Cinderella's Father was a good-natured, handsome, and wealthy gentleman, possibly a baron or a lord, in Disney's 1950 animated feature film, Cinderella.
Appearances[]
Cinderella (1950 film)[]
Little was known of Cinderella's father, other than that he was a tall and handsome gentleman with dark brown hair and a mustache, he was extremely wealthy and lived in a grand château, and he had a daughter - Cinderella - with his first wife. After losing his wife of unknown causes when Cinderella was very young, he devoted himself entirely to his daughter, lavishing all of the love, kindness, and care he was capable of on her. Presumably, he acquired the dog, Bruno, and the horse, Major, for his daughter, or it could have been that they originally belonged to him and she inherited them upon his passing.
However, Cinderella's father still felt that his daughter needed a maternal figure in her life, and so he married again. His second wife was Lady Tremaine, an elegant and dignified woman who had, from a previous marriage, two daughters just Cinderella's age: Anastasia and Drizella.
While his second marriage ran smoothly, everything changed when he shortly died an untimely death - his second wife and stepdaughters revealed their true nature: cold, cruel, and heartless. Lady Tremaine, who did not even pretend to mourn his passing, and who inherited all his wealth and his château, was ruled by her bitter jealousy of Cinderella's charm and beauty, as well as her grim determination to advance Anastasia's and Drizella's interests. Hence, in time, the château "fell into disrepair", for Cinderella's father's fortune was squandered on Anastasia and Drizella, while Cinderella was abused, humiliated, and finally forced to become a servant in her own house. Despite having to endure her cold, unloving stepfamily, Cinderella kept her kind, positive nature and finally found the happiness she sought simply by keeping faith in her dreams.
Cinderella (2015 film)[]
In the 2015 live-action remake, he is played by Ben Chaplin. His role in it is expanded.
As a reference to the Brothers Grimm's version of the story, here he is portrayed being a merchant rather than a nobleman. He loved his family dearly and brought tributes from his business trips abroad for his daughter, Ella, when he returned. One was a lavender-and-pink toy butterfly, which was particularly cherished by her.
He seemed to be more heartbroken than Ella was when his wife died, being described as "much changed" by the narrator, and by the time Ella was a young woman, he appeared to have to use a cane to get by. After ensuring Ella's blessing and approval, he married Lady Tremaine, partly out of a desire to have a second chance at happiness, and partly to give Ella a new family to keep her company.
He warmly welcomed his new wife and stepdaughters to his home and was again assured that his decision was accurate after Lady Tremaine presented the convincing appearance of being fine with his late wife's memory, and rebuked Anastasia for a particularly rude comment about his home. However, he grew to have little to no interest in Lady Tremaine's attempts to restore life and laughter to there (hosting parties to which even the nobility were invited, where fine wines flowed and were consumed in excess, and everyone played cards and gambled), stating that they were nothing special, being all the same. He also appeared to have to leave on more and more trips to keep up with the increasing expenses.
On the night before he left on what was to be - unbeknownst to everyone, including himself - his very last trip, he had a heart-to-heart chat with Ella, in which he started off by asking what gift she would like him to bring her back from abroad. As another reference to Grimm, she requested him to bring her the first branch that brushed his shoulder on his journey. When he remarked at her strange request, she explained that he would have to keep it with him and think of her, and when he brought it to her, it will mean that he will return it, which was what she genuinely wanted: for him to come home to her no matter what.
At this, they share a hug, and he assures her that he will return. He also tells her to be kind to her stepfamily, though he acknowledges that they could be "trying at times". He assures her that he will always leave a part of him with the house, and her mother is always present, though she could not see her, and that what why they must always cherish the house for her, for she is the very heart of it. They conclude their chat by confessing and confiding in each other as to how much they still miss her. Most, unfortunately, Lady Tremaine overheard the conversation and was stung to the core by it.
While he was away, her sole comfort was his letters, especially given Lady Tremaine's subtle abuse of her.
However, one afternoon, she received the most terrible news: he took ill on the journey and passed away. Till the end, he spoke only of Ella and her mother, and the farmer who delivered the news was told to give her what was an irrefutable testament of his love for her: the tree branch that he had promised her. The combination of this testament, her stepfamily's misdirected grief over his passing, and the knowledge that she was now effectively orphaned caused her to break down.
Though things turned for the worst for her - being forced to become the servant of her own house and spitefully renamed "Cinderella", she utterly cherished the memory of him along with her mother. When asked by one of her former servants as to why she stayed in the house when her stepfamily abused her so badly, she answers that she had promised her parents to cherish it where they were so happy. They had loved it, and now that they are gone, she loves it for them and acknowledges it as her home.
