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    Abner Forsyth 

Abner Forsyth

A prohibitionist.


    Aldous Worthington 

Aldous Worthington

A politician who opposes Nate Johns.


  • Blackmail: He submits to this when he learns Marston has photographs of him having sex with a prostitute.

    Alma Horlick 

Alma Horlick

A woman who claims that it's her wedding day and that her husband, Peter Turner, should turn up at any moment.


  • Ambiguously Human: It's been speculated that she's Dead All Along and is actually a ghost, although some of the evidence towards this may just be developer oversights.
    • She's wearing a white wedding dress, a color often associated with ghosts.
    • She's dead in Undead Nightmare, and her grave states she died in 1911. In the main game her mission can be completed in 1914, although Gameplay and Story Segregation may be at play here. Installing the DLC also adds said grave to the main game, but this was removed/fixed in the GOTY release.
    • She states she can't leave the church, although she doesn't state why. She also disappears once her quest is complete, but so do a lot of other NPCs.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: She is completely delusional and doesn't seem aware that her fiancé died long ago.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Marston can go to a lot of trouble to help her, but since her husband is dead and has been that way for quite some time, none of it matters.

    Andrew McAllister 

Andrew McAllister

A man who wants to obtain a particular property because he believes there is water under its surface. The owner of the property won't give it up, so McAllister asks Marston to help sort things out.


  • Even Evil Has Standards: He's not a nice guy in that he wants to run someone else off of of property, but if Marston goes so far as to kill Evans, McAllister is appalled.

    Ann Stephenson 

Ann Stephenson

A woman whom Marston finds grooming a horse near a gang hideout.


  • Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if Ann was one of the bandits who stole the horse, or if she just came across it later. She's found near a bandit hideout but she doesn't resist or object when Marston tries to recover the horse for Jeb.

    Basilio Aguirre Olmos de la Vargas 

Basilio Aguirre Olmos de la Vargas

A Spanish tradesman and treasure hunter who looks for fame and fortune in Mexico. Claiming it will give his family prosperity. Or so he thinks. It’s up to Marston to help him in his treasure hunting endeavors.

  • All for Nothing: Sadly, his wild goose chase for his great-great grandfather’s treasure results in no treasure being found. Basilio unfortunately wasted the last ten to thirteen years searching for said treasure.
  • Bittersweet Ending: While he failed to find the treasure on his search, at least he has his family to go back to.
  • Say My Name: It goes both ways. His surprisingly long name is played for comedy effects. Surprisingly, he is one of two side mission characters to learn the player’s name. As the playable character introduces themselves as John/Jack Marston depending on when the side mission is done.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: In all his appearances, he sports a tan three piece suit when Marston sees him.

    Billy West 

Billy West

An elderly old man picking flowers for his wife. His wife, however, has been dead for years, and has been in denial about it.


    Charles Kinnear 

Charles Kinnear

A man trying to build a flying machine.


  • Captain Crash: If he gets the supplies to finish his plane, he flies it, and then crashes to his death. Furthermore, in the prequel it's possible to find another of his wrecked planes.

    Clara LaGuerta 

Clara LaGuerta

A woman claiming to have been knocked up and abandoned by her employer.


  • The Bad Guy Wins: Her storyline ends with Marston realising that she had no connection to Harold and just conned him into murdering a random man and giving her his money. She's skipped town by this point and, with no way to track her down, is presumably free to enjoy her newfound wealth.
  • Con Man: In truth, she had no connection to Harold. She just wanted to trick Marston into getting her some money from him, which he did.
  • Karma Houdini: Suffers no retribution from Marston for manipulating him into robbing and murdering Harold and is last heard of laughing about her victory at his funeral.

    Clyde Evans 

Clyde Evans

The owner of some land which appears to be worthless.


  • Jerkass Has a Point: He's very rude to Marston, but he has a point about how the land is his (despite it apparently being worthless) and he has no actual obligation to sell to McAllister.

    D.S. MacKenna 

D.S. MacKenna

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3a588068060b149a4f209e443f961008.jpg
"We make dreams! Are you not a devotee of the cinematic arts?"

