Bruce Davis is a character that appears in the 2023 film Haunted Mansion. He is played by Danny DeVito.
Biography[]
Haunted Mansion[]
Bruce Davis is a college history professor at Tulane University that studies supernatural incidents, particularly those of New Orleans. He has been obsessed with unraveling the mysteries of the legendary Haunted Mansion, leading to him being approached by Ben Matthias and Father Kent, asking for history on the house, near the time Bruce was set to have heart surgery. The two didn't want to let Bruce explore the mansion with him, so they stole his materials on the house at a sushi bar and ran off with them.
On his own, Bruce joined their hired group and was attacked by ghosts in the séance room, causing him to be dragged out into the street on a chair and be hospitalized while still haunted by one of the ghosts. He later returned to assist in solving the haunting. After Ben was able to get a recreation of the Hatbox Ghost's face, Bruce presented the ghost's history as evil occultist Alistair Crump.
Personality[]
Appearance[]
Bruce is a seventy to eighty-year short old man with gray thinning hair, fair olive skin, and brown eyes. He wears clear glasses and sometimes a clear raincoat and hat. His outfit consists of a gray coat with a light brown vest, a gray dress shirt and pants, a black bow tie, and black shoes.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Bruce Davis takes his surname from Disney Imagineer Marc Davis.
- Bruce wears a translucent slicker which may be a reference to the outfits which the ghost animatronics wear in the Haunted Mansion attraction.
- There is a scene in which Bruce and Ben lie to a police sketch-artist to make a police-sketch of the Hatbox Ghost. Incidentally, Danny DeVito starred in the comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which has a scene with the same premise.
- Bruce mentions having never gotten to explore the Haunted Mansion but having always wanted to. Why he never went is unclear as he lives in the same city of it and makes supernatural studies the focus of his career.
- His comment about having wanted to explore the Mansion for 60 years alludes to 2023 being the 60th Anniversary of the Mansion facade's construction in 1963.