Gordon Gekko
| Gordon Gekko | |
|---|---|
| Wall Street character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | Wall Street (1987) |
| Last appearance |
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) |
| Created by |
Oliver Stone Stanley Weiser |
| Portrayed by | Michael Douglas |
| Information | |
| Occupation |
Corporate raider Author |
| Spouse(s) | Kate Gekko (ex-wife) (played by Sean Young) |
| Children | Rudy Gekko (son) (deceased) (played by Sean Stone) Winnie Gekko-Moore (daughter) (played by Carey Mulligan) |
| Relatives | Jacob Moore (son-in-law) (played by Shia LaBeouf) Louis Moore (grandson) |
| Nationality | American |
Gordon Gekko is a fictional character in the 1987 film Wall Street and its 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, both directed by Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, whose performance in the first film won him an Oscar for Best Actor.
Co-written by Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser, Gekko is claimed to be based loosely on several actual financiers, including Stone's own father Louis Stone and corporate raider Asher Edelman. According to Edward R. Pressman, producer of the film, "Originally, there was no one individual who Gekko was modeled on," he adds. "But Gekko was partly Milken", who was the "Junk Bond King" of the 1980s, and indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud in 1989.
In 2003, the American Film Institute named Gordon Gekko No. 24 on its Top 50 movie villains of all time.
Gekko has become a symbol in popular culture for unrestrained greed (with the signature line, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"), often in fields outside corporate finance.
On September 25, 2008, Michael Douglas, acting as a UN ambassador for peace, was at the 2008 session of the United Nations General Assembly. Reporters sought to ask him off-topic questions about Gekko. He was asked whether he "bore some responsibility for the behavior of the greed merchants who had brought the world to its knees". Trying to return to topic, Douglas suggested that "the same level of passion Wall Street investors showed should also apply to getting rid of nuclear weapons."
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