History Characters / TwelveAngryMen

!!Juror #8

!!Juror #9

* AmbiguouslyBrown: His race is never specified, but he is evidently non-white enough to evoke some racist remarks against "those people" by Juror #10. Possibly Italian, Latino, or Jewish?

** Like the rest of the jurors, he's disgusted by #10's racism. While he had already turned away from the table at that point, he also refuses to dignify #10's tirade in any way.
** He's also clearly appalled by #7 when he switches his vote to "Not Guilty" simply because he wants to leave and "had enough".

** Similarly, the red to Juror #4's blue; both are pushing the guilty verdict but #3 is doing so for emotional reasons while #4 is approaching it from a purely logical angle.

* BreakTheHaughty: One of the pieces of evidence he brings up is that the boy couldn’t remember the movie he was watching when questioned by police which brings doubt to his alibi, so #8 asks him if he can remember the movie he has watched from days ago. #4 looks at his most vulnerable in struggling to remember the picture’s name and it’s actors, taking some time to think, getting the film’s name wrong and not remembering the lead actress’ name; ultimately proving that there was a reason the boy couldn’t have remembered his film’s name as he was under pressure by police as #4 couldn’t remember a film he watched himself outside of police pressure. After his point was shot down, [[NotSoInvincibleAfterAll #4 starts to sweat.]]

* TheStoic: The most calm and collected of the jurors, never raising his voice or showing strong emotions of any kind. He's not completely stoic, though, as a few scenes evidence. He becomes visibly unnerved while being interrogated by Juror #8, and towards the end, expresses annoyance towards Juror #3 (for his obnoxiousness), Juror #9 (for badgering him with seemingly-inane questions instead of getting to the point), and Juror #10 (for being obviously prejudiced against the defendant, instead of arriving at a guilty verdict by the exercise of logic).

* IllKillYou: He allegedly shouted this to his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] the night he died, which has obviously come back to bite him in a pretty major way. However, as #8 points out, just because he said it in a moment of anger doesn't mean he ''actually'' did it. After all, plenty of people say some variation of "kill you" every day in different situations.

* HeelRealization: When, in the middle of his furious insistence that the defendant is guilty, [[spoiler:he sees the picture of his estranged son and rips it to pieces, you can see in his face that he has just figured out what he was really doing]].

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler: He's a bigot whose guilty vote is motivated not by the evidences presented to him, but by his strong prejudice against the ethnic group the boy is a member of, saying that there's "not one of them that is any good", causing him to go in a furious racist monologue after eight of the jurors switch their votes to not guilty.]]After [[spoiler:his racist tirade]], [[EveryoneHasStandards even Jurors #3 and #7 have nothing but contempt for him.]]

The foreman, assigned to moderate the rest of the jury--a job which he is not quite qualified for, but determined to do his best at.

* BerserkButton: Whenever someone questions his authority, he'll get all worked up and suggest to that person they take his place instead.
* NiceGuy: Unless you press his aforementioned BerserkButton, he's a summarily decent guy trying to make the right decisions.
* RaceLift: He's black in 1997.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Friendly and amicable, doing his best to make sure everybody has a chance to voice their opinion and weigh it against exhibits and evidence. We, with Juror #8, learn that #1's day job is as an assistant football coach.

* AgeLift: Old and gray-haired in 1997.
* ExtremeDoormat: He constantly finds himself being swayed by the opinions of the last person who has spoken until, by the end, his courage has visibly grown and he is no longer afraid to stand up to Jurors #3 and #10.

* GrewASpine: He gets more willing to call the other jurors out on their shit as the show goes on.
* HiddenDepths: Despite his initially meek demeanor, he is the one who brings up the point that the stab wound that killed the victim was angled downwards despite the defendant being 7 inches shorter. This leads to further deliberation on the use of the switchblade, furthering the cause for reasonable doubt.
* NiceGuy: He is a really soft spoken guy who tries his best to be nice to even the more belligerent of the jurors.
* NoodleIncident: He recalls an incident a few weeks back where he had a squabble with a fellow banker when expressing doubt over #3's claim that people who yell stuff at the top of their lungs mean what they say. We don't hear the end of it, though, because #3 interrupts him.
* PrematurelyBald: [[DownplayedTrope Not exactly]]. Even if the top of his head is bald, he still has some hair on his sides and back of his head. But balding while being 32 years old (in the 1957 version), it's obviously premature.
* RaceLift: One of the four black jurors in 1997

* BelievingTheirOwnLies: At the start of the deliberations, he opens by claiming to have no personal bias towards the case. It quickly becomes apparent that this is far from the truth, and he himself is the last one to realize it.

