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File:Shiori quiet 6525.jpg

...and that's about all you'll get from her.

Cquote1

"I ain't quiet

Everybody else is too loud"
Cquote2


If he's not The Speechless, he's not The Voiceless. He's not an Ineffectual Loner. He just rarely talks, so anything he does say carries extra weight. In most instances, The Quiet One is physically imposing. He is either The Big Guy or The Lancer and may also be a Gentle Giant or Genius Bruiser.

If he's a member of The Squad, he'll either enjoy killing a bit too much or suffer anguish over the fact that he has killed and must continue to kill. If this is ever explained, it's credited to his former civilian occupation being one that abhors death and destruction. Often, this is the member assigned to carry the BFG.

In a Deconstruction setting, his quietness is a reflection of deep psychological problems, which is why he is more commonly an Anti-Hero than a hero. Otherwise The Quiet One just comes across as cool, calm, collected, and slightly above the madness of their universe; a less vocal Deadpan Snarker.

You might expect The Quiet One to be a loner, but unless he's the Aloof Big Brother, that's hardly ever the case, probably because of the assumption that Loners Are Freaks.

Different from The Voiceless in that The Quiet One can be seen talking occasionally, not just once during some special moment. Unsurprisingly, he isn't likely to be partial to small talk.

A subtrope of The Stoic, see also Silent Bob. Compare: Heroic Mime, Silent Antagonist. Contrast: Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, Motor Mouth. If The Quiet One has a Berserk Button, it could be Beware the Quiet Ones.

Examples of The Quiet One include:


Anime & Manga[]

