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I poke my head out of the gutter for one freaking second, and fate shovels s--t in my face...
~ Ken Rosenburg

Ken Rosenberg is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as the deuteragonist in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (set in 1986) and a main character in San Andreas (set in 1992). He is also mentioned in Vice City Stories (set in 1984). In 1986 he has an appearance resembling David Klenfield from the 1993 flim Carlito's Way with a haircut resembling that of Sonny Corleone from the classic gangster film The Godfather and a purple soiree suit. In 1992 his hair is shorter with a small ponytail on the back. His outfit consists of a black t-shirt and three-button suit coat, beige pants and shoes.

He is voiced in both of his appearances by William Fichtner (also credited as Bill Fitchner), who has starred in, amongst other things, the film Empire Falls.

Appearance[]

When he is first seen in Vice City, Ken is wearing a pink outfit, dark-tinted glasses, and a black long-buttoned shirt under his pink jacket. By the time of San Andreas, he is balding, and wearing black for his shirts, but white pants, and looked much more aged compared to 6 years prior in Vice City.

Personality[]

Ken is shown to be extremely friendly to anyone he is assigned to by the Forelli family, mainly due to his position as an attorney-at-law and thus is able to ensure that anyone in the Forelli family who is arrested is given a light sentence by the courts. Of course, after the events with the drug deal go sour, Ken becomes a paranoid worrywart over fearing retaliation from the Forellis. He regresses into this several times during Vice City, including in the finale when he fears Sonny is coming to fit him with cement shoes to drown him in the bay. When not fearing for his life, he is extremely excitable and helpful, especially to Tommy, such as after Tommy killed Diaz and took over his mansion and drug empire.

Biography[]

Life up to 1986[]

To be Added...

1986[]

Getting a call from Forelli Family Mafia leader Sonny Forelli in Liberty City that he's sending Tommy Vercetti and two other Mafiosi, Harry and Lee, down to Vice City to establish the Forelli Family's influence there in the drug trade, Ken arranges a meeting with the Vance Crime Family to secure the Forellis' foothold in the South. Meeting Tommy and the others at Vice City's Escobar International Airport, Ken takes them down to the Vice City Docks where the Vance Crime Family is to rendezvous for the deal. As Victor and Lance Vance arrive via helicopter, Ken stays in the car as Tommy, Harry, and Lee head over to meet with Victor. Unknown to either side, a trio of masked hitmen sent by drug baron Ricardo Diaz to ruin the deal and prevent the Forellis from trying to muscle in on his drug trade business are lying in ambush. Just as Victor shows the drugs to Tommy, and Tommy shows Victor the cash he brought from Sonny, as they are about to make the trade, the hitmen spring their ambush, and Victor, Harry, and Lee are all killed. Tommy avoids the gunfire and retreats to Ken's car, shouting for him to get them the heck out of there, while Lance also retreats in the helicopter he brought Victor in. However, both the money and drugs are left behind, and presumably claimed by Diaz.

Ken returns to his law office in eastern Vice City along Washington Beach, muttering to himself about how fate seems to be against him, before Tommy tells him to head into his office and get some sleep while he heads back to his hotel room in Ocean Beach at the Ocean View Hotel to do the same, and they can work things out in the morning. The next morning, Tommy returns to Ken's office, where Ken is revealed to have been up all night, drinking coffee to stay awake, having not gotten any sleep, becoming a nervous wreck over what happened with the deal, fearing what will happen to him when Sonny finds out and pleading with Tommy as to how they are going to rectify this.

