Fictional actuaries
Encyclopedia
Fictional actuaries and the appearance of actuaries
in works of fiction has been the subject of a number of articles in actuarial journals.
Actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
in works of fiction has been the subject of a number of articles in actuarial journals.
Actuaries in film
- Double Indemnity (1944) a Billy WilderBilly WilderBilly Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
film , with Fred MacMurrayFred MacMurrayFrederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....
and Barbara StanwyckBarbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, was possibly the first to feature an actuaryActuaryAn actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
. The plot revolves around a murder that seeks to gain advantage from a rather peculiar insurance policy. An insurance investigator (Edward G. RobinsonEdward G. RobinsonEdward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
) knows the actuarial statistics and becomes suspicious. - Are You With It?Are You With It?Are You With It? is a 1948 American film about a young mathematician who quits his job to join a traveling carnival. The film is based on the novel Slightly Perfect by George Malcolm-Smith and uses a screenplay by Oscar Brodney...
(1948) is musical comedy featuring Donald O'ConnorDonald O'ConnorDonald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
as an actuary who is forced to join a carnivalCarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
after misplacing a decimal point on a statistical table. - Sweet CharitySweet CharitySweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
(1969) is a film that documents the romantic life of an actuary, played by John McMartinJohn McMartinJohn McMartin is an American actor of stage, film and television.-Early life and career:McMartin was born in Warsaw, Indiana and raised in Minnesota. He attended college in Illinois and New York. He made his off-Broadway debut in Little Mary Sunshine in 1959, playing opposite Eileen Brennan...
with Shirley MacLaineShirley MacLaineShirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
as his love interest. - Billion Dollar Bubble (1976) - the Equity FundingEquity FundingEquity Funding Corporation of America was a Los Angeles-based U.S. financial conglomerate that marketed a package of mutual funds and life insurance to private individuals in the 1960s and 70s...
scandal retold in the form of a movie starring James WoodsJames WoodsJames Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
. - Class ActionClass Action (1991 film)Class Action is a 1991 American drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted. Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio star; Laurence Fishburne, Colin Friels, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Donald Moffat are also featured.-Plot:...
(1991) - featured Gene HackmanGene HackmanEugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
and Mary Elizabeth MastrantonioMary Elizabeth MastrantonioMary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.-Personal life:Mastrantonio was born in Lombard,...
as father and daughter lawyers on opposite sides of a massive class actionClass actionIn law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
law suit. Actuarial analysis plays a key role in the outcome. - Escape Clause (1996) - Andrew McCarthyAndrew McCarthyAndrew Thomas McCarthy is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the 1980s films St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero, and more recently for his role in the television shows Lipstick Jungle, White Collar and Royal Pains.-Career:McCarthy...
plays Richard Ramsay in an actuarial thriller. To quote TVguide.com "The makers of this direct-to-video release thought the world was ready for a thriller about an insurance actuary. They thought wrong."http://movies.tvguide.com/escape-clause/132816 - Fight ClubFight Club (film)Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
(1999) - Edward NortonEdward NortonEdward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
plays the character Jack, who briefly describes in a scene aboard an airplane, that his job entails the assessment of risk associated with car accidents for an insurance company. Even though not explicitly stated, he performs the job of an actuary. - Thirteen Conversations About One ThingThirteen Conversations About One ThingThirteen Conversations About One Thing is a 2001 American drama film directed by Jill Sprecher. The screenplay by Sprecher and her sister Karen focuses on five seemingly disparate individuals in search of happiness whose paths intersect in ways that unexpectedly impact their lives.-Plot:The film is...
(2001) starring Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaugheyMatthew David McConaughey is an American actor.After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s, McConaughey gained notice for his breakout role in Dazed and Confused . He then appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Tiptoes, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
- The lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a housecleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability. - About SchmidtAbout SchmidtAbout Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. It is loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. Many of the scenes were filmed on location, especially in Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado...
(2002) - Warren Schmidt is portrayed by Jack NicholsonJack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
. The movie mostly covers Schmidt's retirement from an insurance company, and his adventures after his retirement. - Along Came PollyAlong Came PollyAlong Came Polly is a 2004 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in the lead roles.-Plot:...
(2004) - Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) is an actuary who, since his job involves analyzing risk for insurance purposes, likes living life in complete safety and free from any unnecessary risk. Feffer is attempting to assess a character played by Bryan BrownBryan BrownBryan Neathway Brown, AM is an Australian actor.-Early life:Brown was born in Sydney, the son of John Brown and Molly Brown, a house cleaner who worked as a pianist in the early days of the Langshaw School of Ballet. He grew up in the south-western Sydney suburb of Bankstown and began working at...
, who worked as an actuarial student.
