Jeff Harlingford

Type	CHARACTER
Jeff Harlingford
Appears in	Grand Theft Auto IV
Voiced by	Harry Chase
Biographical information
Full name	Jeff Harlingford
Nationality	American
Status	Determinant
Place of birth	Liberty City
Date of death	2008 (determinant)
Home	Liberty City
Family	Shirley (wife/deceased) Unnamed new wife (wife) Unnamed son Unnamed parents
Main affiliation	Niko Bellic
Vehicle(s)	Stallion Blista Compact
Businesses	Businessman
Physical description
Gender	Male

Jeff Harlingford, known as Jeff the Cuckold in the credits, is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as a random character in Grand Theft Auto IV.

History

Background

Jeff is married to a woman named Shirley, has one son with her and is extremely paranoid that she is cheating on him. Jeff reveals in the final mission that his mom left his dad, which probably traumatized him into his current state. Despite having obvious mental problems and shabby clothes, he is an extremely wealthy businessman with a black credit card. Shirley became distressed by his paranoid behavior, such as sending her underwear to a laboratory and demanding she get a tracking device in her head. She then turned to another one of Jeff's wealthy friends for emotional support, and although he was secretly interested in having an affair with her, Shirley was only going to him for platonic friendship and was very naive to his obvious attraction cues.

Random characters

First encounter

Jeff is first encountered in northern Algonquin, near North Holland.

Jeff discovers that his wife has been interacting with his friend, and stalks them to his friend's apartment near Middle Park East, when he randomly encounters Niko Bellic. He pays Niko to take reconnaissance photos of his wife and friend (driving in Shirley's Feltzer to the Superstar Café). Niko successfully sends him a cell phone picture and, seeing they were platonic friends, consoled Jeff that it wasn't necessarily proof of her cheating on him.

Second encounter

Ten game days later, Jeff calls Niko to request his services and meet him in an underground parking lot. Despite Niko's advice, Jeff violently stabbed his wife 50 times with a kitchen knife and hid her body in a Blista Compact, now asking Niko to dump the car in the Humboldt River. Niko successfully does so, and is rewarded by Jeff.

Third encounter & Possible death

Later in the game, Niko encounters Jeff again near Drusilla's in Little Italy. He remarried in a remarkably short amount of time, and believed his new wife was cheating on him as well. He stalked her to the restaurant, where she was having a drink with her ex. Jeff then requested that Niko kill her, which he refused, and then lamented that he needed a friend. He decided to deal with it himself, and ran out into the street, where he was hit and killed by a Turismo. The driver - a stereotypical posh English man, calls 911, but quickly regret his decision, and drove away from the accident as soon as the police put his call on hold.

Murders committed

• Shirley - Murdered on suspicions of cheating on him. (alternatively, she can be killed by Niko Bellic)

Mission appearances

GTA IV

• Three Random characters

Jeff's Random Encounters

Trivia

• The first cutscene when meeting Jeff is loosely based on a scene in the film Taxi Driver, in which a man plans on killing his adulterous wife and spies on her and her lover outside the lover's apartment.
• Jeff will appear as a contact in the player's phone until his death.
• Jeff suffers from Angina, a severe heart condition, possibly due to his incredibly short fuse and violent temper leaving him frequently over-stressed and anxious.
• Jeff's "Black card" is a parody of the American Express Centurian and Visa Black Card, both black-colored credit cards given to multimillionaires.
• It is possible to steal the Turismo Jeff gets hit by entering it before the driver gets back in his car after making the phone call. It will not hinder the completion of the random character mission.
• Jeff is the only random character whose name is ever entered into the player's phone.
• Jeff's missions do not count towards 100% Completion as you can kill his wife (or his wife's friend) during his first random encounter. This will block the two other random encounters, so Jeff will not die.
• The underground car park you meet Jeff in during his second encounter is the same location that The Ballad of Gay Tony mission Going Deep takes place in.
• During the second encounter, the GPS will tell you to turn right and exit the underground car park. It is a better idea to ignore this and turn left, as there is a police car waiting at the right exit.
• At the start of the first encounter, any cars that you park in the vicinity will disappear on most, if not all, occasions, and a random car may be provided for you, parked in front of you.
• Killing his wife's friend will result in Niko saying he killed him, and no thanks was required, but Jeff would say that he might have been her friend or her "pilates instructor".

  

  Jeff's business card

• In his first encounter, Jeff shows Niko his card to prove that he is rich. Due to the camera angle the card is never seen in-game, but it can be found in the game files. As his last name is never stated in game nor in the credits, this is the only source of it. The card also states that he is a doctor, which is ironic considering he appears to be a paranoid schizophrenic.