Shut up, sit down, relax. I'll tell you what we're gonna do. You're going to find out who took our cocaine. And then I'm going to kill them.
~ Tommy Vercetti

Agreeing with Tommy's plan, Ken then remembers that there was a Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez who helped organize the meet with the Vance Crime Family and suggests Tommy head over to his private yacht at the Ocean Beach docks to speak with him, handing him an invitation and suggesting Tommy swing by the local tailor shop to get fitted with some nice duds for the party. When Tommy returns later with the info he could gather while at Colonel Cortez's party, Ken then directs him to the Malibu Club to meet with Kent Paul, a Brit who could provide more details to Tommy as he has, as Ken put it, "got his nose so far up most of Vice City's a-- that if anyone knows the whereabouts of 20 kilos of cocaine, it's him." After Tommy meets Kent Paul and also meets Lance Vance, he returns to learn that Ken is in deep trouble. Two jurors that are part of the trial regarding Sonny's cousin Giorgio are going to pretty much sell him out unless Tommy can make them change their minds about Giorgio's verdict from "guilty" to "not guilty", which Tommy does when he smashes up their cars and intimidates them into voting "not guilty" unless they want to face Tommy's wrath if they don't. After that, Tommy returns to Ken's office, where Ken is meeting with Avery Carrington, who asks for Tommy's help to deal with the SpandEx company that is sitting on some prime real estate he has his eyes on. Once Tommy deals with that, Ken is not seen again until after Tommy has dealt with Ricardo Diaz and taken over his drug empire.

With Ricardo Diaz dead and his drug empire now Tommy's, Ken serves as Tommy's lawyer as he then sets about dealing with the various properties that had been paying protection money to Diaz, who now believe they no longer need to do so with Diaz dead. After Tommy forces them back into complacency with shooting out the store windows at the North Point Mall to get his point across that they pay protection to him now, Tommy then looks into purchasing the Malibu Club. Once done, Ken settles in himself, and aids Tommy as he gets a crew together to rob the El Banco Corrupto Grande, allowing the Malibu to start generating revenue for Tommy to collect periodically.

After Tommy has secured many properties around Vice City and managed to get them back on their feet and producing money for him and his new empire with the Vercetti Gang, including the Boat Yard, Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory, Pole Position Club, Kaufman Cabs, Sunshine Autos, InterGlobal Studios, Print Works, and the Malibu Club, he later arrives at the Print Works following a call from Ken, who sounds like he's high on cocaine with sniffing it deeply, to find Earnest Kelly having been badly injured by Mafiosi sent by Sonny to collect the tribute to the Forelli Family that Tommy never sent to him after Tommy severed ties with the Forellis and Liberty City. After Tommy deals with the Mafiosi before they can tax his businesses, he returns to the Vercetti Estate to find Ken and Lance there, with Ken revealing that Sonny and his men are on their way down to personally collect the tribute Tommy owes them, and Ken is paranoid about being fitted with some cement shoes and drowned, or worse. Tommy calms him down, and decides to give Sonny what he wants, using the counterfeit money the Print Works is producing to serve as the tribute to placate him. However, when Sonny does arrive to collect the tribute and it looks as if everything will work in Tommy's favor, Sonny reveals that Lance betrayed Tommy and sided with him, having warned him in advance that he was going to be given counterfeit cash instead of the real deal. After Tommy slaughters Lance, Sonny, and the Mafiosi with Sonny, Ken is crawling across the floor when he hears an exhausted Tommy raise his M4 at him and cowers, but once Tommy sees its Ken, he lowers his weapon, while Ken gets to his feet, shocked at what's happened. When Tommy voices his disgust over Lance turning traitor, Ken admits he never trusted the guy and calls him an a-----e, glad that Tommy killed him. When Tommy then voices how they won't be worrying about any trouble from Liberty City now with Sonny dead, Ken is ecstatic. As Tommy tells Ken that this looks like the beginning of a beautiful partnership, both look out at the city that is now under their control.

