Horatio Jackson is the mayor of an unnamed European town and the secondary antagonist of the 1989 comedy-adventure movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
He was portrayed by Jonathan Pryce, who also portrayed Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, General Vavarin Delatombe in The Brothers Grimm, Sir Stuart Strange in Taboo, Seamus O'Rourke in Ronin, Paul Dellenbach in Renaissance, Jacob Marley in the 2022 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes.
History[]
Horatio Jackson is first seen attending a play about the life of Baron Munchausen put on by a traveling theatre troupe as his town is being attacked by Turkish forces. While it is going on, from his theatre box, Jackson orders a soldier executed for excessive heroism, claiming his bravery would demoralize the other soldiers and citizens.
Soon after, the play is crashed by the real Baron Munchausen, who protests its many inaccuracies and then proceeds to claim that he is the one responsible for the Turkish Army attacking, as he won a wager against the Ottoman Sultan and took all his treasure. The play is then besieged by the Turkish forces, prompting Jackson to rush out and cancel the troupe's contract because of the Baron's interruption.
Jackson is later seen negotiating with the Sultan, attempting to get him and his forces to surrender, but the Sultan refuses, as his forces are winning. Just then, Baron Munchausen walks in and offers to allow the Sultan to chop his head off in order to put an end to all the fighting. Jackson would go on to attend Munchausen's execution, hoping to see the Baron die, only for it to be interrupted and foiled by the Baron's comrade Adolphus shooting the Executioner's blade off his axe.
Jackson later flees back to the city during the ensuing battle between the Sultan's army and Munchausen and his servants. After Munchausen and his friends defeat the Turks and cause them to retreat, they returned to the town where they were celebrated as heroes by townspeople. Spying Munchausen on his horse from a tower, the elected representative pulled out his rifle and shot the Baron, allowing the Angel of Death to go and claim his soul.
However, the whole thing is promptly revealed to just be a story Munchausen is telling. Munchausen then tells the people to go open the gates, as the Turks are defeated, but Jackson objects and instructs his soldiers to kill anyone who tries to open the gates. His soldiers instead refuse and allow the people to open the gates anyway, revealing that the Turks had been defeated and that everything Munchausen had said was apparently true. Jackson is last seen being trampled by the townsfolk.