George Darling

"This is your last night in the nursery!"

- George Darling

George Darling is the father of the Darling children in Disney's 1953 film Peter Pan. He is voiced by Hans Conried, who did a dual role as James Hook in the 1953 film. He is currently voiced by Corey Burton, who also currently voices Captain Hook. The casting of both Conried and Burton in the dual role hearkens to the original stage production of Peter Pan, in which the actor who plays Captain Hook usually also does the role of the father.

Personality
George's personality is at first, loud, practical, and angry. His style is akin to another father from a Disney film, George Banks from Mary Poppins. Both are Edwardian fathers and rather strict with their children. Both are concerned with appearances and their careers, and both see their careers as a way of providing for the welfare of the families. However, one main difference from George Darling from George Banks is that he is not shown having his work take over his life, and he does seem to be more noticeably involved with his children, albeit in a very strict manner. Mr. Darling's anger towards his sons is also not entirely without justification, as they had defaced part of his tuxedo by drawing a treasure map on it without his permission, and have used his golden cuff links in one of their nursery games without his permission. His anger at Wendy, on the other hand, is because she is about to mature into a woman and become a proper lady, and it can be surmised that etiquette at the time provided that ladies shouldn't speak of childish things like Peter Pan when they are in public situations. His style is also akin to Robert Philip, as they both do not believe in fairy tales and try to make their children grow up without them so they will be ready for the future. He is also akin to Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody from the Harry Potter films, as they both believe in a "practical approach."

Peter Pan
"Mary look."

- George discovering his cravat has a pirate map drawn on it.

In the movie, George Darling is the husband of Mary Darling, and father of Wendy, John and Michael Darling. He is a very practical man and doesn't believe in childish stuff such as Peter Pan and Never Land, despite once believing in all of it when he was very young himself. During the night in which most of the film takes place, George and his wife Mary are getting ready to attend a party, and George can't find his golden cuff links, because without them he won't be able to go to the party and "never show his face in the office again" (a line taken from the original Barrie novel).

George goes into the children's nursery and asks where his cuff links are, and finds his shirt front and finds that it has a map traced on it with chalk. When John and Michael explain that the map is from Wendy's stories about Peter Pan, George becomes angry, calling Peter Pan "absolute poppycock" as well as mispronouncing his name calling him "Peter Piper." and demands that Wendy should have a room of her own because she's growing up and declares that it's her last night in the nursery. He also has Nana the nursemaid dog chained up because he believes that she is a dog and not a nurse, and that the children aren't puppies but people, and need to grow up. When George and Mary leave for the party, Mary asks if the children will be okay without Nana, because Wendy mentioned about capturing Peter Pan's shadow the previous night at the window. George calls the whole thing garbage, and tells his wife that she's as bad as the children are, and that it's no wonder that Wendy is getting crazy ideas.

George isn't seen throughout the film until the end, when he and Mary are returning home from the party, and he brings Nana back in. He also has changed his mind about Wendy, and decides to let her stay in the nursery after all. When George and Mary get into the children's nursery, they find Wendy asleep at the window, but she soon wakes up from dreaming and tells her parents about their adventures in Never Land with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, and fighting off Captain Hook to which George has heard enough and turns away to go to bed until he looks out the window. As the film closes, he watches a cloud, shaped like Captain Hook's pirate ship, along with Wendy and Mary, after George recognizes it from his childhood. He starts to understand once again that some fantasies may be real after all.

Trivia

 * Mr. Darling and Captain Hook share the same voice actor, both voiced by Hans Conried following the theatrical tradition that Captain Hook and George Darling be played by the same actor.
 * The fact that Mr. Darling both sounds and ressembles Captain Hook might have been Wendy subconsciously associating her father's antagonism towards her and her stories with Hook's vendetta against Peter Pan, provided that she dreamt the whole adventure up.