Voiced by: Jay O. Sanders

An eccentric early filmmaker who has Marston help him bring the budding motion picture industry to New Austin. He also appears in Undead Nightmare, where he sees the undead apocalypse as an opportunity to make a blockbuster movie and has John help him get undead to "act" in his film. What could possibly go wrong?


  • Early Films: He embodies this era.
  • Large Ham: And he knows it.
  • Punny Name: His initials and last name are a play on the term Deus ex Machina.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In Undead Nightmare, he uses the undead apocalypse as an opportunity to make a film and is using undead as his "actors". He already has one tied up, but has John find him another one, and once he has both zombies, he releases them and starts filming them. It doesn't take a genius to guess what's happens next.

    Elizabeth Thornton 

Elizabeth Thornton

Harold's wife.


    Emily Ross 

Emily Ross

Edgar Ross's wife.


    Eva Cortes 

Eva Cortes

A prostitute who is owned by Mario Alcalde.


  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: If Marston buys her freedom, she leaves, but then she's murdered by Mario a few days later.

    Harold Thornton 

Harold Thornton

A man who is accused of impregnating his children's nanny and then abandoning her.


  • Asshole Victim: He may not have knocked up or abused Clara, but he uses racial slurs to refer to other people, so he's not sympathetic when Marston shoots him.

    Howard Sawicki 

Howard Sawicki

An agent for the Bureau of Investigation.


    Jed Blankenship 

Jed Blankenship

A man who claims his 'true love' is missing and begs Marston for help. That 'love,' however, turns out not to be what Marston was expecting.


    Jenny 

Jenny

A missionary whose faith is challenged by the harsh desert environment.


  • Early-Bird Cameo: She is seen on the initial train from Blackwater long before Marston encounters her in the desert.
  • The Fundamentalist: She thinks that God wants her to stay in the desert, and so she'll stay there, even as her condition degrades and Marston begs her to find shelter in town.

    Jimmy Saint 

Jimmy Saint

A journalist from New York who came to New Austin seeking adventure.


  • Affably Evil: Even as a zombie in Undead Nightmare, he still retains his personable personality.
    I'm gonna have the time on my life, sport! I tell ya mister, the time on my little old life!
  • And Then John Wasa Zombie: In Undead Nightmare he ends up being one of the zombies who rises out of their graves and attacks you when you light Tumbleweed's wooden coffins on fire.
  • City Mouse: An New Yorker who quickly finds out the harsh realities of the West.
  • Killed Offscreen: His fate in Undead Nightmare, as he was killed prior to the events of the DLC and somehow ends up buried in Tumbleweed's graveyard despite the area being a ghost town.
  • Nice Guy: One of the nicer characters in the game.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being tied up a third time, he finally comes to his senses and realizes Western adventure certainly isn't for him.

    Juan de la Vara 

Juan de la Vara

A factory owner who resorts to brutal and inhumane methods to keep his staff under his thumb.


  • Bad Boss: Many of his workers are under contracts which essentially force them to provide slave labor. He also addicts his employees to opium to make it even harder for them to leave.

    Leland Byers 

Leland Byers

A drunk man who seems to have a connection to the Strange Man.


  • Fidelity Test: He's torn between whether he should cheat on his wife or not. Marston is tasked by the Strange Man with helping him decide.

    Mario Alcalde 

Mario Alcalde

An abusive pimp.


    Mother Superior Calderon 

Mother Superior Calderon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a97502df7dc97a29c71cc5fb4e07712d.jpg
"Well, I'm alive, senor. Although, come to think of it, I've committed a mortal sin."

The most senior nun at Las Hermanas. While she's a very minor character in the main game, Undead Nightmare sees her playing a very central role.


  • Ascended Extra: Has a VERY minor role in the main game. Is one of the main characters in Undead Nightmare.
    • Also makes a notable appearance in Red Dead Redemption II before she came to Mexico.
  • Badass Preacher: Very much so.
  • Nun Too Holy: Defied. Mother Superior is concerned about even killing a zombie.

