Austin Powers (character)

Sir Augustine Danger "Austin" Powers, KBE, is a fictional character from the Austin Powers series of films. The character was created by Mike Myers. Mike Myers was also the actor who played the character in the films. He is the main character of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).  He is a British spy.  He likes to go to parties and he represents the hippie culture of the 1960s.  This is because he and his opponent Dr. Evil, were frozen during an experiment, and they stayed frozen for many years.  The series' humor follows his attempts to adjust to the modern world as he continues to try to save it from terrorism.

Personality
Austin Powers was a character seen as a parody of James Bond.  The character was also influenced by Harry Palmer and characters played by Peter Sellers.

Development
The band Ming Tea was formed by Myers, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs during the 1990s. The band acted like a British band of the 1960s. The band members all performed under pseudonyms (fake names) with 1960s personas. Myers adopted the pseudonym and character of Austin Powers. This group made a number of live club and television performances in character. Myers' wife at the time, Robin Ruzan, encouraged him to write a film based on Austin Powers.

Obituaries of Simon Dee (1935–2009), the radio and television presenter, claimed that the character of Austin Powers was inspired by Dee's "Sixties grooviness". Mike Myers has stated that the "Austin Powers" character was based on his own father.

Other media
Video Games: Austin Powers, Austin Powers Pinball, Austin Powers: Welcome to my Underground Lair, Austin Powers: Oh Behave!, and Austin Powers: Operation Trivia.
 HBO purchased the rights to make a cartoon series based on the Austin Powers films in 1999. Despite announcing plans for a thirteen episode season, HBO never made the shows.

 Austin Powers has been used for advertising several products, such as Pepsi Cola.

 He also appears in the music videos for Madonna "Beautiful Stranger", Beyoncé's "Work It Out" and Britney Spears' "Boys".

In popular culture
In 2010, Austin Powers was voted #23 in Entertainment Weekly's list "The 100 greatest characters of the last 20 years."

References

Category:Austin Powers characters
Category:Fictional British people
Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Category:Fictional twins
Category:Histrionic personality disorder in fiction