Actuaries in theater
- I Love You BecauseI Love You BecauseI Love You Because is a musical set in modern day New York, inspired by the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice. It features lyrics by Ryan Cunningham, set to music by Joshua Salzman.-Production history:...
(2006) - In this musical, one of the major characters, Diana Bingley (an actuary), suggests some formula-based "dating rules" to her friend Marcy in the key number "The Actuary Song."
Actuaries on television
- The CollectorThe Collector (TV series)The Collector is a Canadian Supernatural drama television series about a man attempting to help save people who have bargained their souls with the Devil...
(2004) had an episode titled "The Actuary". In this episode, an actuary uses the Devil's powers to predict the exact lifespan, whereabouts and circumstances of others to help mobsters rub out the competition. http://www.tv.com/the-collector/the-actuary/episode/338808/summary.html - Gilmore GirlsGilmore GirlsGilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...
(2000) in the episode "Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers," Lorelai's mom sets her up on a date with an actuary called Chase Bradford, played by Paul Cassell. - In Kim Possible: A Sitch in TimeKim Possible: A Sitch in TimeDisney's Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time is a 2003 American made-for-TV animated film about a crime-fighting high-school cheerleader named Kim Possible, who battles a band of time-traveling criminals. The film was directed by Steve Loter for the Disney Channel...
, Ron's father's job is not an obstacle to the family moving to Norway (and, in the future, the moon). Quote: "I'm an actuary. I can work anywhere people attach a dollar value to human life." - Numb3rsNUMB3RSNumb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
(2005), in the episode titled "Sacrifice," Professor Charlie EppesCharlie EppesCharles Edward "Charlie" Eppes, PhD is a fictional character and protagonist in the CBS crime drama Numb3rs.Dr...
refers to actuarial science. - NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
recurring character, Dr. Jennifer Devlin (character John Clark's blond bipolar love interest), stated that her father is an actuary. - "ProbabilityProbability (Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode)Probability is a second season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Plot summary:In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames are called in to investigate the mysterious murder of a homeless man....
" is a Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
episode featuring Mark Linn-BakerMark Linn-BakerMark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
as Wally Stevens, an insurance investigator whose work is often described in the context of performing actuarial calculations. - ProfilerProfiler (TV series)Profiler was an American crime drama that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series follows the exploits of a criminal profiler working with the fictional FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force based in Atlanta, Georgia....
(1996–1999) had an episode about a disturbed actuary. The episode was titled "Perfect Helen". It is in Volume 2 of Season 3 on DVD. - The RobinsonsThe RobinsonsThe Robinsons is a British comedy television series that debuted on BBC Two on May 5, 2005. The show's central character is a divorced reinsurance actuary, Ed Robinson , who realises that reinsurance is not his passion and decides to rethink his life. The series is written and directed by Mark...
is a sitcom about a reinsurance actuary, Ed Robinson (played by Martin FreemanMartin FreemanMartin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
), who realises that reinsurance is not his passion and decides to rethink his life http://www.tv.com/the-robinsons/show/35030/summary.html?tag=tabs;summary - In the third episode of The ShieldThe ShieldThe Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
(2002) called "The Spread", the police interrogate a rapist who claims to be an actuary. - The Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
(1968) - had an episode titled The Night of the Avaricious Actuaryhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0748505/ - Ghost WhispererGhost WhispererGhost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...
(Series 4) in the episode "Thrilled to death", an actuary who is terminally ill dies and his ghost haunts his neighbour.
Actuaries in literature
- The Areas of My ExpertiseThe Areas of My ExpertiseThe Areas of My Expertise is a satirical almanac by John Hodgman. It is written in the form of absurd historical stories, complex charts and graphs, and fake newspaper columns. Among its sections are a list of 700 different hobo names and complete descriptions of "all 51" US states...
by John Hodgman portrays actuaries as prophetProphetIn religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s who predict the future, and are organized into various guildGuildA guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s. These Hodgman actuaries have various ethics, such as not predicting the date of one's own death. - The comic series, Batman, featured a villain named the Actuary: (Detective Comics #683-4 (March–April 1995)): A mathematical genius who applies formulae to aid the Penguin in committing crimes.
- In Bet Me by Jennifer CrusieJennifer CrusieJennifer Crusie is a pseudonym for Jennifer Smith, a bestselling and award winning author of contemporary romance novels. She has written over 15 novels, which have been published in 20 countries.-Biography:...
, the main character, Minerva Dobbs, is a thirty-something actuary looking for love. - Un Certain Monsieur Blot by Pierre DaninosPierre DaninosPierre Daninos was a French writer and humorist.Daninos wrote Les carnets du Major Thompson, which was published in 1954, and was followed by many sequels. The books in the series pretended to be the observations of a retired British officer living in France, and were witty collections of...