    Nathan Harling 

Nathan Harling

A musician working in the Armadillo saloon.


  • Jerkass: His wife wants to leave him because he keeps cheating on her.

    Oliver Philips 

Oliver Philips

A saloon owner who wants to get rid of Abner Forsyth, a prohibitionist who is threatening his business.


  • Evil Is Petty: If the protagonist warns Abner instead of killing him, Philips doubles the price of drinks in his establishment, even though he's still better off than before (in that Abner isn't in town haranguing people not to go to his saloon).

    Philmore 

Philmore

One of Governor Johns's minions.


  • Blackmail: He obtains compromising pictures of a rival politician, Aldous Worthington, and wants the protagonist to use them in order to force Worthington to abandon his efforts to oust Johns.

    Phillip Ross 

Phillip Ross

Voiced by: Bill Raymond

Edgar Ross's brother.


    Randall Forrester 

Randall Forrester

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rdr_randall_forrester_square_5.jpg
"Fella's gotta eat now... fella's gotta eat!"

Voiced by: Raymond McAnally

A Serial Killer who lives in the wilderness by himself and who serves as the culprit behind a string of serial murders and disappearances.


  • Ax-Crazy: And how. His maniacal personality is downright frightening.
  • Faux Affably Evil: To Marston. He acts like a nice guy, even as he proceeds to eat his latest victim alive.
  • For the Evulz: His whole motivation aside from satiating his own hunger, is taking delight in the sheer terror of his victims as he proceeds to eat them alive. He's by far one of the most depraved characters in the game.
  • Hate Sink: An Ax-Crazy Serial Killer and cannibal whose depravity knows absolutely no bounds.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: He's a cannibalistic Serial Killer.
  • Karma Houdini: If you let him live.
  • Laughing Mad: A very psychotic one.
  • Psychopathic Man Child: Certainly isn't very adult in manner.
  • Serial Killer: He is responsible for a lot of disappearances in the town of Armadillo, preying on those who wander too far away into Hanging Rock.
  • The Sociopath: In the highest order possible.
  • Would Hurt a Child: One of his victims was a young boy.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When the player first meets Forrester, he claims to have been assaulted by a man and insists that Marston hunt the attacker down. Once he captures the supposed attacker, Forrester will kill and eat the man unless you kill him first.

    Rose Harling 

Rose Harling

Nathan Harling's long-suffering wife.


  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She tries to leave her husband because he keeps cheating on her, but Marston can threaten her or drag her back to him.

    Sam Odessa 

Sam Odessa

A traveler who is following in father and grandfather's footsteps traveling from Ukraine to California.


    Silas Spatchcock 

Silas Spatchcock

An actor who has convinced himself that he is a modern legend of the West.


    Strange Man 

Strange Man

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rdr_strange_man_4.jpg
"Why would you remember me, friend? You've forgotten far more important people than me."

Voiced by: Brennan Brown

A mysterious stranger that seems to follow John throughout the latter's journey. He sends John on a series of bizarre quests, seemingly to test John's character.


