Dr. Evil

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Dr. Evil
Austin Powers character
Mike Myers as Dr. Evil
First appearance	Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Last appearance	Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
Created by	Mike Myers
Based on	Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Portrayed by	Mike Myers Josh Zuckerman (young)
In-universe information
Full name	Douglas Powers
Family	Nigel Powers (father) Austin Powers (brother) Scott Evil (son) Chloé (adoptive mother) Mini-Me (clone)
Significant other	Frau Farbissina

Douglas "Dougie" Powers, known primarily as Dr. Evil, is a fictional character portrayed by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers film series. He is the main antagonist and Austin Powers' nemesis. He is a parody of James Bond villains, primarily Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Dr. Evil routinely hatches schemes to terrorize and take over the world, and is usually accompanied by "Number Two", a goon who fronts his evil corporation Virtucon Industries, his cat Mr. Bigglesworth and his sidekick Mini-Me, a dwarf clone of himself.

American costume maker Phillip Morris had also created a stereotypical character named Dr. Evil in 1959. New Line Cinema paid him a settlement in response to a trademark dispute.^[1]

Fictional background[]

According to his own account in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, delivered in a group therapy session with his estranged son Scott, Dr. Evil's upbringing went as follows:

The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-old French prostitute named Chloé with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink; he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.^[2][3]

In the second film, he went on the Jerry Springer show and declared that he had once made a "marzipan voodoo effigy of the Fonz while in a coma after smoking some Bolivian prayer hash at Sammy Davis Jr.'s house", and that he's the "Princess of Canada".

In the third Austin Powers film, Goldmember, Nigel Powers reveals that Dr. Evil is in fact Austin Powers' twin brother, Douglas "Dougie" Powers. He explains that Douglas and Austin were separated as babies following a car explosion, and that he had thought that only Austin had survived. Following the explosion, Dougie was raised by Belgians in Bruges, situated in the Dutch-speaking Flemish Region of Belgium but he claims to not know how to speak "freaky-deeky Dutch".

He also attended and graduated from the British Intelligence Academy with Austin (along with Basil Exposition and Number 2), and is angered that Austin won the "International Man of Mystery" award, while he, the academy's best student, was overlooked.

In the first film, Dr. Evil is an internationally known criminal genius, cryogenically frozen in 1967 and reawakened in 1997. Like Austin Powers, he faces challenges in acclimating to the new period. He often places his little finger near his mouth, especially when excited or to emphasize a statement. The gesture seems to have been borrowed from Dr. Rex, a character in "Number 12 Looks Just Like You," an episode of The Twilight Zone. Dr. Evil occasionally uses unnecessary air quotes around now-familiar technical terms such as "laser".

The scar on his face is a reference to similar scars on early 20th century movie villains, such as several portrayed by Erich von Stroheim (as well as a homage to Donald Pleasence as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice). This type of scar is usually a remnant of Mensur fencing, an activity in which European student groups participate. Clearly a parody of a James Bond villain, Dr. Evil dislikes the honorific "Mr." when applied to himself, and says: "I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called 'Mister'!"

Dr. Evil also wears clothing with a strong resemblance to Julius No, played by Joseph Wiseman, from the film Dr. No, specifically gray Nehru jacket jumpsuits and similar anti-radiation suits. Some aspects, including some of his quotes and his henchman Random Task, parody elements from Goldfinger. While Dr. Evil is primarily a send-up of the 1960s Sean Connery-era Bond villains, the 1970s Roger Moore era also gets skewered: the interior of Dr. Evil's space station in The Spy Who Shagged Me resembles Hugo Drax's space station from Moonraker, and the film's title spoofs The Spy Who Loved Me.

Entourage[]

Dr. Evil employs a diverse and highly stereotypical group of minions.

Frau Farbissina[]

Perhaps closest to Dr. Evil is his personal assistant Frau Farbissina (played by Mindy Sterling) who is the founder of the militant wing of The Salvation Army. ("Farbissina" is Yiddish for "embittered".) In the second film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, after imbibing some of Austin Powers' mojo, Dr. Evil becomes temporarily irresistible to Frau Farbissina, who is portrayed as a lesbian. In Goldmember, Farbissina and Dr. Evil kiss while he is in prison; the purpose was to transfer a key to Evil so that he could escape. She is a parody of the characters Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love and Irma Bunt from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and does not appear to age over time, which was used for comedic effect in the film.

