Arthur Read

"I told you... not to.... TOUCH IIIIIT!"

- Arthur about to punch D.W.

Arthur Timothy Read is the main protagonist in the television and book series Arthur.

Personality and skills
Arthur is a mediocre pianist, though he has shown that he can truly play when he is motivated. And yet, he can forget to practice the piano at times, where he might not play the right note at a recital. He was originally taught by Mrs. Cardigan, who retired in "Arthur Plays the Blues" and was transferred over to Dr. Fugue's, but was once temporarily expelled for not practicing enough.

Although he is average to well in school most of the time, he occasionally receives help from the Brain.

Arthur enjoys reading - his best friends were shocked after he left a book on the ground in "Arthur Goes Crosswire." Also, he remembers reading many exciting books in "The Short, Quick Summer."

At times, he helps out Buster, who has a general dislike in homework, who he feared was falling behind and could repeat the 3rd grade.

He is occasionally referred to by his full name when he gets into trouble, although his middle name Timothy wasn't actually mentioned until "Arthur's Big Hit" from Season 4.

Arthur is generally polite and friendly with everyone. Despite his politeness, Arthur sometimes has a tendency to break promises his parents have given him, such as to not touch the computer during his mother's tax season, to clean up his room like being told, and to practice the piano - which he does other things instead. He is also known to "play with his glasses" when he lies, which D.W. has caught him doing before.

However, despite being a generally nice character, he is seen to have a meaner side in the episode "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh", in which he teased Sue Ellen about a coat she had got as a present, and the teasing turned into harassment, going as far as Arthur photoshopping a dog's head onto Sue Ellen's body and emailing it to her.

Arthur has the potential to be an intelligent person, but tends to be one who doesn't use common sense, much to the annoyance of his parents (especially his father). An example of this was in "Arthur's Knee," when he told D.W. to not tell Jane and David that he cut his knee from a lima bean can (D.W. wanted to explain to David why lima beans are "bad" for you).

Arthur competes on Lakewood's soccer, track, and baseball teams, as well as on a bowling team against Mighty Mountain. He won the school Spell-a-thon, plays piano in the band, and was one of the founding members of the Lakewood Pride Committee.

Physical appearance
Arthur is an aardvark, like the rest of his family. The shape and appearance of his head comes mostly from his father, David. In the first Arthur book, Arthur's Nose, Arthur had a long nose and he resembled an actual aardvark. However, his design evolved over the first half dozen books; he now has a much shorter nose and more human features. He and many other characters also originally had a tail and were sometimes pants-less, but Arthur's Eyes and all later books removed the tails and made them more humanoid and dressy. In Arthur's Valentine, his ears raised up. In Arthur's April Fool he became more humanoid. In the first season, Arthur's eyes, when seen without his glasses, are drawn with white sclerae and black pupils, but are later redrawn without the sclerae like, say, Prunella's. Although, his eyes with sclerae are shown again during flashbacks before getting glasses and in flashforwards as an elderly man in the future wearing half-glasses. In the later books, he still has the sclerae.

His current standard outfit consists of round brown glasses, a yellow sweater with a white polo underneath, a white undershirt tucked into blue jeans with a brown belt, white socks, and red-and-white sneakers. His undergarments vary between white briefs, white boxer shorts with blue polka-dots, blue Bionic Bunny boxer shorts, red Bionic Bunny underwear, and sky blue boxers with dark blue bunnies. While Arthur's trademark is his aforementioned pair of glasses, it is unclear how the glasses stay on (because of his ears being located on top of his head). In the early books, Arthur wore brown shoes (as opposed to his now staple red-and-white ones), like his friends Buster and Francine. Arthur's shoes have white laces in the cartoon, but red Velcro straps in the books.

Arthur's summertime attire consists of a blue short-sleeved T-shirt with white accents and dark blue shorts; when swimming, Arthur wears yellow swimming trunks. During wintertime, Arthur wears a red hat, brown winter coat, red mittens, and brown boots. In "Arthur Cleans Up," he wore a green Clean-up Brigade uniform while cleaning up the littered park, where he and his friends like to play Frisbee.