During the first - and last - heart-to-heart confrontation between Ella and Lady Tremaine, the latter acknowledged that her marriage to the former's father had been for the sake of her daughters, but she was still unbearably jealous of his love for Ella (his biological daughter). Despite knowing her stepmother's cruelty well, and her one and only chance of happiness was at stake (her glass slipper being in her stepmother's hands), Ella refused to relent to her demands, confessing that one of her greatest regrets was failing to protect her father from Lady Tremaine. Even after Lady Tremaine shattered the slipper and locked her in her room, her spirit was unbroken, as she drew strength and comfort from positive memories - such as the happy times she shared with her parents.
In the end, it was revealed that a royal portrait of him had been painted along with his wife, and Ella remarked that her and Kit's parents would have loved one another.
Once Upon a Time[]
Whilst he doesn't appear, he is briefly alluded to by Cinderella in the episode "Pretty in Blue". The role of Cinderella's father figure is taken by Marcus Tremaine, whom was married to her mother, and the only father she ever knew.
Cold Hearted[]
In Serena Valentino's eighth novel exploring Lady Tremaine's past, he, named Sir Richard in this adaptation, appears as a sinister character. He married Lady Tremaine for her inheritance from her first husband. Although he married her to also provide Cinderella with a mother, he forbids her to call Lady Tremaine “Mama” as she wishes. He never truly recovered from his wife's death, as he prioritizes her memory over the happiness of his new wife, insisting his late wife as the true mistress of the house regardless of who else he marries, and forbidding Lady Tremaine any sort of say in how she lives as his wife. He is still shown to love his daughter, but in a disturbing way, as he pampers her yet still expects obediance from her. He neglects and abuses his new wife and stepdaughters, making them do household chores while prioritizing his own daughter, not allowing Anastasia and Drizella to present at court with her as they near the proper age to come out. When Cinderella hears that her stepmother plans to leave, she innocently tells her father, thinking she is just being a good daughter, and Sir Richard yells at Lady Tremaine and locks her in her room. This finally pushes Lady Tremaine over the edge, and she enlists the help of dark magic to kill Sir Richard and take back control of her life, as well as turn Cinderella into a servant just as her father did to them, to punish her for telling her father and ruining any chance to escape him non-lethally.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files, Lady Tremaine is reading an ad from Cinderella's father, which refers to him as Lord Tremaine, meaning Cinderella's last name is also Tremaine. This makes sense, since in the old days the new bride and her children would sometimes take the husband's last name. However, this information is contradicted in the 2015 live-action remake, which refers to Lady Tremaine's first husband as Sir Francis Tremaine.
- It is also possible that Sir Francis' title was passed to Lady Tremaine (being she the mother of his daughters and heiresses), and when Cinderella's father married her, he became Lord Tremaine by marriage (because not all titles have the same name than the owner's surname).
- Considering his death was untimely and happened suddenly, along with Lady Tremaine's power-hungry, cruel, and manipulative nature, it is possible Cinderella's father was actually murdered by Lady Tremaine; however, nothing in the film suggests this and it is taken as canon that he died a natural death, possibly because of a disease, or he got killed in an accident.
- The possibility of Lady Tremaine's possible involvement on his death, however, is possibly backed up in Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, because when Anastasia realizes what is love, Lady Tremaine dismisses her discovery by saying that love isn't necessary when they could have power, possibly meaning that she just married Cinderella's father for his power and wealth and killed him once he outlived his usefulness.
- Despite this, at least in the 2015 live-action remake, it's stated that Cinderella's father didn't die due to Lady Tremaine's fault and rather contracted an illness and passed away. Even Lady Tremaine laments his death in that version of the story, as the film shows that she actually loved him at least a bit after her first husband's death. However this doesn’t seem likely since she was seen smiling at his death.
- Cinderella's father bears similarity to Snow White's in the storybooks: both are widowers who were hit hard by the loss of their wives and remarry out of a desire for family stability; however, both fail to realize (for reasons beyond their power) that their choices put their daughters at a disadvantage.
- The full name of Cinderella's father is unknown.
- There is a deleted scene from the 2015 live-action remake, where after his death, Lady Tremaine sells all of his possessions to a merchant, including a paper butterfly toy he gave to Ella as a gift when she was a child, and Ella rushed to retrieve it, even offering to buy it back from the merchant, but he allows her to keep it for free.
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es:El Padre de Cenicienta
it:Padre di Cenerentola
ja:シンデレラの父
pl:Ojciec Kopciuszka
pt-br:Pai de Cinderela
ru:Отец Золушки
vi:Cha của Lọ Lem