Mr. Potter

Henry F. Potter (commonly referred to as Mr. Potter or just Potter) is a fictional character in the 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life, portrayed by veteran actor Lionel Barrymore. Potter is a robber baron and the main antagonist of the film, stealing misplaced money from protagonist George Bailey, seeking to dissolve his building and loan association, and driving him to contemplate suicide.

Lionel Barrymore was cast as Mr. Potter. Dan Duryea and Charles Bickford were also considered for the role. Although Barrymore won an Academy Award for Best Actor in A Free Soul in 1931, in the 1940s he was best known as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in the CBS radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol. At the time of filming, Barrymore had become a wheelchair-user due to a hip injury and severe arthritis. Consequently, he played Potter as confined to a wheelchair due to polio; his wheelchair is pushed in all scenes by a wordless assistant played by Frank Hagney.

Within the events of the film's storyline, Mr. Potter serves as the film's antagonist. Elderly, disabled, and miserly, Potter owns most of the businesses in the fictitious town of Bedford Falls, including the bank. One business that he does not completely own is the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan, though he holds a minority stake giving him a seat on the company's board of directors. The Building & Loan is a constant source of aggravation for him, not only because of its perpetual failure to earn a profit, but also because the Building & Loan causes him to lose renters for what George Bailey calls "slums," as the mortgages it provides enable the renters to buy their own homes, many of which are in a subdivision called "Bailey Park". Over the course of the film, Potter makes several failed attempts to have the Building & Loan shut down. These attempts comprise nearly all of Potter's scenes in the film.

Richard Corliss of Time magazine described Barrymore's portrayal as, "... Scrooge, the Grinch and Simon Legree in one craggy, crabby package".

Mr. Potter ranks at #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Greatest Villains in American film history. Some commentators attempt to argue for Mr. Potter, promoting him as a symbol of entrepreneurial capitalism. In truth, at the time of the film's release the FBI made a file on the film that cited an unnamed expert in the film industry who thought the portrayal of Potter as a banker was unfair. The FBI placed the film on their list of suspected communist propaganda, keeping it there until 1956. The FBI's internal memo said that the film "represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This ... is a common trick used by communists."

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening drew inspiration from Mr. Potter for the character Mr. Burns.

Barrymore's portrayal of Mr. Potter inspired Allen Swift's portrayal of mad scientist Simon Barsinister in the Underdog cartoon series.

In an interview with Michael Parkinson in 2002, Peter Kay stated that he named the Phoenix Nights character Brian Potter after Mr. Potter.