  • Senri from +Anima, who also often is thought to be glaring menacingly at people when really he's just... really out of it.
  • Angel Beats:
  • Bertolt Hoover from Attack on Titan: He's a self-admitted Extreme Doormat, with a tendency to linger awkwardly on the outskirts of conversation.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia: Egypt has only talked on one occasion, and that was because France asked him outright if he was capable of talking.
    • On a less extreme scale, Japan is this to the Axis and Russia is (a much scarier version of) this to the Allies.
  • Sakaki, the tall, dark, Huge Schoolgirl in Azumanga Daioh.
  • Keith Gandor from Baccano has been known to go years without talking, and as such the resident Knowledge Brokers have been known to forgo their usual $500 fee if he says more than five words to them. Yes, Keith's words are so rare that they have monetary value.
  • Guts, Pippin from Berserk.
  • Bleach:
    • Chad sometimes speaks in monosyllabic noises. It's been lampshaded in the story, where Chad has been accused by Ichigo of stopping a story half-way just because he felt he was talking too much. The anime takes the joke even further, a filler arc pairing him up with the equally quiet Noba, resulting in Kon yelling at them for wasting screen time by saying nothing. Even his sweatdrops are subdued.
    • Nakeem only ever spoke once in the manga, even when fighting Rangiku. In the anime, he spoke twice.
    • Tsumiko is the only member of the Sword Five who never says a word and the lower half of her face, like the rest of her body, is completely bandaged over.
    • In the Zanpakutou Tales filler arc, there are several silent characters:
      • Katen Kyokotsu is a twinned zanpakutou, so has two female spirits. The smaller female is a ninja-esque characters who, aside from a few muffled noises here and there, never says a word.
      • Tenken is mostly silent, only speaking once the entire arc.
      • Wabisuke usually communicates by rattling his chains. He only speaks twice the entire arc.
  • Hagi in Blood+.
  • Mogi from Death Note. Subverted slightly as he is forced to become an overly enthusiastic manager, and worries that it suits him too well. He starts to talk more once Soichiro Yagami dies.
  • Kamemon in Digimon Savers. The PawnChessmon count too, but they never actually talk on-screen.
    • They do in episode 26, but it seems to be limited to a few clicks.
  • Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Z could be counted as this, he doesn't even call out his attacks. As a result, the various video game adaptations have had to make up their own names for his moves.
    • Also Android 16. Though he does call some of his attacks.
  • In Endride, Felix starts out as the quiet one of the Ignauts, being of few words but quite quick with a knife. He's given a run for his money when the Tyke Bomb Mischa joins the squad, both of them having traumatic pasts contributing to their reticence. They mostly only converse to compete over their Undying Loyalty to Demetrio.
  • Seijuro Shin from Eyeshield 21.
    • Dakichi Komusubi can also be considered one since he rarely says anything beyond grunts or one word sentences.
  • Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star acts this way most of the time. Most of his lines are less than five words long, and he usually has less than 10 per episode, despite being the main character.
  • Sousuke Sagara from Full Metal Panic. Especially noticeable in the Burning One Man Force novel, with his interactions with Nami and her group. After every victory in the arena, the group always has festive celebrations with beer and drunk chatter. And every time, he'll always be sitting away, quietly sipping his water. Nami, having a crush on him, tends to watch him yearningly. Numerous times, she tries to go over and talk to him, but every answer from him tends to kill conversation. It's worth noting that none of that is because he particularly hates anyone or is that mean - he just has zero social skills.
  • Warrant Officer Falman in Fullmetal Alchemist is this, and often gets Flanderized further in fanfiction.
  • Rocket from Ginga Densetsu Weed.
  • Gungrave: Brandon Heat. So much so, he was often mocked by other characters for being such a man of few words. He only usually has one or two lines per episode, and in the video game, with one exception, he says nothing at all.
  • Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya, who's also the Stoic. The only person she has a normal conversation with is Kyon. She rarely ever talks to anyone else, and often simply ignores the person or resorts to simple hand gestures.
    • And, of course, this all depends on your definition of "normal conversation." Yuki speaks to Kyon, but she never says an unnecessary word.
    • To get an idea of how little she acts, her staring at Kyon and Mikuru playfully flirting is considered a great deal of emotion from her.
      • In the original episode "Someday In The Rain," Yuki spends about a third of the episode on-screen, but neither Minori Chihara or Michelle Ruff are credited...because she doesn't speak throughout the entire episode.
  • Isumi Saginomiya from Hayate the Combat Butler.
  • Rika from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
  • Mugi from Hitohira. Due to her Character Development she moves out of this, helped by the fact that she's somehow still rather popular with other girls.
  • Jo from Innocent Venus. Sana is afraid of him at first because of his reticence, but it turns out that he's the nice guy of the group.
  • Chino from Is the Order a Rabbit? always speaks in a soft voice. Lampshaded when Lize tries to teach her to speak commandingly so as to create a presence that will make up for her lack of height, and Chino can just barely raise her voice above her usual volume.
  • Occasionally, Ryu Sanada of Kimi ni Todoke will speak in whole sentences. But not often.
