Eddie Valiant

Edward "Eddie" Valiant is a Californian private investigator, the protagonist of Disney's (Touchstone's) 1988 hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Personality
Eddie Valiant is hard-boiled and smart.

Biography
Eddie Valiant and his brother Theodore "Teddy" Valiant were sons of a circus clown (shown by the pictures on their desk in the film), who joined the police force and eventually started their own private investigation service, Valiant and Valiant, in 1934, working largely on Toon cases, such as the kidnapping of Donald Duck's nephews in 1937 or clearing Goofy of accusations of espionage in 1940, both seen as newspaper clippings in Valiant's office. However, when Teddy was killed by the then unknown Toon form of Judge Doom in 1942, Eddie turned to the bottle, and Valiant disappeared from the public eye. This is also the explanation of why Eddie shows dislike towards Toons.

In 1947, R. K. Maroon of Maroon Cartoons paid Valiant to photograph Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's wife, quite literally "playing pattycake" with Marvin Acme, owner of Toontown and founder of the Acme Corporation. When Acme is murdered and Roger becomes the prime suspect of the case, Valiant teams up with Roger to find the killer, and soon finds not only Acme's murderer, but the murderer of R.K. Maroon, and his own brother. After defeating Doom at Acme Warehouse, Eddie then abandoned his vendetta against Toons.

In the graphic novel of the film published in 1989 by Marvel Comics, Valiant is the narrator of the story, telling the film through his eyes and in the style of a detective story.

Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom
According to Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom, Valiant tends to consume jellybeans quite a bit as he gave up drinking.

In the sub-sequel (but non-canon) story set after the film, Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?, Valiant has vowed to no longer take any toon cases, but is forced to do so when Baby Herman, Roger Rabbit's co-star, is found dead.

Behind the Scenes
In Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, Eddie Valiant is a fictional Californian private detective hired by comic-book star Roger Rabbit to investigate the workings of Roger's corrupt employers, the DeGreasey Brothers. When Roger is found dead, and his final words having been censored out, Valiant is soon sent on the case of tracking Rogers' murderers. This first incarnation of Eddie is a heavy smoker, has a beard and is active when the book is set (1981), rather than the later, more accepted incarnation of the character.

The 1988 film gave more insight into the character of Eddie Valiant, who was played by Bob Hoskins. He also doesn't smoke, but is a border-line alcoholic.

Trivia

 * Valiant's hard-boiled attitude seems to derive from Dick Tracy or other such detectives. In the 1988 film, Valiant was made to portray the film noir detective character usually found in Humphrey Bogart or Alan Ladd, while maintaining the Dick Tracy attitude.


 * Although little or nothing is heard about the methods employed by Eddie's brother, the items on Teddy's side of the desk in shots of the Valiant and Valiant office suggest that Teddy was based more on Sherlock Holmes, judging by the tobacco pipe and magnifying glass on his desk.


 * Valiant looks like a composite of Peter Falk of the TV series Columbo and film private eye Philip Marlowe, wearing shiny brown suit and beat-up fedora above a craggy face.