom he also calls "Little Ben") and adoptive grandfather of Junior, of whom he is also one of his archenemies.
He was portrayed by the late Jack Warden in the three live-action films and is voiced by the late Jonathan Harris in the TV series.
Personality[]
Big Ben is greedy, selfish, cynical, and willing to do anything to get rich. He has no interest in anyone but himself and he hates his son because, unlike him, he is a good, kind and honest man who preferred not to have a career rather than resort to illicit means, which is why he declares that he intends to leave him nothing by inheritance, selling everything that was intended for him (the shop where his son worked and some land) to a Japanese company, responding to his son's protests that he had worked for him without ever getting any promotions , that this is a lesson for him, a lesson not to trust anyone, not even (actually, above all) his own family. Furthermore, he shows no respect for Flo by making vulgar comments about the alleged sterility of his daughter-in-law or the possibility of resorting to artificial insemination and immediately hates Junior (hate that leads the two to collide numerous times), not failing to advise Ben get rid of it. Despite this, in his own way he seems to have taken care of his son, for example going so far as to bribe the principal of the college his son attended as a boy so that he could continue studying.
Biography[]
Problem Child[]
Big Ben is a wealthy entrepreneur who owns a chain of sporting goods stores. In the first film, Big Ben ran for mayor of Cold River, the city where he lives with his son and daughter-in-law Flo. Although his son has been working for him for years, Big Ben hates him because, unlike him, he is an honest person who has never resorted to illicit means to reach a position of power. She immediately disapproves of Ben and Flo's idea of adopting a child, bringing up all sorts of negative possibilities regarding the adopted child's past (including "his parents may vote Democrat") and almost immediately hates Junior after surprising him in the middle of a fire in his bedroom, caused by a clown-shaped lamp short-circuiting (whether caused intentionally or accidentally is not clarified). After cursing him, Big Ben, annoyed, starts to leave his son's house, promising never to enter their house again. Hearing those words, Junior, in revenge, throws Fuzzball, Flo's pet cat, at him, causing Big Ben to fall down the stairs and forcing him to be hospitalized. As he is hospitalized, Big Ben insists that Junior dropped him and that "they have to get rid of him." Some time later, after Junior, convinced that Ben and Flo want to take him back to the orphanage, drives Ben's car, ending up inside the shop owned by his grandfather and causing countless damage. Big Ben, in revenge, uses money from his son's bank account to pay for the damages.
Big Ben is last seen in the film when Ben, after escaped serial killer Martin Beck kidnaps Junior and Flo demanding $100,000 as ransom, breaks into their store just before going on live TV for his campaign and asks him to borrow that money, refusing to lend it to him and saying that the fact that his son and his wife have been kidnapped is the best thing that could have happened to him. Furious, Ben tells his father that he no longer considers him his son, to which Big Ben simply tells him to leave because he has to think about his election campaign. Ben, furious at his father's lack of empathy, demands he really say what he's going to do for the city and turns on the camera without anyone noticing. Big Ben replies that he doesn't care about the voters, that the only thing he cares about is earning a lot of money, which is why he has achieved success and his son hasn't. Then he tells him that "America and the Americans" are just nonsense and that if Ben believes in it he is a fool, that he would be willing to sell his soul for a good offer and concludes by telling his son not to come and beg when he wants something because “The only thing you'll get from me is this!” and concludes the examination of him by lowering his underwear and showing his bare ass to his son. This gesture on live TV will spell his downfall and cause him to lose the elections.