. Mr. Blot is an actuary, who wins a competition as the most average man in France. The book includes the acerbic observation that “there were two kinds of actuaries – those who were still doing actuarial work and those who had found something better to do.” - The Colour of MagicThe Colour of MagicThe Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."...
and The Light FantasticThe Light FantasticThe Light Fantastic is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the second of the Discworld series. It was published in 1986. The title is a quote from a poem by John Milton and in the original context referred to dancing lightly with extravagance....
are part of Terry PratchettTerry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
’s DiscworldDiscworldDiscworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
fantasy series and feature Twoflower, the "actuary and world’s first tourist." - The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov is often considered one of the greatest science fiction works of all time and features "psycho-historians," a sort of hidden priesthood that manipulates politics and economics on a galactic scale to accomplish the goals of peace and prosperity. Part of the theory is that on a planetary scale, people are not predictable but on a galactic scale, the law of large numbers (i.e., the Central Limit Theorem) is valid and therefore, the reactions of the galactic civilization, as a whole, are predictable. Given the characteristics of psycho-historians, they are very much like actuaries.
- Industrial MagicIndustrial Magic (novel)Industrial Magic, the fourth in the Women of the Otherworld series, is a fantasy novel written by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong. It features the witch Paige Winterbourne.-Plot introduction :...
, by Kelley ArmstrongKelley ArmstrongKelley Armstrong is a Canadian author, primarily of fantasy works.She has published sixteen fantasy novels , set in the world of the Women of the Otherworld and the Darkest Powers series, also two crime novels in 2007 and 2009...
, introduces a character called Reuben Aldrich as the head of the actuarial department at a supernatural organisation, and suggests he is also a necromancer. - The Infinite Shoeblack by Norman MacOwan. The hero (played by Leslie BanksLeslie BanksLeslie Banks, CBE was an English theatre and cinema actor, director and producer, now best remembered playing gruff, menacing characters in black and white movies of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:...
) was a poverty stricken student of the Faculty of ActuariesFaculty of ActuariesThe Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland was the professional body representing actuaries in Scotland. The Faculty of Actuaries was one of two actuarial bodies in the UK, the other was the Institute of Actuaries, which was a separate body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
innocently residing in an Edinburgh brothel. http://library.soa.org/library/actuary/1967-79/ACT6803.pdf - Mrs. Warren's ProfessionMrs. Warren's ProfessionMrs Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893. The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren, a brothel owner, described by the author as "on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman" and her daughter, Vivie...
- "I shall set up in chambers in the City and work at actuarial calculations and conveyancing.’ So says Vivie, the daughter of the eponymous heroine of George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
’s play.http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/pdfs/02_10_peoplenews.pdf#search=%22%20%22actuaries%20in%20literature%22%22 - Preferred Risk, by Frederik PohlFrederik PohlFrederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
and Lester del ReyLester del ReyLester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
(under the pseudonym Edson McCann), describes a dystopiaDystopiaA dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n future dominated by the insurance industry; in Pohl's own words, "the one novel I wrote with Lester del Rey, which was called Preferred Risk, took a year out of my life. It's a terrible book. If you come across it, don't read it." http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue240/interview.html
Actuaries in manga
- "HomunculusHomunculus (manga)is a Japanese manga by Hideo Yamamoto, intended for the seinen audience. It is serialized in the magazine Big Comic Spirits.-Plot:Manabu Ito, a rich 22 year old medical student, tows 34 year old Susumu Nakoshi's car in order to convince him to undergo trepanation...
", by Hideo Yamamoto, features Susumu Nakoshi as the story's protagonist. He was an actuaryActuaryAn actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
before he told people he was going on an extended vacation. Instead, he lived in an old car parked between an affluent hotel and a homeless reside. He resigns later in the story, and his reason for throwing his job away is still unknown. - "Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service" featured a malevolent actuary who uses statistics to determine scenarios that will most likely result in the death of particular individuals.
Actuaries in video games
- In Portal 2Portal 2Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
(2011) the character GLaDOS dryly taunts the player with the line, "we've got a lot to do, and only sixty more years to do it. More or less. I don't have the actuarial tables in front of me." http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/GLaDOS_voice_lines#Incinerator.2FPortal_Gun
Other
- The Society of ActuariesSociety of ActuariesThe Society of Actuaries is a professional organization for actuaries based in North America. It was founded in 1949 as the merger of two major actuarial organizations in the United States: the Actuarial Society of America and the American Institute of Actuaries...
holds a speculative actuarial fiction contest http://www.soa.org/news-and-publications/newsletters/technology/pub-speculative-fiction-collection.aspx - The documentary WordplayWordplay (film)Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors...
- which explores the world of crossword makers and aficionados - makes reference to actuaries as one of three occupations which are particularly adept at crossword solving.