He is the mostly evil, devious, greedy, and wealthy owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and, by extension, Homer Simpson's boss.

[1][2] Although originally conceived as a one-dimensional, recurring dastardly villain who might occasionally enter the Simpsons' lives and wreak some sort of havoc, Mr. Burns's popularity has led to his repeated inclusion in episodes.

He is a stereotype of corporate America in his unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power, inability to remember his employees' names (including Homer's, despite frequent interactions—which has become a recurrent joke) and lack of concern for their safety and well-being.

Conan O'Brien has called Mr. Burns his favorite character to write for, due to his arbitrarily old age and extreme wealth.

Mr. Burns's trademark expression is the word "Excellent...", muttered slowly in a low, sinister voice while steepling his fingertips.

He occasionally orders Smithers to "release the hounds", so as to let his vicious guard dogs attack any intruders, enemies, or even invited guests.

In "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble", Mr. Burns revealed that he was the youngest of a wealthy family, with eleven children, and all his siblings died of suspicious causes (mostly related to eating poisoned baked potatoes), leading to him receiving the entire family fortune, although another episode reveals that his surviving younger brother is George Burns.

At an early age, Mr. Burns left his family to live with a twisted and heartless billionaire who owned an "atom mill" in Shelbyville (implied to be his grandfather).

[14] He later enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a member of Springfield's Flying Hellfish squad under Master Sergeant Abraham Simpson and saw action in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.

Mr. Burns has blackmailed and bribed various officials in Springfield, including Mayor Quimby and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

He once blocked out the sun to force Springfield residents to increase their use of electricity produced by his nuclear plant and was subsequently shot by Maggie when he tried to steal candy from her.

He is occasionally referred to as "Springfield's oldest resident"; in Season 2's "Simpson and Delilah", he told Homer that he is 81, although, in several later episodes, he is shown to be 104.

The episode reveals that Mr. Burns's father was a slaveowning Southern plantation owner who inspired the character Simon Legree from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and that Homer and Grampa are descended from Colonel Burns's runaway slave Virgil who fled to British Canada with Mabel Simpson on the Underground Railroad.

In other episodes, he has instructed a postal clerk to send a telegram to the Prussian consulate in Siam via autogyro, and believes a nickel will buy "a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel, with enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the Polo Grounds.”[18] Mr. Burns frequently answers the telephone with the archaic salutation "Ahoy-hoy", which was proposed by Alexander Graham Bell, but has long since been superseded by "Hello".

[19] In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns's investment portfolio is revealed to consist of long-defunct and obsolete companies such as "Confederated Slave Holdings", and he learns about the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression for the first time after checking a very old stock-ticker.

He also displays mannerisms that are considered outdated, such as practicing phrenology, writing with a quill pen, and using an antique view camera to take photographs.

In "Homer at the Bat", Mr. Burns instructs Smithers to recruit dead-ball-era players, such as Honus Wagner and Cap Anson for the plant's softball team, and has to be told that all of them died long ago.

In "The Mansion Family", doctors at the Mayo Clinic discover that Mr. Burns has contracted every known human disease, as well as several that were discovered during his checkup, but that they have canceled each other out in a condition they call "Three Stooges syndrome;" although a doctor warns him that his physical health is extremely fragile and that "even a slight breeze" could upset the balance between his diseases, Mr. Burns misinterprets his condition to believe that he is invincible.

In one instance, when he is told to jump out of his burning mansion onto a life net, he drops at the speed of a feather, floats onto some power lines, and is electrified.

He pitched the opening baseball at a game in "Dancin' Homer", but was only able to throw it a small distance, which drew mocking laughter from the crowd.

[25][26] Al Jean relieved on DVD commentary track Sam Simon used his father's nickname, Monty, when he named Mr.

[22] In the second season, the writers started to enjoy writing about Smithers and Mr. Burns's relationship, and they often pitched episodes with them as the focus, but many never came to fruition.

[30] Mr. Burns was originally voiced by Christopher Collins in the episodes "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", "Homer's Odyssey", "There's No Disgrace Like Home" and "The Telltale Head".

"[45] In the run-up to the New York City's 2009 mayoral election, several posters appeared throughout the city, showing Mr. Burns and accompanied by the words "No Third Terms, Vote for Burns"—a reference to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's run for a third term that year—in the style of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster.

[47] The IG Group, a financial corporation in the City of London, use a recording of Mr. Burns's catchphrase "Excellent" as an alert that an order has been completed.