Gru

Felonious Gru Sr., alternatively spelled as Felonius Gru and typically referred to simply as Gru, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Despicable Me franchise. Voiced by American actor Steve Carell, he has appeared in all six films in the series. Gru is a grouchy, quick-witted, and cynical former supervillain, who serves as a secret agent in order to fight other supervillains.

Gru is the son of Marlena and the Bald Terror (real name Robert), twin brother of Dru, the adoptive father of Margo, Edith, and Agnes as well as the biological father of Gru Jr., husband of Lucy, and boss of the Minions.

At the beginning of the first film, Gru is an ambitious supervillain who constantly seeks approval from his mother, until the adoption of his daughters convinces him that their happiness is the most important thing.

In the second film, Gru leaves his villainous past behind to care for his adoptive daughters, but then soon joins forces —unwillingly— with secret agent Lucy Wilde, whom he later marries.

In the third film, after he and Lucy are fired from their jobs at the Anti-Villain League, Gru learns that he has a twin brother, Dru, whom he never met due to their divorced parents raising each child separately. Along with Lucy and the girls, Gru meets Dru at his mansion in Freedonia, and they form a brotherly relationship over the course of the film.

In the fourth film, Gru has a blood-related son named Felonious Gru Jr., who he must protect from his rival Maxime Le Mal. After the villain escapes, Gru and his family went undercover and the AVL has to relocate them to a safehouse in Mayflower.

The character that would become Gru was conceived by animator Sergio Pablos, who envisioned him as a Dracula-like character, but the directors of the first film, Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, later opted for a more sleek character that would echo "the world of James Bond", with Auric Goldfinger being cited as a particular influence. Gru also bears some design similarities with British comic-book character Grimly Feendish and with the pre-Crisis version of Lex Luthor.

Gru's distinctive accent, described as "quasi-Russian" by A. O. Scott and "halfway between a Russian mafioso and a crazed Nazi" by Roger Ebert, was largely a product of his voice actor Steve Carell's experimentation. According to Despicable Me producer Chris Meledandri, the voice Carell eventually settled on was conceived as "halfway between Ricardo Montalbán and Bela Lugosi".