  • Ambiguously Evil: Largely due to his ambiguous nature as a supernatural entity. He seems to subtly threaten John several times in their encounters, and he knows an unnerving amount of information about him. However, it's unknown what his motivations are in interacting with him, and he appears to be indifferent to just about everything. He doesn't encourage John to act on either choice in the scenarios he gives him, indicating he's some sort of morally neutral judge, but he's also implied to have something to do with the 1907 cholera outbreak in Armadillo, which would suggest he's actively malicious.
  • Angel Unaware: The Strange Man doesn't seem to be entirely human. He knows a startling amount of John's personal history despite John having no recollection of ever meeting him in the past, knows of events occurring miles away from his location, and in their final encounter, proves impervious to gunfire and vanishes without a trace. Whether he is an example of God Was My Copilot, Louis Cypher, or a Grim Reaper is never made clear.
  • Berserk Button: As much as someone like him can have, he is normally vague with his words and is often quick to let John come to his own conclusions. However whenever John brings up responsibility for his actions or attempts to deflect blame, the Strange Man is quick to drop his vagueness and makes it absolutely clear to John that his actions are indeed his own responsibility and that he will be judged for his actions whether by the appropriate authorities or by a higher power.
  • The Cameo: The only signs of him in II are a framed picture of him in the Armadillo General Store, and an unmarked shack in Lemoyne. Once the painting in his hut is completed, he appears behind you if you check the mirror, only to disappear if you turn around.
  • Cryptic Conversation: When the topic of his identity or how he came to know so much about John is brought up, he always skirts around the question with vague, mildly threatening Non Answers.
  • Deal with the Devil: He's the devil in this case. Implied to have saved Herbert Moon from the 1907 cholera outbreak in New Austin, but ensured that he'd lose his daughter in the process. Herbert and his daughter both live note , but she fell in love with a Jewish man, destroying her relationship with her father. note 
  • Dirt Forcefield: One of the things contributing to his vaguely unsettling nature. The Strange Man is met out in the wilderness, yet his nice suit is always as pristine as if he were walking on a paved road.
  • Foreshadowing: One piece of writing on the wall ("From the Snow to the Cave") in the shack at Bayall Edge references the entire plot of II, and is on the wall early in the game. In addition, a somewhat cryptic piece of writing ("The Water is black with venom") can be seen as foreshadowing Micah's betrayal, with Micah often being compared to a snake in addition to having been the one to come up with the ferry heist in Blackwater.
    • The first piece of writing in the Bayall Edge shack also references Dutch's fate. His story begins, in II, in the snow. His story comes to a close, in I, after a chase through a cave. He jumps to his death from a ledge directly outside said cave.
  • Harbinger of Impending Doom: In his last encounter with John, he is seen standing by a tree overlooking John's ranch at Beecher's Hope. He cryptically tells John that it's "a beautiful spot". In the Playable Epilogue, it's the plot in which John, Abigail, and Uncle are buried after the US Army's attack on the ranch.
  • Hidden Depths: He apparently paints, given the content of the shack at Bayall Edge.
  • Insult Backfire: His response to John saying "Damn you!" is to just say "Yes, many have."
  • Jackass Genie: As mentioned under Deal with the Devil above, it's implied that while he spared Herbert Moon from cholera, he arranged things that his daughter marries a Jewish man, something the racist Herbert cannot stand. It was phrased as a choice between "happiness" and "a second generation" and Herbert making an unspecified answer, meaning that he either chose "happiness" (his continued life and prosperity) but lost his "second generation" (the love of his daughter), or chose "second generation" (possibly his daughter having a grandchild) at the cost of his happiness, rejecting his own offspring and the baby he could never accept.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: This is what makes him so unsettling. The first game already left a lot of questions open - who is he, what is he, and why is he interested in John's morality. Despite only having a cameo in II, that game manages to raise even more questions, as it confirms that he's real and that his interactions with John were special enough to warrant him a warning from the blind seer. Note that he doesn't showcase this kind of interest in almost any other person, with Herbert Moon being the only other notable example - even Arthur never learns of his existence, as the only reference to him Arthur can find is a half-finished painting.
  • Permanently Missable Content: His mission chain is only relevant before the epilogue, since his role in the game is to make allusions to John's past and future, and seems to be interacting with him solely to see if he has changed over the years. As such, he simply disappears from the game once you switch over to Jack. Fortunately, his missions aren't required for 100% Completion nor give any rewards other honor and fame (which are plentiful anyway).
  • Room Full of Crazy: The shack at Bayall Edge. The walls are papered with old newspapers, what sections aren't have vague writings painted on them, the framed paintings change depending on your Honor (bucks and eagles for high, vultures and coyotes for low), the Jimmy Brooks "poem" that only appears after you complete the "Polite Society, Valentine Style" mission, and the unfinished painting in the middle of the room. Which eventually turns into a self-portrait of him, with him only appearing in the mirror looking at you after it's finished and the top hat on the hat rack missing. And after that, both the self-portrait, the Honor paintings, and the Jimmy Brooks poem are gone, and the furniture is pushed against the walls.
  • Self-Deprecation: Notably does this to himself when he talks to John. John sees it as a subtle way of mocking him, and certainly the Stranger's mildly amused delivery would imply this. Most notably he tells John during their first encounter that he has forgotten people far more important than the Stranger. Assuming that the Stranger is meant to be God, this is an ironic statement because who can be more important than God? Even assuming the Stranger is a less important supernatural entity, such a statement is highly incredulous. The irony is likely intentional, because perhaps an important supernatural entity would be tickled by a clever in-joke like that.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears an immaculate three-piece suit with top hat and sports a neatly-trimmed mustache despite the fact that he is always encountered somewhere in the wilderness.
  • Troll: Has shades of this during his meetings with John, by dodging his questions and acting odd to see how John reacts.
  • Trouble Entendre: Some of his responses to John's questions and demands sound like thinly-veiled threats to John's well being. In light of John's death occurring shortly after their final encounter, they seem eerily prescient. Some examples follow:
    John: I'll let the appropriate authorities judge my morality, friend.
    Strange Man: Yes you will, and they shall.
    John: Tell me your name, or I won't be responsible for my actions.
    Strange Man: Oh, but you will. You will be responsible. This is a fine spot. See you around, cowboy.
    John: Damn you!
    Strange Man: Yes, many have.
  • What You Are in the Dark: The main idea behind his instructions for John. First, he makes John choose between dissuading a bar patron from cheating on their wife with a prostitute, or encouraging them to do it. Next, he lets John pick between donating to the Mother Superior's cause, or stealing her collection box. It is up to the player to decide which choice is more appropriate in both situations, with John's honor increasing or decreasing accordingly.

