Roland Daggett

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Roland Daggett is a fictional corrupt businessman and villain in Batman: The Animated Series, voiced by Ed Asner. The president of Daggett Industries, a pharmaceutical company, he is depicted as being a large, physically imposing man with smoothed back reddish-brown hair and blue eyes, and is similar in personality and function to the post-Crisis Lex Luthor. He was originally intended to be Max Shreck, Christopher Walken's character from Batman Returns, but it was decided instead to introduced a new character.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Alongside crime boss Rupert Thorne, Daggett is one of the main recurring antagonists of the series who isn't a member of the Rogue's Gallery. He was introduced in the two-part episode Feat of Clay, which is the origin episode of the shapeshifting villain Clayface. Daggett's largest role in the series is in this episode. His company develops "Renuyu," a face cream that makes the user's face maleable, like clay or putty, as an alternative to plastic surgery. Daggett made disfigured actor Matt Hagen his first test subject, and because Renuyu turned out to have highly addictive qualities and the effects would wear off after 24 hours, Hagen was made by Daggett to do his bidding in return for more. Daggett opts to use him in his scheme to take over Wayne Enterprises for the purposes of using their superior marketing operation to get the flawed Renuyu into stores. But when Hagen botched the mission, Daggett decided to get rid of him and had his henchman Raymond Bell pour gallons of the untested product down Hagen's throat, permanently transforming him into a hideous mass of shapeshifting clay. Daggett was thereafter the target of Clayface's vengeance, but the attempt on his life was thwarted by Batman.

Daggett also appeared as the main villain in several other episodes. In Appointment in Crime Alley, an important episode in the series which reveals where Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, Daggett plans to tear down the section of Gotham City known as Crime Alley to turn it into a mini-mall. To this end, he hires a demolitions expert named "Nitro" to blow up all the buildings regardless of whether or not there is anyone in them. Although Batman managed to foil his plans when he ensured that the explosives would only destroy abandoned buildings, Daggett, thanks to an alibi, was able to avoid justice.

His next scheme - possibly his greatest scheme - involved obtaining the services of Dr. Achilles Milo in the episode Cat Scratch Fever. With Milo's help, Daggett planned to release a devastating virus into Gotham by infecting stray cats and dogs rounded up by his underlings. Naturally, the only cure for the disease would be marketed exclusively by Daggett Industries, and had his plan succeeded Daggett would've not only made millions, but he would have restored his considerably tainted public image, becoming a hero. But this time it wasn't just Batman who stepped in to thwart Daggett: Catwoman also intervened once she learned of the inhuman experiments being conducted by Milo at Daggett Labs. Although Catwoman became infected with the virus when she was bitten by her cat Isis (used as a guinea pig by Milo), Batman was able to cure her, stop Daggett's henchmen from putting the infected animals onto the streets of Gotham, and expose Daggett's evil plan.

This time, Daggett's legal fees result in his company becoming bankrupt. Daggett Industries and its multitude of subsidiary companies was no more, leaving Daggett penniless, despite his public claims of innocence. His fourth and final appearance in the series was in the episode Batgirl Returns. He steals a jade cat statue from a museum, planning to sell it on the black market and use the money to get Daggett Industries up and running again. Catwoman, teaming with Batgirl, discovers his involvement, necessitating their elimination. Daggett captured them and takes them to the abandoned Daggett Labs, planning to shoot them and dispose of the bodies in vats of acid. They are saved thanks to the timely intervention of Robin. Daggett himself almost falls into the acid vat - taking the jade cat statue with him - but both the statue and the villain are rescued by Robin and Batgirl (Catwoman, bearing a grudge against Daggett for the whole virus episode, chose not to participate in his rescue).