Dorian Tyrell

Dorian Tyrell is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Chuck Russell's 1994 film, The Mask. He was portrayed by actor Peter Greene.

The Mask (1994 film)
At the start of The Mask, Dorian Tyrell is a mobster and one of America's professional killers, who works for Niko, the Mafia chieftain of Edge City. His job is to oversee the management of Niko's casino, the Coco Bongo; however, Tyrell grows weary of taking orders from Niko, and with a number of henchmen loyal to him, plans to eliminate Niko in order to ascend to Don of Edge City.

Carrying out his sinister plot step by step, Dorian has his moll, Tina Carlyle, go to the local bank and use her handbag as a camera so that Tyrell, who is on the top floor of the Coco Bongo and is getting a view of the bank's security system via Tina's handbag. Tyrell then organizes for his right-hand man and best friend, Freeze, to rob the bank in order to obtain the cash necessary for their plot against Niko.

However, Niko's henchmen eventually discover Tyrell's schemes. His criminal activities attract unwanted attention from the police and the Coco Bongo is almost closed down by them due to their investigations. Unable to tolerate Tyrell's behaviour, Niko orders his thugs to take Tyrell to meet with him. Niko threatens Tyrell through his thugs forcing him down at gunpoint to place a golf tee in his mouth and a golf ball on top of the tee. Niko swings his club and hits the ball, giving Tyrell a bloody lip and narrowly avoiding making contact with his skull. After explaining that he will not tolerate Tyrell's plans, Niko informs Tyrell that he will not kill him if he leaves Edge City within a week.

Refusing to obey Niko's demand, Tyrell sends his most trusted henchmen (Freeze, Sweet Eddy, Murray, and one nameless henchman) to rob the local bank they had previously examined. Tyrell remains at the Coco Bongo to attend to his necessary duties along with his other trusted henchman, Orlando. But later that night, Tyrell's men return with a mortally wounded Freeze, shot several times in the stomach, much to Tyrell's regret. Freeze informs Tyrell that someone robbed the bank before them and set off the burglar alarm, luring the police to the bank and resulting in a gunfight. Tyrell offers Freeze a cigarette, but when he is in the process of lighting it, Freeze dies.



Enraged that the robbery attempt was a disaster and at losing one of his most trusted henchmen, Tyrell violently questions Eddy as to who was the one responsible, and the terrified Eddy points to a green-faced, smartly dressed man. The man is Stanley Ipkiss under the influence of Loki due to the powers of the mask, who is performing an intense dance with Tina. Tyrell and Orlando confront Loki Ipkiss and Orlando fires a single shot at him, which narrowly misses. Tyrell's henchmen threaten all the guests, who are ordered to leave. Tyrell and Orlando interrogate Loki Ipkiss, who fools around and doesn't take their questions seriously. Unable to tolerate the wacky behavior, Tyrell orders Orlando to open fire but Loki Ipkiss manages to flee. Shortly after, the police enter. Lt. Mitch Kellaway intervenes and accuses Tyrell of having his men rob the bank, as Tyrell's men were found on the scene. Tyrell and his men are then cuffed by Kellaway and taken to the police station, for fingerprinting and further questioning even when one of the police officer's finds Freeze's dead body.

But due to the fingerprints at the crime scene not matching those of Tyrell's men, Tyrell and his men are released. In an effort to exact revenge on Loki Ipkiss, Tyrell places a $50,000 bounty on his head.

Eventually, Tyrell and his men are led by Peggy Brandt who betrays Ipkiss despite offering to help Ipkiss hide from the police, when he fled from them while under the influence of the powers from the mask. Tyrell gives the money to Peggy and takes possession of the mask. He orders his men to dangle Ipkiss over a Newspaper Printing Machine, despite Peggy's cries that they should not harm him. Tyrell demands to know how the wooden mask works. After being told by Ipkiss that he simply should wear it, Tyrell puts the mask on, and dramatically transforms. His appearance differs significantly from the appearance of Ipkiss under the control of the mask. Rather than the thin and comical variant similar to Ipkiss, but a bulkier and more intimidating version of himself, with an extremely deep voice, burning red eyes and purple, chapped lips but still retaining the trademark green face. His hair is also the same even under the influence of the mask, contradicting Loki Ipkiss, as his head is bald. In this form he is known as Dorian Loki Tyrell.

Tyrell then makes a fake green mask and hands Ipkiss over to the police with it. The police draw the conclusion that Ipkiss is the culprit they have been looking for due to the presence of the mask with him. Ipkiss is then thrown into prison.

The next day, Tyrell hears that Tina has visited Ipkiss at the police station, and he and his men corner her in the streets by gunpoint as she attempts to flee. One of his henchmen discovered evidence in her car that she was planning to take Stanley's advice to leave the city. As Tyrell threatened Tina not to betray him earlier, Tyrell then changes his rebellion plans, planning to kill Tina in the process.

