Cinderella's Father

"Cinderella's Father" was a good-natured, handsome, and wealthy gentleman, probably a baron or a lord, from Disney's 1950 hit feature film, Cinderella.

He loved his only daughter dearly and lavished every imaginable care and tenderness on her. His grand chateau attests to his great wealth, which tragically dwindles once he dies. Cinderella's mother had died when their daughter was very young.

Despite the fact that he did everything to make life luxurious and comfortable for his daughter, he still felt that she needed a maternal figure and so he remarried to Lady Tremaine, who had two daughters of her own, Anastasia and Drizella.

Upon his untimely death, Lady Tremaine tyrannically took over his home, his wealth, and even forced his daughter to become a servant.

Role in the film
The narrator described Cinderella's father as "a kind and devoted father, and gave his beloved child every luxury and comfort". Presumably, he brought the dog, Bruno and the horse, Major, as gifts for Cinderella.

However, he still felt that she needed a mother's care and hence, he married again. But his choice was, unbeknownst to him, a very bad one: Lady Tremaine was a handsome and dignified woman, with two daughters of her own, but all three of them were actually cruel and selfish.

His second wife and stepdaughters' true nature was hidden deep and well from him while he was alive, however, so he never realised the terrible mistake he had made. Upon his untimely death, all his wealth and his chateau was left to Lady Tremaine who, freed from her husband's watchful eye, revealed her true self, forcing Cinderella to become the servant of her own house, and squandered most of the inherited fortune on her own daughters, whose interests she was grimly determined to advance, even if it is at the very expense of her faultless submissive stepdaughter.

Despite all the abuse and mistreatment she had to endure under her cold, unloving stepfamily, Cinderella remained ever gentle and kind, and finally found the happiness she sought simply by keeping faith in her dreams. Hence, it could be theorised If her father were to look down from heaven, he and his first wife (Cinderella's biological mother) would definitely be extremely proud of their beloved child, and be considerably consoled that she no longer had to suffer because of his terrible choice of a new wife.

Trivia

 * According to Disney Villains The Top Secret Files, Lady Tremaine is reading an ad from Cinderella's father; which refers him as Lord Tremaine meaning Cinderella's last name is also Tremaine. This sort of makes sense since in the old days the new bride and her children will sometimes take the step-father's last name. That doesn't seem true since Nancy Tremaine was given the last name of Tremaine due to the fact was she was going to be a step-mother. Whether in this case it is meant to be true or not is debatable.
 * In the golden book from 1952 Cinderella's father is shown as an older gentleman. In another storybook, he is young and handsome