Gordon Gekko, portrayed by Michael Douglas.

Gordon Gekko is a fictional character from the popular 1987 movie Wall Street. Gekko was portrayed by actor-producer Michael Douglas, in a performance that was to win him an Oscar for Best Actor. In the film, naïve stock broker Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, comes to work for the ultra-aggressive, power-hungry Gekko. He is also slated to return in the as-yet embryonic film Money Never Sleeps. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation). ... Alice, a fictional character based on a real character from the work of Lewis Carroll. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wall Street is an American film released in 1987. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation). ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... The Academy Award for Best Actor is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... A Stock broker sells or buys stock on behalf of a customer. ... Charles Irwin Sheen (born Carlos Irwin Estévez on September 3, 1965) is a Golden Globe Award-winning and Emmy-nominated American actor. ... Wall Street is an American film released in 1987. ...

Gekko is based loosely on arbitrageur Ivan Boesky who gave a speech on greed at the University of California in 1986, and real-life activist investor / corporate raider Carl Icahn. In 2002 Gordon Gekko was named one of the Fifteen Richest Fictional Characters according to Forbes who attributed him with 650 million dollars. In 2003, the AFI named him number 24 of the top 50 movie villains of all time. Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937, in Detroit) was notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s. ... Greed is excessive or uncontrolled desire for or pursuit of money, wealth, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. ... Berkeley Davis Irvine Los Angeles Merced San Diego Santa Barbara Santa Cruz UC Office of the President in Oakland The University of California (UC) is a public university system in the state of California. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The American Film Institute (AFI) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ...

Greed is good speech

Gekko's famous "Greed is good" speech was, to many, an excellent representation of the state of investment banking in the late 1980s. Gekko has since become a symbol of 1980s corporate greed. While the producers of the movie Wall Street clearly intended to portray this character as a villain, ironically enough, thanks to this movie, Gordon Gekko became a source of inspiration for countless number of investment bankers around the world. It has often been suggested that Wall Street turned out to be a most effective recruitment tool for the investment banking industry. In addition, Gekko's diatribe against corporate mismanagement is just as relevant in the 21st century as in the 1980s. Gekko made the argument against well-entrenched corporate managers, saying they were taking advantage of shareholders. He contrasted the role of early American business leaders like the Carnegies and Mellons who only managed businesses in which they had significant investments with that of well paid company senior executives who owned very little of a company's stock, and hence had little stake in the company's performance. Investment banks help companies and governments and their agencies to raise money by issuing and selling securities in the primary market. ... This article cites very few or no references or sources. ... Corporate redirects here. ... Wall Street is an American film released in 1987. ... Wall Street is an American film released in 1987. ... A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. ... Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, a major and widely respected philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ... Andrew William Mellon (March 24, 1855 — August 27, 1937) was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932. ...

He asserted to shareholders at a company meeting: "You own the company. That's right -- you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes... Teldar Paper has thirty-three different vice presidents, each earning over two-hundred thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost one-hundred and ten million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents." A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy, usually within an institution of the government. ... A golden handshake or golden parachute is a clause in an executive employment contract that provides the executive with a significant severance package in the case that the executive loses their job through firing, restructuring, or even scheduled retirement. ...

He declared that as an asset stripper he was "not a destroyer of companies" but a "liberator of them." And most famously in the film, he asserted: Look up Liberator on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberator can refer to several things: In a political sense, a person or thing that delivers a group of people or a nation from conquest or political oppression. ...

Fashion

Gekko's clothing selections were both a nod to 1980s corporate culture fashion trends and an innovator in those trends. The colorful suspenders, shiny shoulder-padded suits and permanently slicked-back hair became the official look of power and fortune.

Much of his wardrobe was provided by Alan Flusser; his shirts were tailored by Alexander Kabbaz. Alan Flusser is an American author and designer of mens clothing. ...

Representative quotes

"Lunch is for wimps."

"Money never sleeps, pal."

"Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought." Sun Tzu (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; c. ... For other uses, see The Art of War (disambiguation). ...

"Money never sleeps, pal."

"It's all about the bucks kid, the rest is conversation."

"And if you need a friend, get a dog."

"And I'm not talking about some four-hundred thousand dollar a year, working Wall Street stiff, flying first-class, being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet, rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred-million dollars Buddy, a player...or nothing."

"That's the thing about wasps, they love animals, can't stand people."

"Just got on the board at the Bronx Zoo, cost me a mill."

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own."

"We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price of a paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of a hat while everybody sits around wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naïve enough to think that we’re living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It’s the free market, and you’re part of it."

"Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? Because they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered, The public's out there throwing darts at a board, kid, I don't throw darts at a board; I bet on sure things."

"You and I are the same Darian, we are smart enough not to buy into the oldest myth running: love. A fiction created by people to keep them from jumping out of windows."

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."

Trivia

In the film, Gekko's birthday is on 6 May. His age is unknown, about 40-45. May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ...

External links

• Speech before stockholders
• Forbes profile
• Is Gordon Gekko Back in Fashion?
• Analysis of Gekko's character and legal status