Problem Child 2[]
In the second film Big Ben proves that he hasn't changed at all in character. However, after the problems following the loss of the election, his company goes bankrupt and he finds himself broke and hounded by creditors, which is why he manages to track down Ben and Junior - who have meanwhile moved to Mortville to hide out long enough to find a solution , bringing along Nippy, an aggressive and bad-tempered Jack Russell Terrier. Unmasked after initially saying that he had taken a few days off and that he wanted to spend them with his family, Ben finally confesses why he asked them for help and, although Ben knows perfectly well that his father hates him, he finally manages to convince him to host it. Obviously living together with his son and grandson won't be easy, since as soon as he arrives at their house, Nippy attacks Junior by biting his leg under the indifference of Big Ben (who says that "the dog just wanted to make friends" and that "Junior it was scaring him." In addition, Big Ben claims the cot above Junior's bunk bed as his and purposely destroys a Lego house that Junior had built by throwing a suitcase over it, while Nippy pees on the bedroom carpet. That evening Junior, annoyed by Ben's loud snoring, first tries to silence him by stuffing a dirty sock that Nippy was nibbling into his mouth and, when his grandfather shoots the "improvised gag" out of his mouth, making him fall out of bed by pulling the sheets. Later Junior sells to the twins Dolly and Madison Burger - daughters of a neighbor - all of Big Ben's expensive wardrobe for only 10 dollars and Big Ben, furious, tries to beat him with a belt but Junior accidentally throws him out a window , moving when Big Ben tries to hit it. The fall causes the man to end up in a tree, and while he is desperately trying to hold on so as not to fall and to attract the attention of Ben (who is going out with Junior to spend a day just between father and son), he sees LaWanda Dumore arriving – rich Mortville bank owner who has fallen for Ben -. After falling from the tree without sustaining serious damage, the man befriends LaWanda seeing in her the possibility of recovering economically through a marriage with Ben and helps her to completely refurbish her son's house, planning to help her arrange the marriage between her and her son. However Junior immediately understands that LaWanda is a petty and superficial woman who hates children, and tries to sabotage the relationship between her and his father, hypnotizing Nippy to turn him against her and causing the dog to fall into a catatonic state (later, one night in which Big Ben, disconsolate, thinks that Nippy has abandoned him and that he hates living at home with a bankrupt son and a pestiferous nephew, Nippy is found but still in a catatonic state only to wake up a few days later) and filling the dishes with cockroaches a dinner that LaWanda had arranged for them. When Ben and LaWanda finally make their wedding official, Big Ben is over the moon but, seeing Junior and Trixie – a little girl with whom Junior has befriended and whose mother Annie, a Mortville school nurse, is in love – unconsciously reciprocated – with Ben talking to each other in the middle of the night tries to stop them, being attacked and immobilized by the two children. When in the end the marriage between Ben and LaWanda is sabotaged by Junior and Trixie, Big Ben tries in vain to convince Ben to marry LaWanda but these, by now declared to Annie, suggests to the same father that if he likes LaWanda so much he can marry her, at the that Big Ben, considering it an excellent idea, reaches LaWanda and consoles her by telling her that he is different from his son and loves her, exchanging a passionate kiss with her. As a last bit of spite, Junior and Trixie blow up the wedding cake on the two "lovers" with a stick of dynamite.
Problem Child 3: Junior in Love[]
In the third film - probably not canonical with the first two - many events of the first two films have been ignored, Big Ben is not married (there is no mention of LaWanda and other characters in the second film) and lives in a good economic situation . He continues to maintain his usual evil, unaffectionate and selfish character, verbally humiliating Ben and Junior, proposing to Ben – who needs money to buy Junior dental braces – to give him that money only if he manages to beat him in a match of boxing – and being walled up alive by Junior in the closet after he had cursed him for refusing to tell him in which room of the house they kept the alcohol (managing to escape after digging a tunnel that leads him into the garden of the house). Later, when the canoe race between Ben and Junior and Duke Phlim and his father, Scoutmaster Eugene is sabotaged and their canoe ends up in Big Ben's house, on his board, while he is waiting for his maid to bring him to eat, after an initial moment of perplexity Big Ben rubs the knife and fork together and comments, with a hungry air "I taste everything".
Problem Child (TV Series)[]
Big Ben is a supporting antagonist in the animated series (non-canon with the movies). In this version he is the mayor of the city and always tries to enrich himself further with illicit ways (for example by making deals with the mafia). He is aesthetically drawn different from Jack Warden, being paunchy and with a much longer and thicker mustache.
Trivia[]
Jack Warden is the only actor, besides the late Gilbert Gottfried – who played Igor Peabody in the saga – to have participated in all the films of the saga. However, unlike Gottfried, who voiced Peabody in the TV series (and who is therefore the only actor to have played his character in the entire franchise), Warden did not voice Big Ben in the TV series.
Gallery[]
