In the Victorian vernacular, a gentleman thief or lady thief (called phantom thief in the East) is a particularly well-behaving and apparently well bred thief. A "gentleman or lady" is usually, but not always, a person with an inherited title of nobility and inherited wealth, who need not work for a living. Such a person steals not in order to gain material wealth, but for adventure; they act without malice. These thieves rarely bother with anonymity or force, preferring to rely on their charisma, physical attractiveness, and clever misdirection to steal the most unobtainable objects — sometimes for their own support, but mostly for the thrill of the act itself.
In popular culture[]
Raffles, the gentleman thief, as portrayed by David Niven.
Notable gentlemen thieves (and lady thieves) in popular culture include the following:
- Professor James Moriarty, the archnemesis of Sherlock Holmes
- Leslie Charteris's Simon Templar
- Thomas Crown from The Thomas Crown Affair
- John Robie in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief,[1]
- E. W. Hornung's A. J. Raffles
- Carmen Sandiego (character)
- Edward Pierce from The Great Train Robbery
- Frank L. Packard's Jimmie Dale, aka The Gray Seal.
- Selina Kyle (Catwoman)
- Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin
- Arsène Lupin III, from Lupin III (by Monkey Punch).[2]
- Kaito Kuroba the Phantom Thief Kid from Magic Kaito and later Detective Conan (by Gosho Aoyama)
- Meimi Haneoka, who transforms into Saint Tail, a thief with acrobatic and magician skills, from Saint Tail (by Megumi Tachikawa)
- Dark Mousy the angel-like thief from D.N.Angel (by Yukiru Sugisaki).
- David Goldman in An Education[3]
- Sir Charles Litton/"The Phantom" in The Pink Panther (1963 film)
- Pierre Despereaux in Psych
- Rodney Skinner in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film).
All are superb at stealing while maintaining a sophisticated front and/or a thief's code of honor: Raffles steals mostly when he is especially in need of money; Lupin steals more from the rich who don't appreciate art or their treasures and redistributes it (not unlike a modern Robin Hood); Saint Tail steals back what was stolen or taken dishonestly, or rights the wrongs done to the innocent by implicating the real criminals.
In real life[]
Christophe Rocancourt is a modern-day, real-life example of the gentleman thief.
Charles Bolles, a.k.a. Black Bart, outlaw of the American West, was known as a gentleman thief in the 1870s and 1880s.
See also[]
- Crime fiction
- Gentleman detective
References[]
- ↑ IMDb
- ↑ LupintheThird.com
- ↑ Denby, David (2009-10-28). "An Education". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2013-01-29.
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External links[]
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