Arthur's baseball uniform consists of a yellow T-shirt and white shorts, both with blue accents. His baseball uniform consists of a yellow baseball cap, a yellow T-shirt with an orange #7 on the rear, and the "LW" logo for his school is sometimes seen on the front (although the front is sometimes blank). His ears originally would stick out from the caps he wears, but in later seasons his ears are always inside. His football uniform consists of a light green oversized shirt with a green #1 on the front and a green football helmet with a purple stripe and purple face mask. During cool weather outside of winter, he wears two zip-up jackets: One is green with yellow pockets and another is black.

Arthur's regular sleepwear consists of a blue long-sleeved button-up top, blue pajama pants, and a pair of white bunny slippers. (In the books, his pajamas often have a striped pattern.) When the weather is hot, Arthur wears a purple short-sleeved pajama top and pajama shorts instead.

For formal occasions, Arthur wears either a white suit or a tuxedo. He has two stained tuxedos and a suit. One of his stained tuxedos is light blue and has two buttons on the right side of the jacket and two pockets, one on each side, with the stain near the left breast pocket. Arthur's suit is made up of the same jacket that he wears when he wears his blue tuxedo. However, he wears a white shirt with no jumper like he does with the tuxedo and wears either a purple bow-tie or a purple four-in-hands tie. The trousers are the same as his blue tuxedo, and the shoes are brown. He also wears his usual yellow sweater and white shirt underneath and a dark purple bow tie. As well, he wears dark blue trousers and brown shoes. Arthur's other tuxedo is either black or charcoal with a tuxedo jacket, white tuxedo shirt, black bow tie, matching tuxedo trousers and black dress shoes.

On Halloween, he likes to wear his Bionic Bunny costume that is complete with a Bionic Bunny suit and cape, a red hat with an antenna, and bunny ears that can be worn on his aardvark ears. His Bionic Bunny costume was first seen in "Water and the Brain" during a flashback; the hat and bunny ears were added in The Fright Stuff, and the costume was shown again in "Hic or Treat". On the front cover of Arthur's Scary Stories on VHS and DVD, his Bionic Bunny costume lacked the bunny ears and he wore gloves instead of having bare hands.

Past life
When Arthur was a baby, he wore a yellow T-shirt that had blue cuffs like his basketball uniform, white disposable diapers and periwinkle sneakers.

One day, while his father was filming him with a video camera, Arthur somehow was able to grab the camera from his dad's hands and walked off with it for a few seconds, thus making his first "movie"."Pet Projects"

From pre-school until the time between his first and second-grade years, Arthur wore long-sleeved shirts, shorts, different-colored sneakers, and (sometimes) overalls; he also wore different-colored pajamas.

He started wearing his usual yellow sweater, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers after turning seven; he got glasses during the first semester of second grade when his vision became poor.

