Bill Sykes

Bill Sykes is the main antagonist from Disney's 1988 film Oliver & Company. He is based on the Bill Sykes of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, which Oliver and Company is a modern re-imagining of. This Sykes is a loan shark and shipyard agent who owns warehouses by the docks. He was voiced by Robert Loggia.

Personality
Sykes is one of Disney's most heavy-set villains, shown usually in shadows. He is brutal, shadowy, sarcastic, uncaring, clean-shaven, eerily charming, evil, mean, and ruthless. He smokes large cigars and is seen always in a sharp suit to further emphasize his role as an intelligent businessman in command of the situation, and not merely some common thug taking orders from someone else.

Unusually for Disney, the lifestyle and behavior of a loan shark is not glamorized or made more child-friendly. Beneath his businessman-like exterior, Sykes is clearly a ruthless, brutal murderer - during a scene with Fagin he is heard clearly on the phone discussing with some unknown person a manner of torturing and murdering some other unknown.

His minions in the movie are his 2 Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto.

Role in the film
Sykes has lent a large amount of money to the petty criminal Fagin for some unknown reason, sending his 2 evil Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, to tell Fagin to go up and meet with him. Fagin, unfortunately, finds himself unable to pay the money back, and begs for more time. Sykes tells him that he has three days to find the money or else who knows what will happen to Fagin, his home, or his dogs. Then, he honks his horn to call his dogs back, which frightens Fagin; causing him to fall off the dock and into the river.

When Fagin learns that Oliver's new owner is exceedingly wealthy, he orders "Mr very rich cat-owner-person" to bring him lots and lots of money in return for the cat. He tells Sykes about the plan; at 1st awkwardly which causes Sykes to lose his patience and snap his fingers to order his dogs to attack him when they are actually confronting 1 of Fagin's dogs, Dodger, but during the attack, Fagin is able to tell him the plan in a loud and proper way this time and shows him Oliver as proof which convinces Sykes and causes him to snap his fingers to cease the attack, and Sykes assumes this is a ruse to in fact kidnap and ransom the cat owner, rather than the cat, and gives Fagin one more chance with only 12 hours left while Fagin and Oliver come to Dodger's aid after Dodger lays injured and unconcious with severe (but invisible) injuries from attack.

When Jenny comes to get Oliver, she shows Fagin that all she has brought with her is her piggy bank, with Sykes and his evil dogs unknowingly watching from afar. When Sykes sees Fagin giving up the plan, he drives up, pulls Jenny into his car and takes her to his warehouse after throwing Oliver out the window. Sykes ties up Jenny to a chair in the center of his office, taunting her about his dogs.

He hears a strange sound, and sends Roscoe and DeSoto to check it out. While watching Jenny, Sykes calls the Foxworth family's butler Winston and tells him to call Jenny's father. Oliver, Dodger, and the gang follow them to the warehouse, where they find out that Jenny is being held for ransom.

When Tito, Einstein, and Francis manage to distract Sykes by dressing up as a pizza man, Sykes is shown loading a handgun, acknowledging that he did not order any pizza. When Sykes walks away to look for his dogs, Oliver, Dodger, and the gang manage to enter his office. Finally, Sykes finds his dogs trapped under a net and frees them. When Sykes, with his dogs, returns and finds the door locked, he believes it was Jenny's doing and warns her to open the door. Oliver and the gang manage to pull Jenny up into a higher part of the room, with the help of a crane and Tito's electric specialities, before Sykes, Roscoe and DeSoto burst through the door.

But just when it looks like they're home free, Sykes takes out an emergency fire axe and destroys the crane's controls, thus causing Oliver and the company to fall and land on a long slide. At the end of the slide, Sykes and his dogs confront them. Luckily, Fagin bursts in on his scooter, after Oliver, the company and their enemies hear a honking noise which is actually Fagin's scooter's horn, and the gang along with Jenny hop on and drive away as fast as they can just before Sykes can snap his fingers to order his dogs to attack. Sykes and his dogs follow in his car. Fagin goes onto the subway railroad tracks hoping that Sykes can't follow them, but he does. He steps hard on the gas and goes at full speed, causing his car's tires to wear away and run on the tracks. He bumps into them, causing Jenny to fall onto the hood of his car. He grabs Jenny by the arm. Oliver jumps on and bites Sykes' hand, but Sykes throws him into the backseat with Roscoe and DeSoto.

Dodger manages to jump on and fights off Roscoe while Oliver fights off DeSoto, causing the 2 Dobermans to fall onto the electric railroad track caused by the friction between Sykes' ruined car tires and the tracks and die. Sykes pays no attention as to what happened to his dogs and continues to chase the gang. He goes up through his car roof, grabs Jenny's leg, and pulls her back in. Just as he is pulling her back in, Dodger and Oliver jump onto Sykes and fight him off, causing him to lose his grip on Jenny. Even as he manages to throw them off, he turns around to see a train heading straight for him just before his car collides with it, destroying both of them completely. Thus, sending Sykes and his car into the Hudson River.

Trivia

 * Sykes is clearly seen loading a handgun. So far this is the only time in Disney history where a modern gun has been loaded.
 * Robert (Salvatore) Loggia is famous for playing the role of bad guys, gangsters, mobsters, mafia bosses, drug dealers, loan sharks, mercenaries, a gangster named Salvatore (his actual name) "The Shark" Macelli in Innocent Blood....... which kind of explains why people in the Walt Disney Studios picked him to give the voice of Sykes, the loan shark gangster, from Oliver & Company.