Marvin Acme

Marvin Acme is a minor character in Touchstone's 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was portrayed by Stubby Kaye.

Background
Marvin Acme is the head of the Acme Corporation and owner of Toontown. He is a bald, middle-aged gentleman with an eccentrically jovial, lighthearted personality who loves and cares deeply for the welfare of all Toons. He promised the Toons that in the event of his death, they will inherit Toontown as stated in his will. Acme is also something of a prankster, as he likes to play harmless practical jokes on people sometimes.

Acme Inc. is a renowned, well-known manufacturer of novelty products and technologies and has been famously featured in various films, TV shows and cartoons, most prominently Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Most of Acme products are joke props composed of real or toon material. His most popular props include: the Punching Glove Mallet, Singing Sword, Portable Holes and the #1 bestseller, the Handbuzzer. These have earned Acme the nickname, "The Gag King".

Role in the film
Warning: Contains Spoilers

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Acme is first mentioned in a newspaper article regarding rumors of him engaging in extramarital relations with Jessica Rabbit, wife of toon star, Roger Rabbit. R.K. Maroon, cartoon producer and friend of Acme's, hires private investigator, Eddie Valiant to follow him as he's concerned that Roger's suspicions of his wife, distract him from his work. That evening, Eddie proceeds to take photos of Acme and Jessica (literally) "playing pattycake" in her dressing room. Nevertheless, Roger becomes extremely agitated when he sees the pictures and scurries off in a heated rage.

Acme is found murdered the following morning in his factory warehouse, with a large safe having crushed his head. Because of the circumstances surrounding the murder, Roger is made the prime suspect. The will, however, is nowhere to be found, which leaves the Toons unable to legally claim Toontown. Later, Jessica confides to Eddie that they were both were pawns in a scheme by R.K. Maroon, to blackmail Acme. Maroon had threatened to blacklist Roger, had Jessica not cooperated and Eddie was merely set up to photograph them. When confronted, Maroon confessed to selling his studio to Cloverleaf Industries, but they would only buy if Acme Inc. and Toontown were part of the deal. Acme refused to sell, knowing Judge Doom was Cloverleaf's sole stockholder and had other plans for Toontown.

Eddie then learns it was Doom who murdered Acme in order to decimate Toontown and build a freeway to monopolize L.A. transportation. After an intense, climactic fight, Doom (being a toon all along) ends up being dissolved in his own dip. As for Acme's will, it turns out was the same blank sheet of paper Roger used to write a love letter to Jessica, as it was written in disappearing/reappearing ink. As soon as the ink reemerged, Toontown officially belonged to the Toons.

Marvin Acme