Friends

 * Buster Baxter: Buster is Arthur's best friend. They do many things together, such as watching movies, going to Wonder World, and eating at The Sugar Bowl. Arthur and Buster share multiple interests, such as Henry Skreever books, Bionic Bunny, and playing baseball and soccer.
 * Ladonna Compson: Ladonna is Arthur's four-houses-down neighbor. Arthur and Ladonna became friends shortly after Ladonna moved to Elwood City, and have remained friends since.
 * Francine Frensky: She is one of Arthur's best friends. According to "Locked in the Library!", they first met in preschool; but in "Desperately Seeking Stanley" from Season 8, she went to his third birthday party. Francine sometimes teases Arthur, although they always remain friends in the end. She gave him Spin-the-Bottle for his eighth birthday, and other than that, there are many rumors that they have a crush on each other; this is evidenced heavily in the book Arthur's Valentine, when she appears angered that Arthur has given a "mushy" (in her words) valentine to Sue Ellen Armstrong. Another example is in "Arthur and the Square Dance" where Muffy (upset that she has to dance with a clumsy Binky) spreads a rumor (with Binky's help) that Arthur and Francine are boyfriend and girlfriend and in love. This later scares the two of them, and they admit that there are no romantic feelings between them. At the end of "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", they are shown as an elderly couple in the future, watching The Magic Toolbox on VHS.
 * Muffy Crosswire: She and Arthur are good friends. They both share the same birthday, and although they don't hang out with each other often, they are still good companions. Their own parents are close friends with each other: Arthur's mother works as a tax accountant for Muffy's father, who runs Crosswire Motors, and Ed is often the customer for desserts that Arthur's father bakes and delivers to people. While Arthur is sometimes quite annoyed by Muffy antics, like when she talks about shopping or gloats about her wealth, he'll still lend her a helping hand if she needs. An example is in "You Are Arthur," where Arthur notices Muffy about to bump into the railing. He asks her if she is alright, and helps her up.
 * Alan Powers: Another one of Arthur's best friends, whom he and others nickname as "Brain." Brain occasionally helps out Arthur with his homework. He also stayed at Arthur's for the weekend while his parents were out to the Ice Creamer's Convention, and was neat as a guest; but when he went back to his own house, Arthur found out that the Brain wasn't as neat as expected. Arthur is a frequent customer at Brain's Ice Cream Shop.
 * Binky Barnes: Despite Arthur fearing Binky and casting Binky as the villains in his stories, Binky usually does not want to harm Arthur. Arthur and Binky have been shown to get along sometimes, like in "Big Brother Binky" and "Baby Steps."
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong: She is said to be one of Arthur's best friends, although they don't hang out much. In the book Arthur's Valentine, he expected her to be his secret admirer after she transferred to his school. In "Arthur's Faraway Friend," she gave him advice to spend time with Buster before his long trip with his dad. In "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary," he and three of their friends were able to retrieve her diary she once lost in the Elwood City Public Library. In "The Secret Guardians," she invites him to sail her model ship with her near the tree house. In "The Best Day Ever," when she, Arthur and some of their friends talk about their best day ever, Sue Ellen tells the group that Arthur returning her diary to her was her best day.
 * George Lundgren: Even though they might not hang out very often, they're together enough times to have formed a friendship. In "Arthur's Dummy Disaster" when George's dummy, Wally, falls apart when he is supposed to read a poem out loud, Arthur talks to George and helps him overcome his shyness, while helping him realize he can have courage to speak without the use of Wally. George recounts this as his best day ever. In "The Silent Treatment," Arthur and his friends plan a surprise party for George.
 * Fern Walters: In earlier seasons, interactions between Arthur and Fern were rare; however. as the show progressed more episodes featured them together. This is evident in episodes like "The Boy Who Cried Comet" and "Tales of Grotesquely Grim Bunny" where Buster, Fern, and Arthur appear as a trio.

Growth
It is hinted in a few episodes, that Arthur wants to be a lot bigger in size, for unknown reasons. In "D.W.'s Snow Mystery", he views himself as someone 1.5 times his normal size.

In "The World Record," he fantasizes as being the tallest person in the world. In the opening of "Buster's Best Behavior", he views himself as being able to make himself much taller. These moments are unexplained.

Voice Acting
For the first five seasons of the television series, Arthur was voiced by Michael Yarmush.

For season six, Yarmush was replaced by Justin Bradley, and for seasons seven and eight, the character's voice was provided by Mark Rendall. Rendall also redubbed Season 6 due to complaints from Carol Greenwald stating that Bradley's voice was too low and he lacked the vocal range of Yarmush.

After Rendall left, Cameron Ansell took up the role for seasons nine, ten and eleven.

Starting with season twelve, he was voiced by Dallas Jokic.

During season 16 and 17, he was voiced by Drew Adkins.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth seasons, he was voiced by William Healy.

He is currently voiced by Jacob Ursomarzo starting with the twentieth season.

In the Living Books computer games: Arthur's Teacher Trouble and Arthur's Birthday, he was voiced by Duncan Wold and Ben Ellis.

In the Direct-to-DVD CGI film, Arthur's Missing Pal, he was voiced by Carr Thompson.

Trivia

 * Arthur's bedtime is 9:00 pm.
 * Arthur has not appeared in multiple episodes of the show.
 * He started on the show of the same name when he was eight years old, three months, and 22 days.
 * It was seen in some episodes, in the future, Arthur and Francine will be married.
 * Sue Ellen hints she has a crush on Arthur at the end of "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" resulting in him blushing.
 * Arthur's favorite color is yellow.
 * Arthur is one of the few characters to have never read any title cards out loud.

Gallery
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