Ferris Boyle was the CEO of GothCorp. He appeared to be compassionate, but was actually ruthless.
History[]
Boyle promoted GothCorp as "The People Company", which created an image of a softer and more compassionate corporation than people expected. He was even nominated for Gotham City's Humanitarian of the Year. It was, however, all an act: underneath, Boyle was as greedy, ruthless, and cold-hearted as any of those "hardboiled businessmen" he denounced. A year before his nomination, Boyle became infuriated when Dr. Victor Fries, a GothCorp scientist, used company equipment without authorization (or as he later put it to Bruce Wayne, "wasted [his] money"). Boyle confronted Fries in his lab with two security guards and ordered him to shut down his unauthorized "project". Fries pleaded that the "project" was actually a stasis tube that preventing his terminally ill wife, Nora Fries, from dying, and that shutting it off would kill her. Boyle was not moved in the slightest, and ordered his guards to disconnect the equipment. In desperation, Fries grabbed a gun from one of Boyle's guards and ordered them to stay back. Boyle, exercising some of his old charm, appealed to Fries to be reasonable, and promised that they could work things out without violence- that caused Fries to lower the gun, just long enough for Boyle to kick him in the chest, which sent him crashing backwards into a table of unstable chemicals. As the room was engulfed, Boyle and his guards fled the scene, and presumed that Fries and his wife had both died. He gave a mental shrug, and went on with the business of running GothCorp.
In fact, Fries had survived, though his body chemistry was radically altered. After he believed that Nora was dead, Fries began a campaign of vengeance against both GothCorp and Boyle, which culminated in an attack on the building where Boyle was accepting his Humanitarian of the Year Award. Boyle was shocked to recognize his assailant as the presumed-dead Victor Fries. Boyle was reduced to begging for his life as Freeze slowly froze him in ice from the feet up with his Freeze Gun, until Batman arrived and subdued Freeze. After he saved Boyle from being murdered, Batman then handed over to Summer Gleeson a videotape of the tragic accident, didn't bother to free Boyle from the ice, and simply said to him: "Good night, humanitarian" in a disgusted tone.
Trivia[]
- Ferris Boyle was voiced by Mark Hamill, who would become well known as the Joker in the shows. Ironically, Hamill had only intended to make a guest appearance, as Boyle was meant to be a "one-episode villain", and the producers pushed for professional voice actors as opposed to celebrities. Tim Curry, who had more extensive past voice acting, was the first choice for the Joker, but had trouble screen testing and ultimately declined. Hamill's role as Ferris Boyle so impressed the crew that producer Alan Burnett lobbied to make him the second choice for the Joker, which succeeded.