| “ | The board is seriously considering shutting you down. And also, we're gonna dump the Easter Bunny. | „ |
| ~ Clyde Northcutt explaining to Santa his company is facing closure. |
Clyde Northcutt is the main antagonist of the 2007 Christmas comedy Fred Claus.
He is a greedy efficiency expert who's determined to find anything that will justify him shutting down Nick's North Pole operation, including his own use of sabotage.
He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who also played Albert Benton in Unsub, Buddy Ackerman in Swimming with Sharks, Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, John Doe in Se7en, Hopper in A Bug's Life, Lester Burnham in American Beauty, Lex Luthor in Superman Returns, Micky Rosa in 21, David Harken in the Horrible Bosses duology, Dr. Nerse in The Cleveland Show, Jonathan Irons in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Frank Underwood in House of Cards, and Doc in Baby Driver and Rufus Buckley in A Time to kill.
Biography[]
During his childhood, Clyde was bullied by all of the kids at his school. They said bad things about him and made him fight with them by anger. Every year he received comfort by wishing that Santa Claus would bring him a Superman cape but he was always number one on the naughty list since 1968 and never received his cape. That made him bitter and spiteful about Santa. When he grew up, he got a job with a government agency that regulates the works of supernatural entities like Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. Clyde schemed to shut down Santa's workshop when he went to Santa's village to see if all is good for him to continue his job as Santa Claus. When he sees all of the elves dancing and not doing their jobs and that Santa has a brother named Fred, Clyde said he never knew Santa Claus had a brother.
Later, he told Fred to never let Santa be the loved one. But also told him he didn't know why he told him that. After seeing Fred put all of the naughty kids on the nice list, he gleefully decides to fire Santa. But when he was leaving for his airplane, he saw the Santa Claus workshop was still working. Angry, he sees Fred take the sled. He tries to stop him, but Fred leaves so he decides to go to the workshop and created a black out. When Santa came to comfort him, he told him what he was wishing in his childhood. And know why he was put on the naughty list he see Santa was realizing his mistake because Clyde was not ever supposed to be on the naughty list. He finally receives his Superman cape and attempted to fix what he had done, but it was too late. The sunrise was coming and the night was soon over on Christmas day. Luckily, Fred had already delivered the presents.
Later in the end of the movie just like Fred he's a changed man and helps Santa at his shop as his assistant Santa's helper.
Trivia[]
- Ironically he had a Superman cape; yet he played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns, the greatest enemy of Superman.
- According to him, the Tooth Fairy is required to reduce the amount of teeth she collects.
- Clyde Northcutt's appearance is similar to Principal Pankley (the main antagonist of The Legend of Frosty the Snowman). However, Pankley wears a light blue collar shirt instead of a white one.
- Clyde Northcutt wasn’t originally in the dinner scene. He was added into the script for more character interactions.
- As with the other actors, Kevin Spacey was the only choice to play Clyde Northcutt.