Macavity

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Macavity is a fictional cat who is described in a poem in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, by T. S. Eliot, and appears in the musical, Cats (composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber), which is based on Eliot's book.

Macavity (also called the Mystery Cat, the Hidden Paw and Napoleon of Crime) is a master criminal who is responsible for a multitude of crimes, but in the book he is too clever to leave any evidence of his guilt. In the musical, he is the villain of the play and kidnaps Old Deuteronomy, the Jellicle leader.

The poem accuses Macavity of misbehaviour that would be within the capabilities of an ordinary cat, such as stealing milk, but also holds him responsible for major crimes. He is referred to as a "fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity" and has been suspected of stifling Pekes, vandalism, theft, cheating at cards, espionage and controlling an organized crime ring with Mungojerrie(probably his sister, Rumpleteazer is also a member of Macavity's organization) and Griddlebone among the members. He also possesses mystical powers of levitation.

Macavity is described as being a ginger cat who is very tall and thin with sunken eyes. "His brow is deeply lined in thought, his head is highly domed; His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed." In the musical, he is typically depicted as a cat with a chaotic array of red, orange, white, and sharp black stripes. He is often portrayed with very long claws and wild dark hair.

Within the musical, he makes several attempts to do little more than scare the tribe, but eventually manages to kidnap Old Deuteronomy. As seen in the video of Cats and most stage performances, he appears capable of performing some form of hypnosis. In all productions of the musical, he appears to be an excellent fighter, taking on Munkustrap and Alonzo along with other Jellicles before making an escape.

Macavity is portrayed by Bryn Walters in the Cats direct-to-video motion picture.

[edit] Macavity and Moriarty

It is clear that his character's creation is largely influenced by Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes' arch-nemesis who was described as a mathematician, philosopher, abstract thinker, and organizer of "half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected". T. S. Eliot describes Macavity in similar terms, and also gave him similar traits, in some places quoting Arthur Conan Doyle.

References to Sherlock Holmes stories include:

... his eyes are sunken in/His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;/His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed./He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;/And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake. - almost exactly the description of Moriarty which Holmes gives Watson in "The Final Problem".
He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.) - Moriarty's henchman, Colonel Sebastian Moran, is said by Holmes to have "lived by his ill-gotten card gains" in the story "The Adventure of the Empty House".
And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,/Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way - references to the stories "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans". Although Moriarty is not mentioned in connection with these cases, his fiendish machinations may of course have been discreetly observed by Holmes.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,/Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums. - In "The Final Problem", Holmes tells Watson that Moriarty is a noted mathematician, and the author of a treatise on the Binomial Theorem.
the Napoleon of Crime - In "The Final Problem", Holmes uses exactly these words to describe Moriarty.