Aging Man
Above the fireplace in the foyer of the Walt Disney World and Tokyo Mansions is a portrait of a former owner of the house. The painting gradually changes from a handsome blue-eyed and black-haired young man to a withered, balding old man and finally, to a decaying skeleton.
The Aging Man portrait was inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Fans often refer to the Aging Man as Master Gracey, a name on a tombstone in the queue area that honors Imagineer Yale Gracey. However, the attraction's original scriptwriter Xavier Atencio, who wrote the epitaph for the tombstone, did not intend for Master Gracey to be the man in the portrait. The 2003 film and the comics both follow the interpretation of the master of the house being Gracey, and merchandising for Disney Parks has since adopted the popular notion, identifying the Aging Man as Master Gracey on various Haunted Mansion-related items.
In 2012, a wooden crate addressed to "Gracey Manor" (a name for the Mansion that has been used in media adaptations but was originally popularized in fan fiction) was added near the attraction at Walt Disney World. This possibly canonizes the identity of the Aging Man as Master Gracey.
In the 2003 film, Master Edward Gracey has a large portrait of himself above the fireplace in the library. In an early draft of the screenplay, the portrait of Edward became skeletal. Unlike the Aging Man, who died at an old age, Edward died while still a relatively young man, via suicide by hanging (the same applies to Master William Gracey in the comics).
In the 2003 video game, the Aging Man painting can be found in rooms throughout the Mansion, and it is referred to as a self-portrait.
In Disney's Haunted Mansion Pop-Up Book, displayed on the wall behind a coffin (with a restless occupant inside) is a changing portrait of a man who is reduced to a skeleton, implying that he is the one in the coffin.
Read more about this topic: List Of Haunted Mansion Characters
Famous quotes containing the words aging and/or man:
“You are truly the generation in the middle! You have at once aging parents as well as maturing children to cope with, and you are not granted the deference accorded age, or the indulgence given the young.”
—Helene S. Arnstein (20th century)
“I believe that a man is converted when first he hears the low, vast murmur of life, of human life, troubling his hitherto unconscious self.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)