Egon Olsen

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Egon Olsen
First appearance	Olsenbanden (dk) Olsenbanen Operasjon Egon (no)
Last appearance	Olsen-bandens sidste stik (dk) Olsenbandens siste stikk (no)
Created by	Erik Balling
Portrayed by	Ove Sprogøe (dk) Arve Opsahl (no)
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Criminal
Spouse(s)	None
Children	None

Scene from the fourteenth and last Olsen Gang film (1998). From left to right: Egon Olsen, Kjell, and Benny.

Egon Olsen is a fictional character in the Danish film series The Olsen Gang and the Norwegian film series Olsenbanden. He is portrayed by Ove Sprogøe in the Danish movies and by Arve Opsahl in the Norwegian versions. In the Swedish version of the series, Jönssonligan, his part was taken by the character Charles Ingvar "Sickan" Jönsson, played by Gösta Ekman (and in the later films by other characters, played by different actors).

[edit] Egon Olsen in the Danish series

The Egon Olsen character is in fact a genius in the field of non-violent criminal activities. The films normally follow this scheme:

Egon is released from prison,
he meets his fellows-in-crime Kjeld (Kjell in Norway) and Benny,
Egon announces: "I have a plan" for the gang to become millionaires,
the major plan is preceded by a minor plan which will raise a minor amount of money needed for the major plan,
the minor plan is completed,
the major plan is attempted, but it eventually ends as a failure,
meaning that Egon at the end of the film again is imprisoned.

Egon's plans always include the most diverse objects, and failure of the plans is often caused by Kjeld and Benny's incompetences, which eventually lead to Egon's blowing up on them using all kinds of abuses, including "idiots", "amateurs" and "social democrats". The only real competences of Kjeld and Benny is their ability to avoid getting caught by the police.

Also, other crooks (criminals as well as business people or civil servants) interfer with Egon's plans, and he enjoys showing off to them at times, when he is on top of the situation. The only person, who really scares Egon, is Kjeld's wife, Yvonne (Valborg in Norway). She also tend to interfer with his plans.

In the last film in the series (Olsen-bandens sidste stik), Egon as an old man is in a mental hospital, but he escapes with yet another plan. In this film, he is portrayed as disturbed, but he is still clever (and lucky) when it comes to the plan.