Creed Bratton (character) - Overview

Overview

Creed Bratton is a deviant, former hippie and homeless man employed at the Scranton branch of fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin as a quality assurance director. Creed is a mysterious figure who is prone to making bizarre or confusing statements on a regular basis. As a result of drug use during his career as a rock musician in the 1960s, Creed has a phenomenally poor memory. In "Night Out", he was ironically the only one to know the name of Hank, the security guard. In "The Convention", he introduces himself to Meredith, implying that he thinks she just started working at Dunder Mifflin. When seen at his office computer, he is usually playing spider solitaire.

Little is known about Creed's life outside the office; the scattered details that emerge (as well as his behavior in the office) are invariably bizarre and it is unknown how much of what he says is true. In "The Injury", he claims to have been in an iron lung when he was a child. In a deleted scene from "The Convict", Creed states that he has been incarcerated before, and that prison is where he obtained the name "Creed". In "Casual Friday" he reveals he has a daughter and tries to hook Jim up with her. When Jim says he already has a fiancee, Creed says, "I thought you were gay". When Jim questions why Creed would want to set him up with his daughter when Creed thought he was gay, Creed simply responds, "I don't know". Despite all of this, Creed generally has a cheery mood and is tolerated by his fellow employees.

In the season 2 episode "The Carpet", when Creed discovers the smell of something disgusting in Michael's office he says, "Is someone making soup?" He is also extremely dishonest, with details emerging of his many scams, including faking his own death, and in the Season 4 episode "Fun Run" he admits to being involved in many religious cults, saying, "You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader". He is a kleptomaniac and regularly steals items from coworkers and charity drives, and he even tears off a card from a gift at Phyllis's wedding in order to pretend that it's his. When asked his age, the reply varies wildly depending upon what suits him at the time. In "Fun Run", Creed states that he will soon be 82. In the next episode ("Dunder Mifflin Infinity"), attempting to look young, he dyes his hair black (with ink from a printer cartridge from a printer in the office) and says that he is 30 years old. He then corrects himself, saying that he'll be 30 in November. In one episode when the entire office is role playing a murder mystery, he walks into the conference room, and when Michael says that this is a murder investigation and that Creed is a prime suspect he says, "Let me get settled in", at which point he runs outside to his car and quickly drives away. In "Money", when explaining how he never goes bankrupt, he holds up his passport issued in the name William Charles Schneider (actor Creed Bratton's actual birth name). The passport indicates that he was born on February 8, 1943, the real Creed Bratton's birthdate. The real Creed Bratton was 64 at the time the episodes were filmed and aired.

Creed is working towards scuba diving, stating, "If I can't scuba, then what's this all been about? What have I been working towards?" Creed's favorite thing to eat on his birthday is peach cobbler. Creed drives an '80s Lincoln Town Car, a car that Michael believes was named after the first president in "New Leads" (Michael erroneously believes Abraham Lincoln was the first president of the United States).

In the final episode of season 7, Dwight is made temporary regional manager but is quickly fired when the company's new owner, Jo Bennett, discovers that he negligently fired a gun in the office. She then decides to put the person who has been with the company the longest in charge while a search committee interviews candidates for a permanent replacement. This turns out to be Creed, and he is still in charge as of the end of the season, thus making him the regional manager of the Sabre-Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch. Between the events of the season 7 finale and season 8 premiere, he was replaced by Robert California, but after Robert drove down to Sabre headquarters in Tallahassee, Florida, and convinced Jo to give him her job as CEO, Creed was ultimately replaced as manager by Andy.

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