* PetTheDog: He assumes #5 changed his stance during the second vote and gives him hell for it, but it turns out it was #9. Afterwards, #3 stammers out ''something'' akin to an apology to him. (It's the thought that counts.)
* PsychologicalProjection: It becomes clear by the end that the ''real'' reason he's so insistent on a guilty conviction is because [[spoiler:he's projecting his own problems with his son onto the case]].

A salesman more concerned with deciding a verdict in time for a baseball game than doing justice.

* BusmansVocabulary: As a sports fan, he brings up alot of baseball jargon and a Boxing metaphor into the conversation.

* {{Jerkass}}: Aside from constantly insulting the other jurors with his constant pithy remarks, he doesn't care what the decision of the jury is. He's only concerned with catching a baseball game. [[spoiler:At least the most vicious jurors voted guilty because they believed in it. That said, when called out on this, he does say that he doesn't believe the accused is guilty.]] Fortunately, the game is rained out during the deliberation, so he can relax and pay attention for once.
* ObsessiveSportsFan: Very impatient during the session as he has a baseball game he wants to go to, compares #8’s arguments to a person who tries to convince a knocked out boxer won the fight and during a rest period he plays basketball with paper balls and a wall mounted fan.

* DirtyCoward: When #11 politely asks him a question, #7 insults him for being an immigrant. But when #11 gives him an actual [[spoiler:TheReasonYouSuck speech]], #7 cowers and gives #11 the answer he wants to hear.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Even he shows nothing but contempt for #10's racism. Though considering that he insulted #11's immigrant status earlier, this could be seen as hypocrisy.
** For all his indifference, he doesn't condone violence, which is shown when he ''immediately'' holds Juror 3 back from viciously assaulting Juror 8.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: After [[spoiler:his racist tirade]], [[EveryoneHasStandards even Jurors #3 and #7 have nothing but contempt for him.]]

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the 1954 teleplay, he threatens physical violence against #10 after one racist tirade too many. The 1957 and 1997 versions downplay this to him [[TranquilFury calmly but cuttingly]] telling him to shut up.

* RedOniBlueOni: The temperamental, emotion-prone and hot-headed red to Juror #8's calm, collected blue.

* RedOniBlueOni: The calm, collected blue to Juror #3's temperamental, emotion-prone and hot-headed red.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the 1954 teleplay, he threatens physical violence against #10 after one racist tirade too many. The 1957 and 1999 version downplays this to him [[TranquilFury calmly but cuttingly]] telling him to shut up.

* ImplacableMan: The only juror shown not to sweat despite the massive heat in the room. [[spoiler:He only sweats once, after #8 manages to prove his point.]]

* EvilCounterpart: To #8, though more like a {{Jerkass}} Counterpart; they're both men of passion unwilling to back down when they believe their cause is just.

A highly methodical and logical man who becomes one of the last holdouts for a "guilty" verdict because the evidence is too strong for him to go against.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the 1954 teleplay, he threatens physical violence against #10 after one racist tirade too many. The 1957 and 199 version downplays this to him [[TranquilFury calmly but cuttingly]] telling him to shut up.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Easily the most sympathetic of the final three holdouts, due to voting "guilty" because he really has reached that conclusion through logical thinking rather than emotional baggage (like #3) or prejudiced views (like #10). [[spoiler:He even delivers a ShutUpHannibal to #10 when the latter's prejudice [[VillainousBreakdown goes too far]]. The second that the biggest piece of evidence is put into doubt, he changes his vote with no further argument.]]

* TheCharmer: A smartly-dressed MotorMouth adman, he presents this way early on. He is very friendly to the other jurors and tries to defuse the tension when they fight. He loses this trait and turns hesitant and unsure later on, [[spoiler:flip-flopping his vote according to who cowed him last]].

* TheDeterminator: Even when opposed by a11 the other jurors, he stands his ground and manages to convince all of them why he believes the defendant might not be guilty.

