Russell Dunbar is the son of Franklin Dunbar, owner of Dunbar Institutions real estate agency. He is wealthy, only due to his trust fund, which he uses to impress and seduce women. He is presented as a seedy and sleazy man who only cares about how much sex he gets, which, to some degree is truthful, however, it is shown that he has a softer side, especially when referencing his German nanny, Helga, or watching a musical. His relationships within the group are seemingly conflicted, many of the group dislike his behaviour and mock him, as they do everyone else, but it seems that he expresses just as much distaste for them as he does not choose to invite them places unless he needs them to. Through Timmy Patel, he is analysed to have sociopathic tendencies which explains his destructive behaviour.
Early Life[]
Russell was an unloved child, as it seems that he was raised through help, which lead to devastating effects such as a hot teacher causing him to give up on his studies to pursue dating women (Audrey's Shower). His parents were divorced and dated other, younger people and apparently battled for custody of Russell, as he references his mother "losing" in having to look after him (Les-Bro). Despite this, Russell retained and practiced some of his talents as he proves his ability to sing in Singing and Dancing.
Characterisation[]
Russell's defining trait is his lifestyle of being single, which clashes with most of his friends relationship status of in a couple. He normally tends to brag about his sexual encounters to his friends even when they beg him not to and has been known to hit on Audrey and Jen and constantly mock Jeff and Adam.
Russell goes to incredible lengths to get a woman, which normally puts his assistant, Timmy in the middle of his schemes. The whole ordeal actually left Timmy emotionally scarred. There have also been hints that Russell has had several sexual harassment complaints filed against him but as his father is in charge he normally buys these complaints off as said by Russell "that's water and hush money under the bridge".
Russell's schemes tends to border on abuse especially for his ambitious assistant, Timmy. Though he is actually very idealistic and intelligent he is undermined and constantly treated like a lackey, normally fetching Russell coffee and on one occasion a gumball from a park where he was asked to "not stop until [he] hits a red one". Russell constantly forces him to do massively degrading tasks such as catalogue all the women he has slept with to help Audrey and Jeff and pawned his dates son off on his unsuspecting assistant, in return for this Timmy expects him to read his report however when this was pawned off on him, Russell instantly shreds it. He constantly sees himself as a mentor for his assistants and the key to their later success in life when in reality most of the people that have worked with him have ended up resenting him. Russell's former one, Maynard was a successful video game magnet because of his game, Gnomesmash (which was actually himself miniaturised to the size of a gnome and his head placed on the creature).
Becuase of his fractured childhood, Russell is practically a child at heart. He is normally immature, has a crude and brash sense of humour and completely impatient, lacking the fortitude to actually wait for his own soup to cool down; similar to a youth and to counteract him constantly burning his mouth, made a self-cooling spoon. This self-absorbed, immature and narcissistic nature stems from an entire lifetime of being spoilt by his parents which only worsened into adulthood, to the point where he doesn't pay any of his bills at all. Russell can occasionally have innovated ideas and be genuinely witty but normally lacksthe will to do anything becuase of being aforementioned incredibly lazy. On one episode he actually ordered Timmy to think of insults Russell can throw at him. He is as well culturally ignorant or mostly just insensitive. He mocks Timmy because of his Indian heritage as well his British accent. This is also the same with Maynard who obviously was of Chinese descent but was actually from Cleveland.
Despite his outward demenour, Russell hides a more sophisticated person at his heart. He used to be a genuine child prodigy that is until his parents hired an attractive mentor for his cello lessons and the rest was left ambiguous. One of his largely known traits is his love for plays, unbeknownst to his friends he is a massive fan of the theatre something which he hides to his male compadres as he knew he would be ridiculed endlessly if they ever found out. Actually when Russell takes his mind off women he is able to reach his true potential. Whereas before he barely had the intellectual focus to read a 10-page lecture given to him by Timir in his own time he was able to read the enitre The Great Gatsby when he doesn't preoccupy his mind with sex as well bake, Bakalava, paint a mural in his apartment, carve a wooden horse (it was actually meant for himself but when asked if it was for the Bingham's baby-to-be he said otherwise, the horse is probably a metaphor for childhood trauma) and actually read Timmy's report on a children hospital where Russell made a model himself (however it actually looked like a woman which he only subconsciously knew and while explaining the diagram to Timmy he actually became lost in his words to where he didn't realise he was flaking about a chidlren's hospital.
Though he does project an air of confidence and calamity Russell isn't without his own insecurities. He was obviously ashamed becuase of his love for theatres and did everything he could to make sure his friends never found out. He was also sensitive about his height which his friends use to mock him, particularly Jeff who was considerably taller than the latter. It's also revealed he used boosters in the sole of his shoes to make him appear taller something which was once again mocked by his friends. One of the more startlingly obvious is his age. While he's actually around 40, he normally lies when picking up women that he's in his early-twenties, sometimes even just in general. Because of his aged life, he tends to reference culture he knows and his date normally doesn't however he lamely covers this up oath an excuse such as "not that I was born then" and was clearly run ragged while hanging with Timmy's assistant and his group.
Russell also had a tendency to change the pitch of his voice during a mid-sentence. His catchphrase "I kinda did" involves him heavily emphasising "kinda" in an exaggerated high pitch. As well his friends describe his hairstyle as "70's hair".
Family[]
- Parents Franklin Dunbar, Bunny Dunbar (Divorced)
- Spouses Liz (Ex-Wife), Timir Patel (Husband)