Scott Evil[]

Dr. Evil has a strained relationship with his son Scott (played by Seth Green), even liquidating their therapy group over an accusation of insolence. Scott points out Dr. Evil's incompetence and immaturity, as well as obvious mistakes and flaws in his plans. Scott later grows more "evil" and momentarily gains his father's respect, especially after Scott provides him a pool filled with sharks with lasers on their heads. When Dr. Evil switches sides to help Austin save the world, Scott takes over as the head of the evil organization.

Number Two[]

Number Two (played by Robert Wagner) leads Dr. Evil's industrial empire Virtucon and is primarily concerned with the financial aspects of world domination. In successive films, his schemes and ventures garner massive profits for Virtucon without straying very far into illegality. Dr. Evil claims that Number Two's strategies in bringing in legitimately-obtained income insult the "ideals" of an evil empire. Number Two is a parody of Emilio Largo from the James Bond film Thunderball, second-in-command of the SPECTRE terrorist organization.

Mr. Bigglesworth[]

Mr. Bigglesworth
Mr. Bigglesworth in International Man of Mystery

Mr. Bigglesworth is a fictional cat belonging to Dr. Evil. He was originally similar to Blofeld's cat, a typical white Persian cat from the James Bond movie series. Having escaped with Dr. Evil in a cryonic capsule, he lost all his fur due to an error in the thawing process. Mr. Bigglesworth has subsequently become bald, played by a Sphynx cat, whilst Dr. Evil's miniature clone, Mini-Me, has a kitten named Mini Mr. Bigglesworth.^[4]

In the third instalment of the franchise, Mr. Bigglesworth is only seen once.^[5]

Fat Bastard[]

Fat Bastard (also Mike Myers) is a morbidly obese henchman hailing from Scotland, said to weigh a metric ton. His extreme size endows Fat Bastard with super-human strength, as exhibited by his prowess in the Sumo ring from Goldmember. Fat Bastard is noted for his foul temper, frequent flatulence, vulgar manners and cannibalism. Fat Bastard reappears at the end of Austin Powers in Goldmember, having lost most of his girth, claiming he lost "180 lbs" and attributing the loss to the "Subway diet".

Random Task[]

Dr. Evil's handyman extraordinaire is Random Task, an ex-wrestler whose personality and assassination style parody those of Oddjob from Goldfinger, except that he throws his shoe instead of his hat. His names themselves are synonyms of 'odd' and 'job'. Task repetitively cracks his neck and it is often his job to move dead bodies away silently and to move Dr. Evil's chair.

Paddy O'Brien[]

Paddy O'Brien is an ex-assassin who is extremely superstitious, leaving a keepsake from his good-luck charm bracelet on the body of every victim he kills. Apparently Scotland Yard has been trying to recover that bracelet for some time. O'Brien attempts to assassinate Austin by choking him with his bracelet in the bathroom stall, but Austin drowns him in a parody of a scene in the Woody Allen movie "What's Up Tiger Lily." He is a parody of Donald "Red" Grant from the 007 film "From Russia With Love."^{[citation needed]}

Mustafa[]

Mustafa (played by Will Ferrell), another assistant, designs the cryogenic freezing process that preserves Dr. Evil for 30 years. In 1969, two years after the early Dr. Evil was frozen, Mustafa is caught by the early Austin Powers, who had followed '90s Dr. Evil through time, and is forced to answer questions on the location of Dr. Evil's hideout. He feels compelled to answer any question that is posed to him three times. Silenced by Mini-Me before he can reveal his boss's location, he falls down a cliff but survives. Later, he ensures that Dr. Evil is thawed out, and survives several attempts to kill him.

