Tommy Vercetti

Tommy Vercetti is the protagonist and playable character of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He was voiced by Ray Liotta.

Background
Tommy Vercetti was born in 1951. When he was little, Vercetti's father worked all his life in a printing shop, and years later Tommy still has fond childhood memories of helping his father clean the rollers. He had wanted to follow his father in the family business, but he had lived a different life and instead became a criminal in the employment of the Forelli Family.

Tommy was sent to prison in Liberty City in 1971 for multiple counts of homicide (which Sonny claimed totaled at eleven deaths), earning him the nickname of "The Harwood Butcher" (because Sonny Forelli called in favors and pulled strings, Tommy never received the death penalty or a life sentence in prison without parole). Tommy was released 15 years later, in 1986 and was quickly sent by mob boss Sonny to Vice City. There, Vercetti was supposed to be the Forelli's representative in a drug deal and expand their empire "down south", however the drug deal was ambushed by hitmen for drug lord Ricardo Diaz. After working for several people including Juan Garcia Cortez and Ricardo Diaz himself, to find out who was behind the ambush and get his drugs back. Tommy finally found out along with sidekick Lance Vance that Diaz was actually behind this and Lance, hungry for revenge of his brother's death attempts his own try to kill Diaz, however he fails and is captured by Diaz's Gang members at the junkyard only to be rescued by Tommy. This forces the two to raid Diaz's mansion and kill Ricardo as Tommy takes over the mansion and starts his own gang, the Vercetti Gang while buying properties and pulling out several different jobs like bank heists, carjacking, taxi firms and films. The Vercetti gang are known to be ruling the Vice City underworld to at least 1992 as witnessed in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Sonny Forelli, angered by the limited attention Tommy has been giving him decides to send hitmen raiding Tommy's businesses however Tommy kills them all. Sonny is even more angered and decides to come to Vice City himself to face Tommy one-on-one inside the Vercetti Estate. It is eventually revealed that the incident which resulted in Tommy's imprisonment was an ambush that was orchestrated by Sonny Forelli. After Sonny's frustration, sidekick of Tommy, Lance Vance eventually sides with Sonny and causing the death of both Sonny and Lance at a huge gunfight inside the Vercetti Estate.

When Ken Rosenberg was released from drug rehabilitation, Tommy severed all connections with Ken. In 1991, Ken tried contacting Tommy, but was unsuccessful.

Character Personality
Throughout the game, Tommy Vercetti is shown as being a temperamental man, getting angry with people very easily and he is constantly shown to be very violent (for example, Tommy brutally beating Leo Teal to death for ambushing his drug deal and Tommy roughing up and beating Kent Paul whenever he needs to confirm a rumor).

However, Tommy also shows several signs of being a caring man. One example is his friendship with Earnest Kelly. Earnest is an old man who worked the Vice City Print Works, whom Tommy met after buying the Print Works. Tommy sees Earnest as a father figure; when Tommy was a child, his dad used to work with printing presses, and Tommy still has fond memories of helping his dad clean the rollers of his printing machines.

Despite that, Tommy is shown as a ruthless killer, an example being his work for Mr. Black since Black ordered Tommy to kill people in several contract killings and Tommy just complied because he was being paid to do it. The only occasion in which Tommy shows regret for killing someone was when he killed his former associate Lance Vance after Lance sided with Sonny Forelli to kill Tommy at Vercetti Estate.

Vercetti's Dealings
Other than Tommy's main activity of getting back Sonny's money, Tommy pulled off several other jobs with other people to gain popularity with other gangs and also to boost his assets when he starts buying property. Among those dealings are:

Avery Carrington
In order to start up on real estate, Tommy worked with Avery Carrington to learn more about real estate. Tommy pulled off jobs for Avery which involved helping Avery obtain more property around Vice City, like:
 * Killing Avery's main rival in Vice City real estate.
 * Blowing up a building in construction so Avery can buy out the lot in which it's being built.
 * Starting a gang war between the Cubans and the Haitians to reduce real estate prices.

Umberto Robina
To boost his popularity with other gangs, Tommy worked for the Cuban leader, Umberto Robina. Pulling off jobs to weaken Umberto's rival gang, The Haitians, jobs like:
 * Raiding a Haitian drug storage.
 * Busting a Haitian drug deal with the Sharks.
 * Blowing up the Haitian's drug plant.

Mr. Black
To earn extra cash, Tommy worked as a payphone hitman for Mr. Black, assassinating people like:
 * Carl Pearson, works as a pizza delivery man.
 * Mrs. Dawson
 * Mike Griffin, Franco Carter, Nick Kong, Dick Tanner, Marcus Hammond and Charlie Dilson, European bank robbers
 * A business man bringing evidence against Mr. Black's customer in Escobar International Airport.
 * FBI agents and Shark members sealing a deal that would give the FBI evidence against Mr. Black's employer.

Phil Cassidy
In order to get extreme firepower, Tommy works for Phil Cassidy by:
 * Killing Phil's rival at gun running, a man called Pedro Garcia and stealing his weapon shipment.
 * Saving Phil's life when he accidentally blows off his own arm by standing too close to a homemade Boomshine bomb.

Relation to Tony Montana
Tommy Vercetti, in several ways, exhibits characteristics of fictional drug lord Tony Montana from the 1983 film Scarface. This coincides with the heavy themes and appearance of the movie that has been implemented into Vice City. Among these characteristics, his exile from his old home (Liberty City), his rise to power (acquiring property and wealth in the city, and a mansion which also sports an interior similar to that of Montana’s mansion), and his rather short-tempered behavior. Tommy is also a hired assassin, has killed his own collaborators (Lance Vance), took over his temporary boss’s business (Ricardo Diaz) and rebelled against his former leader (Sonny Forelli), as Tony Montana had. The only notable differences are that Montana consumed his own narcotics to the point of severe addiction, a fatal flaw that Vercetti is not depicted to have. However, in GTA San Andreas, when Ken Rosenberg phones him from a rehab clinic on the outskirts of Las Venturas. Rosenberg tries to get in touch with his old boss in The Introduction prequel machinima film in order to find work, only to be turned away several times by one of Vercetti’s associates, as Vercetti has apparently terminated his “employment” due to his cocaine addiction and propensity for liability. Another notable difference is that the final gunfight in Montana’s mansion sees Montana eventually killed, whereas Tommy manages to single-handedly take down his captors and survive.

Trivia

 * An Easter Egg in Grand Theft Auto IV suggests that Tommy Vercetti is dead as of 2008. However, this is not considered canon for the GTA III Era.
 * In GTA San Andreas, a Tommy Vercetti action figure, along with a Lance Vance figure, are seen on shelves in Zero RC Shop.

Murders commited by Tommy

 * Leo Teal (killed to get a lead in the streets)
 * Gonzales (killed for betraying Juan Cortez)
 * Pierre La Ponce (killed for fleeing the mall)
 * Carl Pearson (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Mrs. Dawson (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Mike Griffin (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Dick Tanner (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Franco Carter (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Marcus Hammond (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Nick Kong (killed on Mr. Black's order)
 * Charlie Dilson (killed on Mr. Black's orders)
 * Ricardo Diaz (shot by Tommy and Lance for revenge of an ambushed drug deal)
 * Pedro Garcia (killed on Phil Cassidy's orders)
 * Lance Vance (killed for betraying Tommy)
 * Sonny Forelli (killed for setting him up in 1971)

Possible murders

 * Cam Jones (the player can kill Cam during the mission The Job)