    • Sawako would also fit this trope if the story was told from anyone else's perspective, but since she's the protagonist and we hear a lot from her, it's averted in her case.
  • Luciola from Last Exile.
  • Minami Iwasaki, the tall, but not-so-dark Huge Schoolgirl in Lucky Star.
  • Veffidas from Macross 7 has 5 lines tops throughout the entire series but whenever she talks, she usually has a point.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Zafila/Zafira — trainees in StrikerS didn't even realize that he could talk until their second mission. Makes you wonder what they'll think when he finally takes the form of a human...oid.
    • Bardiche. He talks less as much as Raising Heart (even less in the movies, while Raising Heart got even more lines). The Forwards lampshade that Bardiche is a really quiet Device. However, Teana thinks his silence is one of his greatest things of him. Doing things through action and not words, protecting his master as her weapon at all times.
  • Akira Okochi and Zazie Rainyday in Mahou Sensei Negima take this in two different directions. Akira doesn't speak much, but talks normally when she does. Zazie, on the other hand, can hold entire conversations without speaking at all. She answers a phone call and relates how her day is going (apparently) without ever saying anything apart from a few ellipses and is understood perfectly.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
  • Heero Yuy from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
    • Also Trowa Barton. There are fanfics claiming that he maintains a "words per day budget" and will resort to sign language if he runs out.
  • Monster: Johan Liebert tends to be completely silent as someone who's with him is running their motor mouth.
  • Mayu Morita in Morita-san wa Mukuchi, which means "Morita-san is silent." She never says anything in any episode. We do hear her thoughts and sometimes see someone's reaction to what she just said, but in all instances on screen she at most will nod or shake her head.
  • Sasuke, Itachi, Shino, Neji and Gaara in Naruto. Although Sasuke and Neji used to make remarks, once in a while, about how stupid the others were. More-or-less the only female example is Hinata.
  • Commander Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
    • And Rei for that matter. Especially on the moments that she suddenly decides to speak to Asuka.
      • She is character that is made from the Quiet One cliche and helped to codify it. Internet has term for character inspired by her Dandere (dan=silent, dere=sweet). Althought Anno wants to mock the trope, she popularized it.
  • Though he enjoys conversing to people, Kawayanagi from Ojojojo is so quiet because he's no good at starting conversations, and the few people he's talked to never talk to him again. He slowly opens up to Haru after enjoying (and admiring) the self-centered conversations she makes with him.
  • Robin in One Piece. She is not as heavy of a case anymore, though, but certainly was when she had just joined the Straw Hats - probably because she didn't want to open up to her new crew because she believed she would leave soon. But even nowadays, she is not that talkative unless the conversation really interests her, she needs to give a warning, or if someone asks her for exposition.
  • Subverted by Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka from Ouran High School Host Club. He is physically large and doesn't say much, but what he says is pretty mundane most of the time, not to mention how he tends to have a Personality Change on rainy days. This trope was however invoked by Renge who tried to cast him as one in a Dating Sim style movie.
  • Ping Pong: Smile
  • Trip/Shooti Pokemon Best Wishes fit. And compared to Ash's other rivals, it really stands out. Especially in BW041 where there are many competitors in the tournament that are either talking about the battle or cheering for one side. Trip just sits by himself in the back with his own opinions that he doesn't bother giving to anyone as well as look down to ignore lame battles (he looks up when Ash's battle gets his attention though.)
  • Maggie from R.O.D. The TV. Has a habit of "nesting" with piles of books in small, enclosed spaces.
  • In Saint Beast, Luca is always brooding but rarely speaks his thoughts, which is part of what makes him good for counsel.
  • Jin from Samurai Champloo incarnates this trope, just as his opposite Mugen incarnates another...
  • Oji Karasuma from School Rumble.
  • Sora from Sketchbook. She's quiet only because she's really shy. Since she's the show's lead character, though, we get to hear her unusual thoughts via Inner Monologue often.
  • Sanya from Strike Witches, except when she's singing. Also Ursula from the novels, which might tie in with her being something of a Nagato (see entry below) Expy.
  • Ichise from Texhnolyze.
  • Doc Saito from Tiger and Bunny speaks very softly. So softly in fact, that he requires subtitles for the viewers to understand him. Unless he's on the intercom or using a speaker, in which case he's ear-screechingly loud.
  • Toriko: Melk the First is said to be a quiet, shy man. He's actually very talkative, its just that he literally talks so quietly no one can hear him.
  • Shiori from The World God Only Knows, as present in the page picture. She is only quiet because by the time she knows what she wants to say, there is nobody to talk to, but that also means any word she says on the spot, without analysing it countless times beforehand, is significant. And when she is allowed to prepare a speech in advance, she is quite a talker.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho's Hiei tends towards this. Chuck Huber, his voice actor, told a humorous story in the commentary; he once watched an episode of the show with his family, and all Hiei said through the whole episode was "Hn."
Cquote1