    Uriah Tollets 

Uriah Tollets

An opium dealer.


    Zhou 

Zhou

One of Juan de la Vara's workers. He is trying to get back home to his family.


  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: If you finish his quest, Juan frees him and Zhou promises to go home. The next time you see him, he's still around, he's high on opium, and he clearly has no intention or inclination of getting his act together for long enough to leave the country.

Other characters

    Ayauhtéotl  

Ayauhtéotl

A young woman who only appears in Undead Nightmare. John encounters her repeatedly throughout the main story.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's really hard to talk about her without spoiling the final twists of the story.

    Heidi McCourt 

Heidi McCourt

A young woman who was on the boat in Blackwater that the gang hijacked. Dutch pulling the trigger on her turned the Blackwater Heist into the Blackwater Massacre and sent the gang into a downward spiral from which they would never return.


  • Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear why exactly Dutch killed her; there are a lot of conflicting accounts, and no one ever seems to want to talk openly about it, so it's up to interpretation. A few possibilities that make themselves immediately apparent are that she forced Dutch's hand somehow, Micah goaded him into it, or Dutch simply wanted to do it.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Dutch killed her.
  • Gorn: The Strange Man's description of her corpse is quite graphic.
  • Posthumous Character: Her entire existence is this. In 1, she's mentioned as an innocent Dutch killed in a failed robbery. 2 starts directly after said robbery, and the circumstances regarding Heidi's death are occasionally discussed around camp. Her death is hinted to have been the start of Dutch's long downward spiral into terrorism.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: She never appears in person, but her death kicks off the long, terrible series of events that would lead to the fall of the Van Der Linde Gang. The Strange Man lampshades this, as he only says that John has forgotten people more important than him when John confirms that he doesn't remember Heidi, despite how his entire present life ultimately ties back to her and her fate.

    Herbert Moon 

Herbert Moon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b5cbde4b5cba53146e3c429985093661.jpg
"I'm Herbert Mooooon!"

Voiced by: Anthony Cumia

The racist Armadillo shopkeeper.


