| “ | There's not a prison in this country that can hold me!! | „ |
| ~ Dale Biederbeck's breakdown upon being arrested. |
Dale J. "The Whale" Biederbeck III is a major antagonist of the USA series Monk.
He is a crooked, very wealthy financier and long-lasting adversary of the brilliant detective Adrian Monk. He is also known for his gross obesity, hence his nickname.
Portrayals[]
- In the first season, he was portrayed by Adam Arkin, who also played Theo Tonin in Justified and George Costas in Law & Order.
- In the second season, he was portrayed by the legendary Tim Curry, who also played Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Lord of Darkness in Legend, Wadsworth in Clue, Pennywise in the It television miniseries, Thaddeus E. Klang in TaleSpin, Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, the Evil Manta in The Little Mermaid television series, Cardinal Richeliu in The Three Musketeers, Farley Claymore in The Shadow, Kilokahn in Super Human Samurai Syber-Squad, Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin, Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles, Long John Silver in Muppets Treasure Island, Simon Doonan in the Titanic TV movie, Maestro Forte in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Slagar the Cruel in Redwall, Dr. Slicer in Recess, Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Big Brother in Johnny Bravo, the Mouse King in Barbie in the Nutcracker, Professor Calamitous in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Scarlet Fever and Nick O' Teen in Ozzy & Drix, Belial in The Legend of Atlantis, El Maléfico in ¡Mucha Luca!: The Return of El Maléfico, Von Talon in Valiant, Anatoly Cherdenko in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Philippe in Barbie and The Three Musketeers, Billy Flynn in Criminal Minds and Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- In the sixth season, he was portrayed by Ray Porter, who also played Count Grisham in The Scarecrow, Hestler Jones in Justified, the Nightmare Train in The Little Engine That Could and Darkseid in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Biography[]
Background[]
Dale was a very wealthy yet corrupt financier who at the height of his power, apparently owned half the city of San Francisco. Despite his social stature, he was a tremendous glutton who feasted on endless supplies of food (which made him into a massively overweight man) earning him his nickname, Dale The Whale. His weight increased exponentially after his mother died, to the extent that he couldn't even get out of bed. Unlike many wealthy and famous men, he actually bought entire newspaper publishers to keep his name out of them due to his dislike of media exposure.
A few years before her death, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Trudy Monk wrote an unflattering article about Dale, calling him "The Genghis Khan of World Finance" in the article. Outraged, Dale filed lawsuits against the paper in question as well as against Trudy herself. Dale knew he couldn't win the cases, but out of spite he kept the lawsuits going for long enough that Trudy and her husband Adrian were forced to sell everything they had to pay their legal bills, including a nice starter house they had recently acquired. As a further display of his spite and cruelty, Dale then purchased the house and used it to store his pornography collection. The entire period was described by Trudy as the worst year of her life. This is why Monk hates Dale with a passion; As he put it, "She only had thirty-five years, and he stole one of them.".
Murder of Judge Catherine Lavinio[]
In 2002, Biederbeck became the primary suspect in the slaying of Judge Catherine Lavinio, who had issued a costly antitrust ruling against him. Several clues left behind identified him as the killer, but the police were baffled because he couldn't leave his bedroom due to his enormous size. However, Monk eventually deduced that Biederbeck had recruited his personal physician to commit the murder, and then leave clues behind making it look as though Dale was the one who did it, both to confound the police and to taunt them-or in Monk's words, Biederbeck wanted them to know he had done it, and gotten away with it. However, he didn't as the doctor turned state's evidence on Biederbeck, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. Before being arrested, he then tried to strangle Monk in revenge for foiling his plot, but his immense girth left him unable to reach up to Monk to do so. Monk then took the opportunity to add insult to injury by deliberately leaning towards him as he's doing so.
Deal With Monk[]
A year later, Monk visited Dale in prison and was upset to find that he had adjusted to life behind bars quite easily: as immobile as ever, he still enjoyed the use of his luxurious furniture, a television, racy photos on the wall, and an inmate to feed him mountains of specially delivered takeout food. The only thing he lacked was a window so he could look on the outside world. After a condemned prisoner, Ray Kaspo, was poisoned to death less than an hour before his execution, suspicion fell on Biederbeck, to whom the dead man owed one thousand and two hundred dollars. Both he and Monk knew that Biederbeck wouldn't kill anyone over such a petty sum (as he said with a laugh, "I wouldn't bend down to pick up 1,200 dollars - I mean, even if I could") but until the killer was caught, the prison refused to install Biederbeck's window. He offered Monk a deal to find the killer, and Biederbeck would share what he knew about Trudy's murder.
After Monk solved the case, Dale revealed that Trudy was, contrary to Monk's belief, indeed the intended victim of the car bomb. He sent Monk to New York City with the name of the man who built and planted the bomb, Warrick Tennyson. As a plane headed east, Biederbeck smiled to himself as he was able to see it with his new window, "Bon voyage, Mr. Monk".
Framing Monk[]
In Dale's final appearance, a few years after that, Monk is framed for the murder of the six-fingered man, Frank Nunn, who was involved in Trudy's death. Monk eventually realizes that Dale was behind this. It turns out that Dale had been desiring to "trade places" with Monk, so he'd be free and Monk would be in prison. To further advance this, Dale made a deal with the state's corrupt Lieutenant Governor, as he'd have the Governor assassinated by a bomb planted on the Governor's car during a motorcade, then when the Lieutenant Governor took his position, he'd repay the favor by using his newfound power to grant Dale an early parole. He also hired corrupt sheriff, John Rollins, to frame Monk for Frank Nunn's murder. However, Monk foiled this plot, and exposed everyone's involvement in it. Rollins was then arrested, the Lieutenant Governor was indicted and almost certainly imprisoned, and Dale was stripped of nearly all the privileges he had previously enjoyed. Monk has a final prison conversation with Dale, who was clearly furious over being beaten again, and left while saying, "Have a nice life, Dale." He and Natalie walked away while an enraged Dale angrily ranted at him. He bellowed "Get back here, Monk! I'M NOT DOOOOONE!" Monk softly said, "Oh, yes, you are" as he and Natalie walked away, satisfied that Dale the Whale would clearly never be able to hurt anyone else again.