Mini-Me[]

The second film introduces Dr. Evil's clone Mini-Me (played by Verne Troyer) who is "one-eighth his size but twice as evil." Dr. Evil considers him more of a real son than Scott, provoking the latter's jealousy. Mini-Me later joins Austin to become a miniature version of him. As revealed by Myers in the audio commentary for the 2nd film, Mini-Me is a parody of the character Majai, from the film The Island of Dr. Moreau, as played by Nelson de la Rosa, whose sole purpose in that film is to follow Marlon Brando's Dr. Moreau character and copy his every move, dressing identically to Brando. Majai never speaks in the film, and similarly, Mini-Me does not speak either. Mini-Me is also a parody of the miniature butler Nick Nack from The Man with the Golden Gun.

Other assistants[]

In the opening few minutes of the first film, Dr. Evil has four associates, namely Jurgen (a doctor), Generalissimo (a dictator), Rita (a meter maid), and Don Luigi (a mob boss with a hook for a hand, with a cigar speared on it), all executed because of their failure to kill Austin Powers. In The Spy Who Shagged Me, Vanessa Kensington portrays one of Dr. Evil's female robots, sent by him as a wedding gift for Austin.

Secret lairs[]

The Space Needle in Seattle

Parodying the many Bond villains, Dr. Evil inhabits a sequence of elaborate lairs.

In Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, Dr. Evil's first lair is underground in the Nevada desert, "somewhere outside Las Vegas"; which are obvious homages to You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. It was destroyed when Dr. Evil set it to self-destruct.

In Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Dr. Evil's lair is atop the Space Needle in Seattle, portrayed as the Starbucks headquarters; later, it is in a Caribbean island volcano with Dr. Evil's face carved into it (a homage to both You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die), and then on the moon (the film's final villainous homage, to Moonraker). The moon base was destroyed when Dr. Evil set it to self-destruct.

For the third film, Austin Powers In Goldmember, Dr. Evil has a new lair behind the famous Hollywood Sign and a submarine lair, shaped like himself (a homage to Karl Stromberg's Liparus tanker in The Spy Who Loved Me).

Schemes[]

Dr. Evil's projects for world domination are often named after post-1960s pop culture trademarks (Death Star, The Alan Parsons Project, Preparation H), and he is often unaware of the accidental pun due to having been frozen for thirty years. For example, when Dr. Evil says he will turn the moon into a "Death Star" (said with finger quotes), Scott laughs and calls him "Darth".

Some of his threats are exaggerated, as when he makes his threat of causing all the world's volcanoes to erupt at once but only displays his machinery, something of an homage to Thunderball. When he makes the threat of "Death Star", he "demonstrates" the power of his laser by showing the President and the cabinet footage of the White House being destroyed, before admitting it was just footage from the movie Independence Day. "The real laser would be a lot like that", he lamely concludes.

Dr. Evil seems to have a problem in general with understanding money, especially regarding inflation, variously threatening to hold the world ransom for $1 million and $100 billion, provoking laughter at the suggested sum being perceived as being either picayune or unrealistically large. Other idiotic schemes include a threat to destroy the ozone layer and make a scandal of Prince Charles' marriage, unaware that these were already issues that commanded popular attention. He expresses disappointment when endangered-species legislation prevents him from getting laser-beam-equipped sharks but finally settles on mutated sea bass. As with Auric Goldfinger, he creates models of his plans, worried that they are too complicated for his minions to understand. He also cares nothing for the companies (Virtucon, Starbucks, Hollywood Talent Agency) that fund his plans, ignoring all suggestions from Number Two on how to increase the profit of such companies.

In television[]

Myers later revived the Dr. Evil character for a brief appearance on the December 20, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live, a show on which Myers had previously had a regular role. During the sketch, Dr. Evil lampooned North Korea^[6] and Sony Pictures on their spat over The Interview.^[7] Myers once again revived the character for a brief appearance on a 2018 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in a sketch where Dr. Evil has been fired from President Trump's cabinet, and again on Election Day to announce his run for Congress.

Some of Dr. Evil's facial and vocal expressions are allegedly patterned after Lorne Michaels, producer of television's Saturday Night Live, where Myers worked for a number of years. Most notably, Dr. Evil's statement "throw me a frickin' bone here, people," was supposedly uttered frequently by Michaels at script meetings for SNL. As Dr. Evil, Myers occasionally affects an Ontario accent, reflecting his (and Michaels's) upbringing.

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Dr. Evil