 "[His wife] was like, 'Wow. They pay you for that?'"

Cquote2
  • Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! (the un-Macekred one)... So, naturally, Kaiser Ryo (pre-Face Heel Turn, at least) from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's on the other hand, this treatment is given to the main character, more or less. In the very first episode, Yusei Fudo didn't even open his mouth until near the end. And as tradition, his first on-screen words were "Hey... duel me."
  • Rise Matsumoto, the Student Council President from Yuru-Yuri does talk, but she talks so low, and quiet, it's pretty much impossible to make out her sentences. Only Nishigaki-Sensei has no trouble hearing her, for some reason.
  • Silver Lady aka Silky from The Ancient Animagus Bride is always a solemn and quiet young Landlady. Despite being entirely silent and stoic, Silver can express some form of emotion at times. She appears to like Chise (in a protective older sister way), and even has a tendency towards pulling pranks surprisingly.

Comic Books[]

  • In the The Authority: Kev series, Kev's squadmate Tiny talks very little... because he's been struggling with suicidal thoughts for years.
  • Cass Cain (Batgirl II) from Batman speaks little and mostly with short words. This is the result of her father raising her without talking to her or letting her hear people talk, so that body language would be her language. Even after magic fixed this, she was never comfortable with words.
  • Strongbow, from Wendy & Richard Pini's Elf Quest. Talks aloud, but not often; he's far more prone to using the elven telepathy called "sending." Non-elves, or elves who don't know how to send, find him to be a very taciturn fellow indeed. His unfriendliness towards outsiders doesn't help. See also The Stoic.
    • Redlance from Elf Quest could also qualify, but for the opposite reason: he's quiet because he's shy. His partnership with the more outgoing and assertive Nightfall is a classic case of role-reversal, and they're both perfectly comfortable with it. (Also it's implied that when it comes to sex he does a 180 and goes completely wild.)
  • Cougar in The Losers.
  • In NoobBattos had his first line of dialogue in comic 10, despite debuting in comic 4 and getting a few lines in the webseries and novel versions.
  • Omega from Omega the Unknown, who says nothing for the first few issues, though he eventually deems it important enough to ask a suicidal woman how she could conceive of ending her existence, and opens up a little after that.
  • Duma from The Sandman evolves from The Voiceless into this in Lucifer.
  • X-23 in her very first appearance in the comics, NYX, has only a handful of panels in which she says anything, and the rest of her companions consider her a Creepy Child as a result. She has perhaps even fewer lines (and none in English prior to the last two issues) in her origin series, Innocence Lost, where she's arguably the Decoy Protagonist and its her mother/creator Dr. Sarah Kinney who's the main character. In fact it's the abuse she suffered in Innocence Lost (along with the loss of her remaining family to protect them in Target: X) that led to her near-muteness in NYX. Though she starts opening up more after joining the X-Men, she nonetheless tends to be the Stoic of whatever group she's in, and speaks generally sparingly at best.

Eastern Animation[]

Fan Works[]

  • Even though Talisman from Ace Combatthe Equestrian War does speak, he's much more quiet than Shamrock.
  • True to her character in Batman, Cassandra Cain's style of speech in Angel of the Bat is highly simplistic and only has any real length to it when the plot absolutely demands it, though she is definitely more eloquent than in canon.
  • Andy from Calvin and Hobbes The Series. Lampshaded by Socrates:
Cquote1

  (trying to find Andy) "Well, [he] was never the talkative one. Admittedly, he's gotten better this season, but...

Cquote2


  • A blind Satsuki in the story titled Feel and she's only spoken once, when she was a toddler, generally being described a someone who "speaks when she wants to," thus communicating nonverbally, however, we hear her thoughts and ruminations on some matters. Naturally, coupled with the fact that she is blind, people tend to assume she's deaf. When she does finally speak in chapter nine, she really does have a lot to say.
  • Shino in Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox, though unlike his canon counterpart, he's a bit more sociable and talkative.
  • Eileen of Legendary Genesis has a lot she'd like to say, but can only muster up the courage to speak very simple sentences. Her quietness frustrates her to no end and isolates her from her teammate.
  • In Queen of All Oni, Left, one of Jade's Shadowkhan bodyguards, rarely ever talks. Apparently he feels he shouldn't unless it's necessary.
  • Lampshaded in The Sinister Solution. When they're telepathically linked for a mission, Hellion is surprised to find that X-23 thinks significantly more than she talks.
  • Nivus in The Tainted Grimoire has not been known to have actually said anything yet.
  • Nighttrace fits this perfectly in Transformers Meta.
  • Harpo from The Vinyl Scratch Tapes, a My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fic.
  • George Harrison in the Beatles Real Person Fic With Strings Attached; he had that rep in Real Life, and in the book he's somewhat quieter than the others for two reasons: 1) he spends much of the First Movement meditating and trying to figure out God's plan for sending them to this strange planet (he ultimately concludes that God didn't do it), and 2) he becomes a shapeshifter and is often not capable of speaking.
    • Actually, Ringo Starr is something of a Quiet One as well, since when he's deep in mindsight he rarely speaks. Though he makes up for it because he often has to give long soliloquies to explain what he did offscreen.
  • The blacksmith Amaru in Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune. He speaks about a total of five or six times in all 35 chapters and only when it's about something important. The rest of the time his best friend explains why this is so, and speaks for him.

