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| “ | We're gonna get high and watch this whole f--kin' city burn from that window. | „ |
| ~ Funboy to his lover Darla. |
Funboy is a supporting antagonist in James O'Barr's 1989 graphic novel The Crow as well as the 1994 film adaptation.
He is one of the five criminals who murdered young couple Eric Draven and Shelley Webster, and whom Eric seeks to kill one year later when he is resurrected by a mystical crow.
In the film adaptation, he was portrayed by the late Michael Massee, who also played Ira Gaines in 24, Spellbinder in The Batman, Jacob Dawes in Criminal Minds, Michael Williams in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Gustav Fiers in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise.
Biography[]
Comics[]
In James O'Barr's original graphic novel, Funboy and a gang of four other criminals, Tintin, Tom-Tom, Top Dollar and T-Bird, ride by Shelley and Eric, who are stranded on the side of the highway, and decide to kill them for fun. They gang-rape Shelley, shoot both her and Eric in the head, and leave them to die.
A year later, Eric is brought back to life by the crow, and seeks vengeance against his and Shelley's murderers. After killing Tin-Tin, Tom-Tom, and Top Dollar, Eric finds Funboy at his lover Darla's apartment, high on morphine. Funboy is amused by the idea of killing Eric twice, and accepts his challenge to meet at a remote dive bar to settle their feud. Funboy recruits his and T-Bird's henchmen to eliminate Eric, but is amazed to see the undead avenger effortlessly kill every single one of his men.
Funboy accepts defeat, and even apologizes to Eric; he says that he knows that what he did to him and Shelley was evil and that he wishes he felt remorse, but that he simply doesn't, and has in fact done far worse things. Eric shows his appreciation for Funboy's honesty by offering him a painless death via morphine overdose. As he dies, Funboy tells Eric to kill T-Bird as slowly and painfully as he can.
Film[]
The film adaptation alters the character somewhat, making him a professional thief and arsonist who, along with the rest of the gang, kills people and burns down buildings at the order of crime boss Top Dollar. When Shelley Webster starts a petition against unfair tenant eviction in a building owned by Top Dollar, the crime lord sends Funboy and the other criminals to kill her and burn down the building. They gang-rape and torture Shelley, and shoot Eric to death when he walks in on them; Funboy fires the fatal shot into Eric's back.
A year later, Eric is resurrected and seeks revenge against his and Shelley's killers; Funboy is second on his list, after Tin-Tin. Eric finds him with his lover and fellow morphine addict Darla, the mother of Sarah, a young girl whom Eric and Shelley had unofficially adopted. Eric dares Funboy to shoot him in the hand and laughs while Funboy gapes in horror as the wound closes up before his eyes. Eric then shoots Funboy in the leg, drags him into the bathtub, and carves a crow shape into his chest with his own discarded syringes. After persuading Darla to quit drugs and be a better mother to Sarah, Eric hangs Funboy by his wrists and leaves him to bleed to death.
Trivia[]
- While the film portrays Funboy as a base, dimwitted thug, O'Barr's graphic novel portrays him as intelligent and well-read. For example, he recognizes Eric's references to Charles Baudelaire and John Milton, and is able to intellectually understand that his behavior is wrong.
- The television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven gave the character the full name George Jamieson.
- Originally, Funboy originally shot and killed Eric from the front, however, during filming of Eric's death, Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on set. Michael Massee fired a blank from the prop gun, which dislodged a bullet from a dummy cartridge into Lee's stomach. It was later discovered bullet from an improperly made dummy cartridge had gotten lodged in the barrel from a previous scene. While no charges were pressed against him due to the death being labeled an accident, Massee would later say he felt responsible for Lee's death, and was haunted by the incident for the rest of his life. He even took a year off of acting, and never saw the movie due to the trauma. The scene was rewritten so Funboy shot Eric from the back to allow it to be filmed with a double.
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 Villains
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Comics IDW Publishing Others Movies Stairway to Heaven | ||