Ben Matthias

Ben Matthias is one of the lead protagonists in Haunted Mansion. He is a former paranormal investigator turned tour guide who is forced back into his old life by Father Kent.
==Background==
Scruffy and unkempt; born in 1981; Ben was once an engineer working on a camera that could perceive paranormal activity, but after the death of his wife in a car accident, his life fell to pieces. Now he's an unenthusiastic ghost tour guide in the French Quarter of New Orleans who no longer believes in the paranormal.
===Personality===
Ben was a quiet man who always kept to himself as he was focused on his work as an astrophysicist. Though he was not a social person, he was able to bond with his future wife, Alyssa over their shared interest of the supernatural, leading them to fall in love and get married. However, after Alyssa's death, Ben became wrecked with depression and guilt, blaming himself for his wife's untimely death due to being too focused on his job to spend time with her. In addition, Ben grew more anti-social and pessimistic than he ever was before meeting Alyssa where he developed no other bonds with people while being acquainted with a bartender as he draw alcohol to cope with his grief. He also lost his belief in the supernatural due to never finding his wife's ghost and gave up his career in astrophysics, taking over his wife's job as a ghost tour guide which he was terrible at due to his anti-socialism and his disbelief in the supernatural.
However, after being haunted by a ghost who followed him from the Gracey Mansion, Ben's belief in supernatural was restored and became determined to investigate the cause of the hauntings at Gracey Mansion. He was amazed when Harriet revealed her ability to speak to dead and was hopeful that she could contact his deceased wife until Harriet told him she couldn't due to revealing and theorizing to him that Alyssa's spirit being at peace in the afterlife. As Ben investigated the cause of the mansion's hauntings and worked to stop the Hatbox Ghost from collecting one thousand souls to free himself and terrorize the world, he began to realize the dangers of holding onto grief over his wife's death, especially when learning how William Gracey never let go of his grief over his own wife's death and was tricked into committing suicide. Ben was also able to express his heartache over the loss of his wife to his new friends and sympathize with Travis upon discovering him to be mourning for his father's death. In addition, during and after the final battle with the Hatbox Ghost, Ben was able to let go of his grief over his wife's death and find peace with it, becoming an astrophysicist again and give away some of Alyssa's old belongings that he held onto after her demise.
===Physical appearance===
Ben is a middle-aged African-American man with brown eyes and black hair. He is mostly seen wearing tank tops underneath unbuttoned dress shirts, complete with a pair of black jeans and shoes. He wears his deceased wife's wedding ring around his neck as a necklace and wears a small pair of earrings. He sometimes a gray fedora and pair of round sunglasses when going out in public.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*This character is LaKeith Stanfield's first Disney role, discounting the by extension production on .
*Ben is the second protagonist from an adaptation of The Haunted Mansion to be African American, the first being Jim Evers.
*Ben has a degree in astrophysics, but it never revealed where he attended college to earn a degree in astrophysics.
*Ben is similar to Jane Foster from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as both were astrophysicists trying to prove the existence of something unnatural. The only difference is Jane was trying to prove the existence of different realms while Ben was focused on proving the existence of ghosts.
==References==
Category:Protagonists
Category:Adults
Category:Widows/Widowers
Category:Live-action characters
Category:African American characters
Category:The Haunted Mansion characters
Category:Disney characters
Category:Males
Category:Heroes
Category:Engineers
Category:Spouses