Donald Love

"Experience has taught me that one man can be loyal for the right price...but groups of men can get greedy."

- Donald Love.

Donald Love is a character in Grand Theft Auto series who appear as a main character in Grand Theft Auto III (set in 2001), a minor character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (set in 1986) and a central character in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (set in 1998). He is the multi-billionaire owner of the Love Media conglomerate and is also involved in construction and real estate industries. In GTA III he is voiced by Kyle MacLachlan, who has also appeared in Desperate Housewives, and in GTA Liberty City Stories by Will Janowitz, who has also appeared in The Sopranos. The voice actor for Donald Love's appearance in GTA Vice City is not credited.

1986-1998
He became the protegé of real estate expert Avery Carrington, often following him with a note pad and pen, including to one of Colonel Cortez' parties and once met Tommy Vercetti, who Avery was hiring to start a gang war between the Cubans and the Haitians. Avery's willingness to use any method to bring down property prices would leave an impression on Love. At some point between 1986 and 1998 he moved to Liberty City and established himself as a successful businessman, starting the Love Media company, purchasing a building in Bedford Point and opening an import garage.

1998
Donald Love enters the race to become the mayor of Liberty City, following the murder of incumbent Roger C. Hole, running against Miles O'Donovan. He begins to work for Leone Family Don Salvatore Leone and uses Toni Cipriani, who killed Mayor Hole, and uses his wealth to his advantage. Love hires Cipriani to first stealing a corpse for Love to eat, before having him campaign for him and kill some of O'Donovan's campaigners. Love then discovers that the Forelli Family, a rival to the Leone Family who had controlled Mayor Hole, own a stake in the company printing the ballot papers, sending Toni to destroying the printing factory. Love, realising the voting is closed, decides to campaign himself but is almost killed by the Forelli Family in an ambush, but is rescued by Cipriani, who later attempts to rig the election.

Love later discovers that O'Donovan has evidence linking him with the Leone Family and sends Toni to destroy the evidence. The links between Love and the Leone Family, however, are too obvious and the election is won by O'Donovan. Love, having spent all his money on his campaign, is forced to move to a flophouse in Pike Creek, Shoreside Vale. Love, however, does not give up and later employs Cipriani to kill former mentor Avery Carrington to steal his re-development plans for Fort Staunton, killing many Colombian Cartel escorts as well, before killing Liberty Tree reporter Ned Burner, who had witnessed the murder. Cipriani later collects the corpses of both Carrington and Burner for Love to eat.

Donald Love also hires Cipriani to destroy the Fort Staunton district of Staunton Island, a Forelli strong hold, which he does, using explosives provided by 8-Ball. Love, confident of his future success, purchases a mansion in Cedar Grove and locks himself away, fearing a reprisal from the Colombian Cartel, who attempt to kill him but they are thwarted by Cipriani, who takes him to his private jet at Francis International Airport, where the bodies of Carrington and Burner are in storage. By 2001, the same mansion is taken over by the Cartel, while Donald Love seeks to live in the Love Media tower to avoid certain taxes.

Life until October 2001
Donald Love flies to an unconfirmed location in the United States and continues to expand his business, also living on a yacht in the Caribbean. He is known to have changed laws, been involved in slum clearance and opened casinos across the United States, in the process becoming a "legend" according to a Liberty Tree report. He returns to the city in March 2001, following the return of fellow businessman and rival Barry Harcross, and begins to expand his business empire in the city. He re-establishes Love Media and purchases over nine hundred radio stations (including Chatterbox FM, Double Clef FM, Flashback 95.6 and Head Radio), three hundred television stations, four networks, three satellites, ten senators, the Liberty Tree newspaper, the Bitch'n' Dog Food company and the thirty-story Love Media Building in Bedford Point. He also hires an Old Oriental Gentleman to teach him Tai Chi, sending a private plane to bring him to the city, although the man is arrested by the immigration chief Ray Mathers. At some point between 1998 and 2001, Love begins to implant his plans redevelop Fort Staunton with the Colombian Cartel and their front company, Panlantic Construction, suggesting he had paid the Cartel off.

October 2001
Donald Love continues to oversee the development of Fort Staunton and run his media conglomerate from his home in Bedford Point, although his old oriental gentleman is kidnapped by the Cartel whilst he was being transferred to a police station in Portland View, Portland Island. He later hires Claude, who also escaped in the ambushed convoy, to rescue the old oriental gentleman from a Cartel hide out in Aspatria, before having him kill Yakuza co-leader Kenji Kasen, whilst disguised as a Cartel gangster, in order to provoke a gang war between the two to drive down property prices. Claude is then sent to collect decoy packages before being sent to collect the real package, eventually going to a construction site in Fort Staunton where he finds ex-girlfriend and Cartel leader Catalina, with Miguel and the package. He retrieves the package for Love and works for him one last time, acting as a decoy to allow the old oriental gentleman to escape with the package. Love later disappears (possibly killed by the Yakuza) with the old oriental gentleman, with Rockstar Games stating themselves that Love's fate is ambiguous.

Personality
Donald Love is a cannibal, as seen during the mission Cam Pain, where he eats human ribs and describes human flesh as being "like chicken" but "more sentient". He is also known to throw morgue parties, as revealed in both GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories, even having Toni Cipriani steal the corpses of Avery Carrington and Ned Burner to eat.

In GTA Liberty City Stories, he is much more flamboyant, and still looks to be very young. Only 3 years later, in GTA III, he has a much deeper, more mature voice, puts on some weight and appears to be more towards his forties.

Trivia

 * One of Donald Love's lines in GTA III is almost exactly replicated in GTA Vice City by his mentor Avery Carrington, although the events occur the other way around in the game universe. Love states, during the mission Waka-Gashira Wipeout, that "Nothing drives down real estate prices like a good old fashioned gang war, apart from the outbreak of a plague, but that might going too far in this case". While during the mission Two Bit Hit in GTA Vice City, Avery Carrington states "Now, nothing brings down real estate prices quicker than a good old-fashioned gang war - 'cept maybe a disaster, like a biblical plague or something, but, that may be going too far in this case".
 * Some newspapers in Grand Theft Auto IV carry images of Donald Love.
 * In the beta, Claude would have killed Love in a deleted mission, called Love Hurts, by destroying the Love Media Building with a Dodo.This mission was cut due to its uncanny resemblance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
 * Donald was scheduled to have a bigger part in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
 * Coincidentally, Love's portrayal in VCS closely resembles Donald Trump, Jr., son of real-life retail tycoon and billionaire Donald Trump.
 * Donald was most likely killed by the Yakuza who might have discovered his role in Kenji's attempted murder.

Mission appearances

 * GTA III
 * Liberator (Boss)
 * Waka-Gashira Wipeout (Boss)
 * A Drop In The Ocean (Boss)
 * Grand Theft Aero (Boss)
 * Escort Service (Boss)
 * Decoy (Boss)
 * Love's Disappearance (Boss/Disappearance)


 * GTA Vice City
 * The Party
 * Two Bit Hit


 * GTA Liberty City Stories
 * The Morgue Party Candidate (Boss)
 * Steering the Vote (Boss)
 * Cam-Pain (Boss)
 * Friggin' the Riggin' (Boss)
 * Love and Bullets (Boss)
 * Counterfeit Count (Boss)
 * Love on the Rocks (Boss)
 * Dead Reckoning (Post-mission phone call)
 * Panlantic Land Grab (Boss)
 * Stop the Press (Boss)
 * Morgue Party Resurrection (Boss)
 * Bringing the House Down
 * Love on the Run (Boss)

Gallery
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