A career criminal and professional thief, Grofield is a devilishly handsome and charming womanizer whose main passion in life is the stage.
This love of theatre does not extend to cinema; Grofield has a deep, almost pathological disdain for television and film acting, which he considers an unacceptable perversion of the actor's craft.
During the events of The Score, Grofield meets his future wife and acting partner, Mary Deegan, a hostage taken during the heist in that novel, who insists on leaving town with him.
Unlike his frequent companion Parker, Grofield is a somewhat inconsistent character, and his adventures run the gamut from hard-boiled crime stories (Lemons Never Lie) to more fanciful, James Bond-style globetrotting and intrigue (The Damsel, The Dame, and The Blackbird).
The real Alan Grofield character is described as despising television, and as someone who under absolutely no circumstances would even consider accepting a TV acting job.