Mr. Roarke
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Mr. Roarke is a fictional character from the American television series, Fantasy Island.
The mysterious Mr. Roarke is the host of all of the island's guests, as well as being the owner/proprietor. He charges guests $50,000 to come to his tropical island, where he is the ultimate authority, and somehow makes the guests' wildest fantasies come true.
Though never revealed in the series how he manages to fulfil the fantasies, Roarke appears to have supernatural powers.
In his guests' fantasies, Roarke almost always teaches the guests a valuable life-lesson, and circumstantial evidence suggests that this is his main motive, rather than financial gain - for example, he has been known to vary the $50,000 to suit individuals' personal circumstances, to the point of allowing a young girl to purchase a trip to the island with the contents of her piggybank.
Mr. Roarke was portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in the original series, and by Malcolm McDowell in the updated series. Both of these actors have also portrayed the main villains in Star Trek films.
There is compelling circumstantial evidence that suggests that Mr. Roarke is a practicing Catholic. On several occasions he is seen crossing himself to pray, and when he marries the terminally ill Helena Marsh in the season 3 episode "The Wedding", they have a Catholic ceremony.
It is suggested that he is possibly thousands of years old and even immortal. He insinuates that he knew Alexander the Great,Cassanova, and other historical figures. In the Season 3 episode "Unholy Wedlock/Elizabeth" he states outright that he was responsible for Elizabeth Báthory's final imprisonment. In the season 4 opener "The Devil and Mandy Breem/The Millionaire", Mr. Roarke does battle with Mephistopheles (Roddy McDowell) in defense of a guest's immortal soul. Both Mr. Roarke and the Devil remark that this is not the first time they have faced off, and when finally beaten by Mr. Roarke, the Devil says that they have "all of Eternity" ahead of them to meet (and fight) again.
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