Film[]

  • Babe's Farmer Hoggett. "The man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say. 'That'll do, pig. That'll do.'"
  • When Radio Rock DJ "Midnight Mark" is introduced in The Boat That Rocked, Quentin says of him "Hardly ever speaks. Not even when he's broadcasting, which is...interesting."
  • Joao from The Book of Life has no lines.
  • The Driver from Drive speaks less than twenty whole sentences in the movie, and he's the viewpoint character. The reason for this is left ambiguous, but it's possible he has a mental disorder.
  • The main character from Edward Scissorhands.
  • DJ the Doctor from Event Horizon rarely talks, and when he does, it's normally somewhat intimidating. There's a reason he's the one who's allowed to play with bone-saws.
  • Gaear Grimsrud from Fargo is an almost mute character, though he is also a demented sociopath.
  • Matsu, the protagonist of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series is very quiet. She says little in the first film (one of her lines is "you talk too much"), but the second is her most sparse; she's onscreen for most of the 92 minute runtime, but says only eight words across two sentences. By contrast, Yuki in the first film seems to be literally mute.
  • Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The low sigh he utters at Storm Shadow's apparent death is the most he's ever said in any continuity.
  • Though she has a few lines, Jinx from G.I. Joe: Retaliation is relatively taciturn.
  • Violet in The Incredibles and its sequel, among her more boisterous family members.
  • Hugo Stiglitz of Inglourious Basterds, who's definitely one of the bloodthirstiest of the Basterds (and that's saying quite a lot).
  • In Iron Man 2 Vanko is notably very quiet, especially when compared with Tony or Hammer. In several of his most prominient scenes, Vanko says barely anything at all; most notably, during the climax, his only words are a simple "You lose." at Tony.
  • Joshua, the unusually taciturn hitman in Little Odessa.
  • Mad Max becomes this towards the end of the the first film after Jessie and Sprog die, only speaking when he feels necessary. It carries over to the second and fourth films as well. He's a little more talkative in the third.
  • In The Magnificent Seven, there are two Quiet Ones:
    • James Coburn's character Britt (the knife-thrower), with 11 lines total during the 128 minute-long film Britt's lines are also invariably short: in his introductory scene he says a total of five words. The scene is 2:28 seconds long. 21 seconds into it, he says "You lost". 1 minute and 17 seconds later, at 1:38, he says "Call it." At 2:20, in response to Chris saying "Britt.", he says "Chris."
    • Robert Vaughan's Lee (the gambler) has a whopping 16 lines.
  • Office Space's Milton. He actually talks all the time but he's so quiet and rambling that nobody even knows he's going to set the building on fire.
  • Predator:
    • In the original film, the quiet one was the Native American tracker "Billy" whose contributions were things like "Something is out there." Poignant because, sure enough, something was out there.
    • Predators has Hanzo, who at first seems to be this because he doesn't speak English. But then it's revealed that as a Yakuza member, he lost fingers for "speaking too much."
  • Dot from The Quiet is definitely this, being a deaf-mute. She's not the Voiceless because she's been faking her deafness.
  • Carol, the protagonist of Repulsion, doesn't like to speak much.
  • Captain Miller from Saving Private Ryan possesses some of these traits.
  • The above-mentioned Britt was of course based on Kyuzo, the taciturn master swordsman from The Seven Samurai (played by Seiji Miyaguchi).
  • In Star Trek, Keenser has one line in an alien language, one word in English, and one kind of whimpering sound. In the sequel, he's the Voiceless. Even though he's supposed to be eloquent in his native tongue.
  • Star Wars:
    • Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace has three lines during the whole movie. He speaks so infrequently that all of his lines are dubbed over. His later appearances in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels animated series avert this, as he is given more lines in those series.
    • Boba Fett has only a few lines and spends most of his screen time posing ominously, which is a major source of his following.
  • The antagonists in each of the three original Terminator films don't really say much. The second movie plays with this, as the T-1000 actually does get a decent amount of lines at first while the T-800 doesn't say too much like the one from the original. Then after the Reveal that the former is actually the villain while the latter is the hero, the T-800 begins talking more frequently, while the T-1000 is almost entirely silent for the rest of the film, only having two really brief conversations from that point (four if you count when it's taking someone else's form).
  • In Things Change, the humble cobbler Jerry is passed off as the Man Behind the Man. Because Jerry is an old, dignified and quiet man, the local mobsters instantly buy him as a man of confidence and power.
  • Brian Slade from Velvet Goldmine, despite being the main character and basically the subject of the movie, has surprisingly sparse dialogue throughout. When he does talk, he's almost always talking in riddles (or quoting Oscar Wilde, which is much the same thing...)
    • Also Jack Fairy, who doesn't say a word until the Death of Glitter concert.
  • Silent Bob from The View Askewniverse evolved from The Voiceless into The Quiet One.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • X-Men 1: The Brotherhood members almost never speak. Mystique is silent but for one line early on, except when she's disguised. It's quite effective and adds to her, well, mystique. Sabretooth has two lines; Toad has three.
    • X2: X-Men United: Lady Deathstrike gets a single line of dialogue.
    • X-Men: The Last Stand:
      • Colossus utters one line.
      • Multiple-Man has a total of two lines.
    • X-Men: First Class: Azazel only says a few lines.
    • X-Men: Days of Future Past: Colossus' speaking part consists of a single word.
    • Deadpool: Although Colossus finally averts this trope, Angel Dust plays it straight, letting Ajax do most of the talking for the bad guys.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse: Psylocke's and Angel's dialogue are limited to a few lines each.