  • Ascended Extra: In the main game, he's simply a shopkeeper with a penchant for blaming everything on Jews and screaming his name. In Undead Nightmare, he gets a cutscene where he expresses hatred for nearly everyone that isn't an American White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, even though he's never actually met most other ethnicities.
  • Asshole Victim: Nothing stopping you from tying him up and leaving him on the rail tracks if you ever get tired of his racism. And you will.
  • The Cameo: In the second game, since Armadillo is inaccessible until the epilogue he's little more than an Easter egg.
  • Conspiracy Theorist:
  • Deal with the Devil: Evidence points towards this in the second game. There's a shack that clearly belongs to the Strange Man, and you can find a map of Armadillo with the message "I promised you happiness or a second generation. You made your choice." written on it and one of the messages wrote on the shack walls is "The moon will shine on in the darkness". There's a picture of the Strange Man in his shop, and he seems to be immune to the cholera epidemic destroying the town. (While he can be killed and comes back, all the other shopkeepers do as well, meaning he's immortal for gameplay purposes.) His body can be looted for a letter that reveals that his daughter married a Jew, with the implication being that he either survived the epidemic by disowning her or that the Strange Man arranged his for survival but destroyed Herbert's relationship with her daughter by ensuring she'd marry a Jewish man.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: His views on Abraham Reyes are perhaps the only insightful comments he makes.
  • Forgotten First Meeting: Like with most of the post-game exploration in II, John can meet Herbert but doesn't remember him in ''I''.
  • Giver of Lame Names: According to a letter in the second game, he named his own daughter Herberta.
  • Hates Everyone Equally: In Undead Nightmare, he seems to hate pretty much everyone that isn't Herbert Moon, even though he's never met them.
  • I Have No Son!: A letter that can be found in the second game reveals that he has a daughter he disowned for not only marrying a Jewish man, but choosing to work in charity rather than be a shopkeeper.
  • Irony: Hates everyone who isn't a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Thing is, the last name Moon has two origins in the West: Normannote  and Irishnote , meaning that, in all likelihood, he himself isn't a WASP.
  • It's All About Me: If you ask him, the Earth revolves around the Moon. Constantly boasting about himself in the third person, regaling anyone who'll listen with his nonsensical racist theories, and breaking ties with his daughter (whom he named "Herberta", after himself) for not going into the family business, a crime that he, a proud anti-Semite, considers equal with marrying a Jewish man... of all the profoundly conceited, rock-stupid jackasses in this series, Herbert is near the very top.
    "Lord, why have you abandoned your best friend — Herbert Moon?!"
  • Large Ham: "HERBERT MOOOOOOOOOOON!"
  • Say My Name: He really likes yelling his own name.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: He seems to not pick up that John's just being sarcastic with him.
  • Sole Survivor: In II he's somehow the only person in Armadillo not dying from cholera. Implied to be the result of a Deal with the Devil.

    Marston Daughter 

Marston Daughter

The unseen daughter of the Marston family. She died of unknown causes at some point during one of the time skips.

    Nate Johns 

Nate Johns

Portrayed By: N/A

A gubernatorial candidate campaigning in West Elizabeth, and later the commonwealth's governor.


  • Blue Blood: Hails from an affluent southern family.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Aldous Worthington's accusations against Johns include "corruption and vote-rigging to extortion, kidnapping, and sexual depravity."
  • Corrupt Politician: Transparently so, not above outright buying votes and blackmailing rivals.
  • The Ghost: Despite his importance to the game's background, he is never encountered. The closet we get is the stranger mission "American Lobbyist" in Blackwater, where Marston assists an operative of his.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: To Edgar Ross' Big Bad. While not personally involved in the mission that Ross sends John on, it's made clear that the local Bureau, under Ross' direction, is tacitly assisting the Johns campaign. As the law and order candidate, it's little surprise that Ross hopes to use Johns' campaign promise in order to make himself look good. Were it not for Johns' campaign, it's conceivable that the events of the game would've played out quite differently.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Johns' underhanded tactics are ultimately his downfall, and his multiple scandals ensure that his governorship is short-lived.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: His motus operandi. He's a scion of a wealthy southern family and just throws money at any problem.
  • The Unfought: Like Sanchez, John never goes after him, though Johns is merely corrupt and not part of Ross' betrayal and murder of John. This saves him from Jack's wrath several years later.


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