Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley is the long deceased business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. He is a character from Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol. He is voiced by Gary Oldman, who also voices Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.

In life, Marley, like Scrooge, was a bitter, cruel and greedy man. When he died, he was damned to eternally wander the earth as a decrepit spirit burdened by a mass of chains that represent his accumulated sins. On the 7th anniversary of his death, which falls on Christmas Eve, Jacob Marley's ghost visits Scrooge in his house, warning him that he will suffer the same fate if he does not change his ways and informing him that he will be visited by three spirits later that night. Marley was presumably made visible to Scrooge for this visit as part of the arrangement among the spirits to convince Scrooge to change his ways.

Scrooge is initially against this idea, and unsuccessfully suggests that the three ghosts visit him all at once to get it over with faster as Jacob Marley leaves the room and disappears.