** It's given a seldom-seen twist in the 1997 remake: he's just as bigoted, but this time, he's a xenophobic Black supremacist who's affiliated with the Nation of Islam.
*** He hates immigrants, especially Latinos, whom he accuses of leeching off of black people and stealing black people's jobs.
*** He disdains black people who come from poor backgrounds, and is accordingly rude to #5.
*** He expects all black people to share his attitudes, and disparages #5 for disagreeing.

* RaceLift: He's a black supremacist in 1997, who's convinced that Latinos are an existential threat to black people.
* SharpDressedMan: In 1997, he follows the Nation of Islam's strict dress code by wearing a smartly tailored suit and a bow tie.

** He ends up on the receiving end when he assumes that #1 and #2, the other black men in the room[[note]]#5 having stormed out in disgust[[/note]], will share his opinions about Latinos. Both men are mortified: #1 is too ashamed to speak, and #2 is so insulted that he raises his voice for the first time.

** In the 1997 remake, in which he's a black supremacist, he calls the other black jurors "brother." He gets mocked for it this time too.

* EverybodyHasStandards: He’s the first to get up and face away from Juror #10’s racist tirade in disagreement. Unlike the other jurors who do so calmly,[[RageBreakingPoint #5 actually gets angry and slams down the paper he was reading.]]

* ReverseGrip: His background lets him refute the evidence of the defendant's much taller father having a downward stab wound, something only possible with such a grip. However, he knows no experienced switchblade user would do it; he points out switching to that grip would waste precious time, and that the swtchblade is designed for underhanded thrusting.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the 1954 TV movie, he threatens physical violence against #10 after one racist tirade too many. The 1957 version downplays this to him [[TranquilFury calmly but cuttingly]] telling him to shut up.

* BrooklynRage: In the 1997 version he has a noticeable Brooklyn accent and gets loud a few times - most notably early on when he yells at his fellow jurors to be respectful to #9, and at the end when he shouts at #10 during his racist rant.

* BerserkButton: Juror #3 gets #5 riled up when he starts accusing him of changing his vote to "not guilty" and insists that since #5 grew up in a slum neighborhood, he's the one to blame. Which makes it pretty awkward when it turns out that #9 was the one who changed his vote, not #5.

* PetTheDog: He's very indifferent towards his job as a juror, but [[spoiler:during #3's VillainousBreakdown, he looks at him with just as much pity as everyone else]].

* TheDeterminator: Even when opposed by 11 other jurors, he stands his ground and manages to convince all of them why he believes the defendant might not be guilty.
* DissonantSerenity: When Juror #3 is pretending to stab him (the other jurors are standing up, worried that #3 is ''actually'' going to stab him).

* TheStoic: The most calm and collected of the jurors, never raising his voice or showing strong emotions of any kind. He's not completely stoic, though, as a few scenes evidence. He becomes visibly unnerved while being interrogated by Juror #8, and towards the end, expresses annoyance towards Juror #3 (for his obnoxiousness), Juror #9 (for badgering him with seemingly-inane questions instead of getting to the point), and Juror #10 (for being obviously prejudiced against the defendant, instead of arriving at that conclusion by the exercise of logic).

* NothingPersonal: How he approaches the case and resulting discourse. He makes clear he has no personal bias against the defendant, even expressing sympathy for his terrible background, and is voting guilty based solely on the evidence. He also keeps his discussions with other members relatively civil and avoids making things personal, the sole exception being his disdain for Juror #10, who he makes no effort to hide his disdain for, which is more than justified by #10's open racism and bellicose attitude.

->'''Played By:''' Martin Balsam

->'''Played By:''' John Fiedler

->'''Played By:''' Creator/LeeJCobb

->'''Played By:''' Creator/EGMarshall

->'''Played By:''' Creator/JackKlugman

->'''Played By:''' Edward Binns

->'''Played By:''' Creator/JackWarden

->'''Played By:''' Creator/HenryFonda

->'''Played By:''' Joseph Sweeney

->'''Played By:''' Creator/EdBegley

->'''Played By:''' George Voskovec

->'''Played By:''' Robert Webber

->'''Played By:''' John Savoca

** Is too busy playing tic-tac-toe with #3 to listen to #8.