Claude

'Claude' is the playable protagonist of GTA III.

Claude's first chronological appearance in the Grand Theft Auto III-era Grand Theft Auto storyline is a cameo as a thug in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where he races against, and loses to, Carl Johnson, all the while "pleasuring" Catalina, in 1992. After the race, Catalina informs Carl Johnson that the two of them need to keep their car to go to Liberty City, and instead of a pink slip, give him the deed to a run-down car garage in San Fierro. After leaving for Liberty City, Catalina phones Carl Johnson at certain plot points. One phone call seemingly indicates Catalina was intending to speak to Claude, mentioning Claude's first name; another has Catalina in mid-orgasm, screaming the same first name.

After leaving San Andreas, Claude and Catalina took part in a long string of crimes in several states. This ends in October 2001, when Catalina betrays Claude by shooting him shortly after a bank heist in Liberty City and leaves him for dead. After his arrest by the police, Claude is en route to prison when his prison transport is ambushed by Colombian Cartel commandos (who kidnap an oriental prisoner). He escapes with the help of 8-Ball, and works his way into the favour of the Leone Mafia Family.

He eventually helps destroy a large tanker of SPANK, a fictional drug that Catalina and her new accomplice Miguel are pushing around the city with the help of the Colombian Cartel. His help to the Leones at the beginning is rewarded with a death trap, from which he is saved by Don Salvatore Leone's lover, Maria. She introduces him to Asuka Kasen, who is with the local Yakuza. To prove that Claude has completely severed ties with the Leones in favor of the Yakuza, Asuka allows him to kill Salvatore.

Following the assassination, Claude works his way up the Yakuza ladder, gaining the favor of the Yakuza waka-gashira Kenji Kasen. He also meets a crooked cop named Ray, and Media Millionaire Donald Love. He is eventually asked to kill Kenji by Donald Love, and to frame the Colombian Cartel for the job, by driving a Cartel gang car. With Kenji dead, Asuka takes over the Yakuza, and becomes obsessed with revenge against the Cartel. She sends Claude on a number of missions to slow down the spread of SPANK in Liberty City. Eventually, Asuka is killed, and Maria is kidnapped, with a note from Catalina left behind. Claude confronts her, kills her after a lengthy battle, and saves Maria, if only to (apparently) kill her after having to deal with her whining.

Silence
In contrast to the verbose protagonists of the later GTA games, Tommy Vercetti, Carl Johnson, Toni Cipriani, and Victor Vance, Claude possesses qualities of a silent protagonist in GTA III, never seen or heard uttering a single word throughout his appearances (in GTA III, he has been heard uttering mild sounds of pain when injured or killed). During the course of the game, Maria makes a telephone call to Lazlow's show on Chatterbox FM, saying that she's met a new man but "he don't talk too much." Claude continued to be a silent character throughout GTA San Andreas; Carl Johnson himself also references (and curses) Claude's silence in his rage after seeing the run-down garage he won from Claude.