1990-1992[]

However, around the turn of the decade, Ken had become so addicted to cocaine that Tommy sent him to San Andreas to be rehabilitated at a rehabilitation center in Las Venturas. By 1992, Ken emerges fully rehabilitated and off his coke addiction, but when he tries to call Tommy to be permitted to return to Vice City, he is denied speaking with Tommy by another Vercetti Gang member on the other end of the call before they hang up, indicating that Tommy has potentially ended his partnership with Ken. With no where else to go, Ken is soon recruited by Johnny Sindacco to serve as a middle man for the Liberty City Mafia families with maintaining Caligula's Casino in Las Venturas for them. Brought before Leone Family Don Salvatore Leone, Ken is initially intimidated by Salvatore with making sure his investment in the casino is returned to him in full, before Salvatore eases up and offers Ken a drink. From that point, Ken acted as the middle man for the Mafia families from Liberty City running the casino, until it is visited by Carl Johnson, who is able to help Ken escape his predicament regarding Salvatore, along with Kent Paul and Maccer, as part of his plan to get in good with Salvatore before ripping off Caligula's of its money supply with help from Wu Zi Mu and a team from the Four Dragons Casino. Once they've safely escaped from the Mafia's grip thanks to C.J., they later regroup with C.J. after he returns to Los Santos, helping him with setting up his new home base at Madd Dogg's mansion while also working with Woozie back at the Four Dragons and serving as Madd Dogg's new manager. After C.J. finally secures Grove Street Families as the largest gang in Los Santos and kills Big Smoke and Tenpenny, Ken arrives with Madd Dogg, Kent Paul, and Maccer, to reveal Madd Dogg's new Gold Record he just earned to the Johnson clan and Cesar Vialpando, before C.J. decides to head out and see what's happening in the hood.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • During the mission The Meat Business in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, he will sometimes yell out "This is so exciting, Tommy! It's just like old times!", apparently still missing his days working alongside Tommy Vercetti.
  • According to artwork, Ken Rosenberg originally wore the same soiree suit as he does in the game, but wore a yellow shirt underneath.
  • Rosenberg is undoubtedly heavily influenced by Sean Penn's character Dave Kleinfeld from the 1993 movie Carlito's Way. Both worked as lawyers, helped the protagonists of their respective franchises, and were heavily addicted to cocaine and both did something that made the protagonist sever their ties with them (in Kleinfeld's case, he was going to testify against Carlito and Tommy severed his ties with Rosenberg because of his drug addiction). The interior of Rosenberg's office in Vice City is also remarkably similar to Dave Klenfield's office.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Ken is not seen outside of full-motion cutscenes, except for the mission "In The Beginning...".
  • Ken's name is misspelled as "Rosenburg" on the official website of Rockstar Games' artist Stephen Bliss. Whether this is his beta name or just a typo is unknown.

Navigation[]

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3D Universe
Grand Theft Auto III
Claude | 8-Ball | Maria Latore | Luigi Goterelli | Joey Leone | Toni Cipriani | Mickey Hamfists | Phil Cassidy |

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Tommy Vercetti | Ken Rosenberg | Lance Vance | Juan Cortez | Avery Carrington | Kent Paul | Umberto Robina | Steve Scott | Mitch Baker | Phil Cassidy | Love Fist | Mercedes Cortez | Candy Suxxx | BJ Smith | Hilary King | Cam Jones | Doris | Earnest Kelly | Alberto Robina | Victor Vance | Jethro & Dwaine | Lazlow Jones

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Carl Johnson | Sean "Sweet" Johnson | Cesar Vialpando | The Truth | Wu Zi Mu | Mike Toreno | Ken Rosenberg | Kent Paul | Maccer | Madd Dogg | Zero | Kendl Johnson | Big Bear | Ran Fa Li | Jimmy Hernandez | Denise Robinson | Jethro & Dwaine | Beverly Johnson

Grand Theft Auto Advance
Mike | Jonnie | Cisco | Yuka Kasen

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Toni Cipriani | Maria Latore | 8-Ball | Phil Cassidy | Leon McAffrey | Mickey Hamfists

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Victor Vance | Lance Vance | Louise Cassidy-Williams | Phil Cassidy | Umberto Robina | Reni Wassulmaier | Phil Collins

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Grand Theft Auto IV
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Organizations
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