Tommy Vercetti

Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (set in 1986) and mentioned in The Introduction, a prequel of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (set in 1992), and in the game itself during the mission The Meat Business.

Tommy is a former member of the Forelli Family, and the leader of the Vercetti crime family in Vice City.

Appearance
Tommy, an Italian-American, is portrayed with a tall, swarthy, handsome appearance, combed dark brown, almost black hair, brown eyes, and a constant five o'clock shadow. He first appears wearing a light blue-green Hawaiian shirt with dark blue palm trees printed on it, a gold pearl necklace around his neck, a gold watch around his left wrist, and a pair of blue jeans and white sneakers. He has other outfits also, and his appearance can be completely changed through the Player Skin Setup, a new feature of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, allowing players to create custom textures for the default player model and apply them in the game.

Personality
Tommy Vercetti is depicted as both intelligent and temperamental. He is easily angered and quick to resort to violence. He does not hesitate to kill, though many of his victims are trying to kill Tommy, or have done something that guaranteed their deaths. However, Tommy often shows care and sensitivity towards characters like Mercedes Cortez and especially Earnest Kelly, viewing Kelly as a father figure due to his own father working in a print works, and showing anger and concern when Kelly is injured by Sonny's hitmen.

Tommy prefers to perform his own work rather than delegate tasks to others. Even after he has his own gang and other subordinates working for him, he usually puts his plans in motion personally. He also personally gets involved if things aren't going as well as he'd like - for example, in the opening cutscene of Bar Brawl he is irritated by Lance's lazy attitude towards the bar refusing to pay protection money and immediately goes out to settle things himself.

Despite his hot temper, Tommy tends to be loyal and trusting, especially toward those whom he feels helped him to achieve his goals. He went back to work for Sonny Forelli after being released from prison even though he strongly suspected that Sonny set him up. This is especially true of Lance Vance. Although Lance's competence was declining and his temperament was becoming negative, Tommy still viewed and attempted to treat Lance as an equal partner, even letting him in on the counterfeiting setup at the Vice City Print Works. When busting Lance's chops once over the phone, Tommy states he's doing so because Lance screwed up: if Tommy ever messed up, he considered it within Lance's full rights to take him to task on it. Tommy was shocked at Lance's betrayal, leading Earnest Kelly to quip, "Tommy, for a raging lunatic, you sure are naïve".

Abilities
Tommy is aggressive and easily angered, and has no problem with killing his enemies with chainsaws. He is smart enough to manage a considerable number of businesses and is undoubtedly one of the most physically strong characters in the series.

Trivia

 * Tommy has a few unique traits as compared to other GTA protagonists. He was the first one to speak (although that honor technically goes to Toni Cipriani in GTA III, he was not actually recognized as a protagonist until GTA Liberty City Stories, which was released after GTA VC). He was also the first 3D Universe protagonist to be given a name - Claude of GTA IIIwasn't named until GTA SA, and Toni Cipriani didn't officially become a protagonist until GTA LCS. He was also the only vocal GTA protagonist to never say the word "fuck".
 * In GTA IV, there is graffiti found around the map with Tommy's name, along with the other 3D Universe protagonists. It states that they are all dead. Rockstar Games later told that it was a "little joke for the fans of the series".
 * Tommy's shirt can be seen in the wardrobe at The Compound safehouse in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, but Vic cannot wear it.
 * The video game DRIV3R featured Hawaiian shirt-wearing characters known as "Timmy Vermicelli" hidden throughout each of its 3 main maps, who could be killed to unlock bonuses, a parody of both Tommy and the hidden package system of GTA games. Additionally, the Timmy Vermicelli characters wore inflatable armbands, making fun of the fact Tommy Vercetti is unable to swim and will die upon entering the water.
 * Tommy and Trevor Philips are the only protagonists to be present for the death of another protagonist in a canonical situation (Tommy witnessed Victor Vance's murder during a deal, and Trevor beat Johnny Klebitzto death).
 * In The Introduction, Ken Rosenberg calls Tommy Vercetti, but Tommy doesn't speak because Ray Liottahad a dispute with Rockstar Games about how much "effort" he put in Vice City and Tommy's voice wasn't recorded.