That night, Tyrell, once again as Loki Tyrell, barges into the Coco Bongo with his men. They confront Niko and his gang, who are celebrating under the belief that Tyrell has left town. After a verbal confrontation, a gunfight takes place. Two of Tyrell's henchmen are shot but he succeeds in eliminating everyone except Niko himself. Loki Tyrell challenges Niko to a shoot-out, allowing Niko to shoot him. Niko fires several shots at Loki Tyrell, hitting him with all of them but Loki Tyrell is seemingly unharmed. He then proceeds to suck the bullets from his body and fire them back at Niko. Niko is hit several times and is killed. Tyrell orders his men to ransack the club, taking as much cash as they can. Tyrell then proceeds to use a bomb to destroy the Coco Bongo, taking Tina and many other innocent lives with it, unaware that Ipkiss has escaped from the police station and, aided by a reluctant Kellaway, is coming to find him for a final confrontation.

Ipkiss is captured by Orlando when attempting to sneak closer to Tyrell, after knocking out Bobby the Bouncer (who Dorian had blocking the back exit) and handing his gun to Charlie. Tina, tied to an artificial tree next to the bomb, tricks Tyrell into removing the mask for one last kiss. As Tyrell kisses her, Tina kicks the mask out of his hands, and a fight begins, which involves Stanley's dog, Milo, managing to put the mask on and turning into a Loki Dog. He then proceeds to attack Tyrell's men. Meanwhile, as the timer of the bomb continues to count, Tyrell and Ipkiss fight until Ipkiss succeeds in knocking out Tyrell with solid punches.

Ipkiss retrieves the mask off Milo and puts it back on, transforming back into Loki Ipkiss. He manages to comically dispose of the bomb by swallowing it and frees Tina and also defeat Tyrell's thugs including Eddy, Orlando, Murray, and several nameless henchmen. Tyrell attempts to kill Loki Ipkiss from behind with a penknife. But Ipkiss, using his Loki powers, paints a flush on the tree, and pulls it just as Tyrell collapses several times in the fountain next to the tree. The flush works like a real one, and Tyrell is flushed away into the sewers. Screaming down the sewers, the penknife follows, pointing it straight down as it goes down the drain. With Tyrell's defeat and public use of the mask, Ipkiss's own name is cleared of the Mask's crimes, with the city mayor- having witnessed the events- assuming that Tyrell was the Mask from the beginning and that Ipkiss only donned it on this occasion to save the day.

Henchmen
Dorian has a number of bodyguards working for him in the film.


 * Freeze: Freeze was Dorian's best friend and right-hand man. Freeze is shot and killed in a gunfight with the police in a bank robbery Dorian and his crew planned to help them take down Niko.


 * Sweet Eddy: Another one of Tyrell's primary thugs. At the end, he is attacked by Stanley Ipkiss' dog Milo, wearing the mask and arrested when the cops arrive.


 * Orlando: One of Dorian's henchmen, seen most of the time with Dorian. At the end, he is attacked by Stanley's dog wearing the mask and arrested when the cops arrive.


 * Doc: One of Dorian's henchmen.


 * Henchman #7: One of the two African-American thugs in Dorian's crew. This henchman is large. He is seen when Stanley Ipkiss and Charlie Schumacher go to the Coco Bongo club, helping out Dorian and Bobby the Doorman at the club. He and Bobby eject Ipkiss from the line for crossing the rope.


 * Henchman #1: An Asian member of Dorian's crew.

Early Draft Death
In the early draft of the film, Dorian Tyrell's death occurs differently. Instead of being flushed down the drain by Loki Ipkiss' powers, Dorian Loki Tyrell actually attacks the Coco Bongo in the middle of the night. After killing Niko and his gangsters, Tyrell allows the innocent customers and his men to evacuate the casino before the bomb explodes. However, before the explosion, the sun rises and shines on Tyrell. Due to Loki being a Norse Night God, the mask pops off Tyrell's face returning him to his original form. Unable to escape the casino in time, Tyrell is killed when the bomb explodes.

The Mask: The Animated Series
The now-deceased Tyrell does not appear in the animated series, nor is he mentioned (save for a brief statement from Peggy as she attempted to apologise to Stanley for "selling him out to some gangsters"). However, an early draft of one episode was to have the ghosts of Tyrell, Niko and their deceased henchmen to return to Edge City and wreak havoc. The plot was to involve both of the ghosts and their gangs to break the remaining gang members out of jail, regain their areas of influence and resume their war against one another. Eventually however, the script would determine that they join forces in an effort to exact revenge on Ipkiss. Though Peter Greene and Orestes Matacena were approached in order to reprise their roles of Tyrell and Niko through voicing their characters, the episode was scrapped.