Gaston's Buddies

Gaston's buddies are characters that serve as supporting antagonists in the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast as cronies of Gaston and LeFou. They were his henchmen.

Background
Like LeFou, they are eager to praise, as well as please, Gaston and look up to him as their leader the most, out of the rest of the Villagers. In the film's climax, while the citizens only mob together out of fear that the Beast will attack their town, these men seemed to care more about taking pleasure in killing him than defending their home.

During Gaston's song, LeFou refers to three of them by name: He calls the shorter man Tom, the thin man Dick, and the husky man Stanley, while the elderly man goes unnamed.

Role in the Fim
The husky man and elderly man are first seen in the scene depicting Gaston's failed wedding. When Gaston arrived, the elderly man chatted up with the somewhat irritated priest while the husky man snuck a bite of the wedding cake, much to the baker's chagrin. They also laughed alongside everyone else (exempting Claudette, Laurette and Paulette, who ended up crying out of devastation that Gaston was marrying Belle over themselves and presumably keeping them in the dark about it) when Gaston thanked everyone for attending the wedding and then commented that he has to go in and propose to Belle first.

The four men are first seen together at the tavern, trying to cheer up a depressed Gaston through a song idolizing him and emphasizing his strengths (perhaps over-emphasizing), with the husky man getting his leg bitten by Gaston during a bar fight. They also observed the Bimbettes during their scene in the song, with the husky man smirking at the short man and the thin man gawking at them. When Maurice arrives and pleads Gaston to help rescue his daughter, they snicker and mock at his description of her alleged captor (Beast). After Gaston "agrees" to help him, the short man and the larger man grab him and throw him out of the tavern before returning inside and talking about how "crazy old Maurice" amuses them, giving Gaston the idea of blackmailing Belle into saying her marriage vows. They seemed to be aware of and support Gaston's resulting plan to blackmail Belle by incarcerating Maurice under false pretenses afterwards, apparently eavesdropping on Gaston's whispering of the plan with their tankards.

Later, they are seen among the rioters (most likely in on Gaston's scheme) when Monsieur D'Arque and his men arrive to take Maurice to the asylum. After Belle proves out her father's sanity about the Beast, Gaston manipulates the mob into agreeing with him to kill the "creature". The husky man and the thin man then throw throw Maurice into his basement, before Gaston throws Belle inside as well and locks them to keep them from reaching the Beast before the mob can.

On their way to the Beast's castle, the mob managed to chop down a tree to use as a battering ram to force open the castle doors. There, Lumière led a surprise attack on the invading villagers. During the battle, the thin man (wielding an axe) found himself between a pair of drawers and prepares to strike, only to be knocked in the face between their slamming shelves. Later, he and his gray-haired comrade attempted to subdue a wardrobe but were easily defeated: the thin man being beaten senseless and the gray-haired man being forced inside the wardrobe's closet and pushed back outside dressed like a woman, much to his fear and embarrassment. The short man yanked at Fifi's feathers, only to have his rear-end burned by Lumière, trying to save her. Soon after, he, LeFou, and the husky man chased a foot-rest into the kitchen, believing they had him cornered. However, they finally retreated out of the castle after being scared away by living knives and the oven who raised his flames in a menacing fashion.

Beauty and the Beast Marvel Comics
Gaston's buddies made a brief appearance in the ending of Issue 3, where they were seen getting a drink at the bar area of the Tavern.

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
The large husky man made a cameo in Cinderella II, as a commoner in the ball in the first story.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)
In the 2017 live-action remake, only three of the men appear (Tom, Dick and Stanley) the fourth elderly crony does not feature. In this version, Tom, Dick and Stanley all share similar physiques and Stanley is the youngest in the trio. They are first seen during the song Belle in which they sing the line "Look, there she goes/That girl is so peculiar." The men later appear when Belle is caught teaching a little girl to read and they proceed to bully her by throwing Belle's washing into the dirt.

Later during the song "Gaston", the three (like their animated counterparts) happily partake in bolstering their friend's ego, with encouragement from LeFou. Later, Belle asks the Beast's magic mirror to show her father and sees the three goons tormenting and roughly manhandling Maurice who they believe to be insane and falsely accusing Gaston of attempted murder (which is true).

When Tom, Dick and Stanley accompany the mob to the castle to kill the Beast, the enchanted objects attack the mob and the three are surprised by many books flying and attacking people. Cogsworth then says to them: "Those are called books, you third-rate Musketeers!" Their intelligence insulted, the men glare menacingly at Cogsworth and corner him, only for Madame de Garderobe to confront them and dress all three of them (as opposed to only one in the animated film) in extravagant ballgowns and powdered wigs. Tom and Dick scream in horror and flee in humiliation but Stanley is rather pleased with his makeover and smiles gratefully at Garderobe before strutting off.

Stanley later appears during the dance at the end of the film, in which he and LeFou switch from dancing with women to dancing with one another, vaguely hinting at a possible attraction between the two. Tom and Dick are not seen since the sequence in which they are dressed in drag, so their fate is unknown but it is possible that they no longer associate with Stanley (assuming they now know of his feminine side).