Summary
Grand Theft Autois a franchise that has run for a long time and produced a lot of quality games that have gone down as some of the most memorable and beloved in history. Taking a lot of heat for the way it seemingly glorifies violence and crime, the games have nevertheless been hugely and consistently successful.
While it has been over a decade since the last new game in theGrand Theft Autoseries was released, it is fascinating to take a look back at the various main characters in thegames over the yearsand examine who they are as people.
Updated on March 19th, 2025, by Chris Harkin:Although the Grand Theft Auto franchise is about to get a huge new entry later this year with Grand Theft Auto 6, this hasn’t slowed down the love and nostalgia fans feel for the older entries in this series. There is a lot of history to Grand Theft Auto as a franchise, and although some younger fans may not have played anything before GTA 5, it is worth remembering everything from the defining PS2 era trilogy to the handheld games and spin-offs that have kept the series running for over two decades and across many different generations of gaming consoles.
The firstGrand Theft Autogame allowed players their choice ofeight different characters. Their names were Bubba, Divine, Katie, Kivlov, Mikki, Travis, Troy, and Ulrika. The player actually gets to choose the name of their character after selecting them, and the story doesn’t revolve at all around the character, making the choice a purely cosmetic one.
As this is the case, nothing is really known about the ages or history of the characters. Various homages were paid by the character designs; Divine was based on Blaxploitation heroines like Pam Grier, and Travis was an homage to Travis Bickle fromTaxi Driver.
The London mission packs later added to the firstGrand Theft Autogame were similar in nature to that entry, providing a list of eight different characters that the player could select as theirs for the duration of the game. However, likeGTA 1, the choice of character in the London mission packs made absolutely no difference to the story of the games.
The variety was inspired by a series of different sub-cultures within the UK in the 60s, from The Beatles to a character modeled after actor Michael Caine, and a character based on the bassist from the Sex Pistols. “Spiv”, “Mod”, “Hippie” and “Rudeboy” cultures were all made use of in an attempt to give a diverse look at the UK of the 1960s, the decade during which both mission packs were set. However, little is known about the backstories of most of these characters, making it difficult to say what most of their ages actually were.
In the second game, there was still a severe lack of story or backstory for the main character, but partly through a short promotional film that was created to advertise the release of the game, players learn that the character is named Claude Speed and that he has just been released from prison.
Due to the futuristic events and confusing timeline ofGrand Theft Auto 2, it can be difficult to decide on the age for Claude, but his suspected age is around 28. The game describes the player character as a mongrel that nobody trusts.
9Grand Theft Auto 3
Claude (29) & Catalina (31)
Considered one of themost influential gamesof all time,Grand Theft Auto 3again focused on a silent protagonist named Claude. This time, Claude is betrayed and shot by his girlfriend Catalina during a heist. After escaping during a prison transfer, Claude becomes friends with another convict, 8-Ball, and manages to join up with the local Mafia and later the Yakuza in Liberty City.
Claude is supposed to be around 29 during the events ofGrand Theft Auto 3, while Catalina is around 31. Though Catalina dies at this age, Claude’s fate remains uncertain, so he could well be a great deal older today.
Featuring a huge story and another massive set of actors like Ray Liotta, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Burt Reynolds, and Luis Guzman,Grand Theft Auto:Vice Citywas an epic turning point for video games. The leading character is Tommy Vercetti, a mobster who is released from prison at the beginning of the game and goes on an adventure to try and take over the criminal underworld of Vice City.
Tommy is supposed to be 35 during the events ofVice City, having gone to prison for murder at the age of 20 and serving fifteen years there. Other characters like his former boss and now rival, Sonny Forelli, is around 40 in the game, andcrooked lawyer Ken Rosenbergis another major character thought to be 33. Lance Vance, a main character who later becomes a thorn in Tommy’s side, is approximately 32 years old.
Some of the things that almost all theGTAgames share the acclaim, controversy over the level of violence, and the way they depict many aspects of criminal life. ButGrand Theft Auto:San Andreaswas on another level for the open world andthe storytelling it managed to accomplish, helping it become the highest-selling PS2 game ever.
San Andreasfocuses on Carl “CJ” Johnson, who returns to Liberty City following his mother’s death after leaving the gang life behind years prior. He is 24 during the events of the game, while his brother, Sweet, is 27.
There isn’t a lot of information available about the protagonist of the first true handheldGTAgame. Though both the first and second main games were ported to the Game Boy, they were relatively unsuccessful attempts to bring the franchise to that format.GTA Advancedid a much better job, telling an original story which was a prequel toGTA III, focusing on small-time criminal Mike whose partner was killed, sending Mike on a path of revenge.
GTA Advancehad all the classic story hallmarks of the franchise, without focusing too much on narrative. That means it is hard to place an exact age for Mike, who vanished happily from the franchise by moving to Bermuda with his wealth at the conclusion of his adventure. It seems, though, that Mike was old enough to have already gained a lot of wealth alongside his partner in the criminal game, but young enough to still look like he might be under 30.
Set three years before the events ofGrand Theft Auto 3, the spin-offGrand Theft Auto:Liberty City Storiesfocuses on Toni Cipriani, a character who played a significant role in the third game. He begins this prequel by returning home after four years abroad due to his murder of a “made man,” for which many in Liberty City still feel embittered against him.
Toni managed to assistthe Leone Crime Familyin taking out their rivals and becoming the single largest faction in the criminal underworld of Liberty City by the timeGTA 3began. He went from a young, hungry criminal who was around 28-29 inLiberty City Storiesto a fat cat who’d done the hard work and was reaping his rewards in those intervening years, despite it being a relatively short time period.
The other prequel game of the early 3DGTAyears,Grand Theft Auto:Vice City Stories, featured Vic Vance as the protagonist. Much more than most characters in the franchise, Vic actually disliked the idea of getting into the criminal life at first and was pulled in by his superior while he was still in the army.
The booming Vice City drug trade was alluring to someone who needed money for his family, but after being betrayed by the man who got him into crime and kicked from the army, Vic turned into a true criminal and latergot his revenge. InVice City Stories, Vic is only 32 but is 34 during his appearance inVice City.
More resembling the modern style thatGTA 5players are used to,Grand Theft Auto 4was set in Liberty City during 2008 and centered on Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic, who arrives in Liberty City looking toescape his pastand start a new life.
The intriguing story and different character styles were parts of what madeGTA 4a great entry in theGrand Theft Autofranchise; it managed to keep things fresh after the consistent style of the previous three games. Niko is 30 by the time he arrives in Liberty City, while other characters significant to the game, like Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez, are respectively 34 and 25. Niko’s cousin, Roman Bellic, is roughly 31 years of age.