Jokes[]

  • A farmer tells the new farmhand: "I don't talk much. If I give you a nod, you'll come." The farmhand: "Guess we'll work together well, boss, 'cause I don't talk much either. If I shake my head, I won't come."
  • A boy never speaks. His parents, concerned, take him to doctors and specialists who confirm that their child is not mute and there's no logical reason that he should be unable to talk. For eight years, he says not a word. One night at dinner, however, he suddenly says, "Please pass the salt." His stunned parents stare at him, asking why he's never spoken until this moment. "Well," he replies, "everything was all right up until this point."
  • Two lumberjacks go to the forest early in the morning. One of them stumbles on some ice, and comments: "Slippery today." The two of them work all day without a word, and when they return in the evening, the other one stumbles on some ice and comments: "Sure is."
  • A cowboy comes up to his buddy:
Cquote1

"Jim."
"Yes, Bob?"
"What did you give your horse, when it had colics?"
"Turpentene."

Cquote2
    • Later:
Cquote1

"Jim."
"Yes, Bob?"
"I gave my horse some turpentene, and it died."
"So did mine."

Cquote2

Literature[]

  • Benjamin, the donkey from Animal Farm.
  • Hettar from the Belgariad. But as one of the prequel novels shows, there's at least one worse; Algar, founder of Hettar's homeland, who could let days go by without talking. When asked by Polgara, "Don't you ever talk about the weather?", he just points to a window and responds, "What for? It's right out there. Go look for yourself."
  • The Silent from Black Company. He speaks only once through entire series, when he performs ritual to bind Lady's powers.
  • Mac, from The Dresden Files. Getting words out of him at all is rare, and if you see him speaking in actual sentences, you know things are very, very serious.
    • In Changes, he speaks an entire paragraph. Harry is completely floored by this, and not just because of what he said.
  • Ulath, from the Elenium and Tamuli series. He's actually very intelligent, but tends to respond quite cryptically and briefly with one or two word comments. It's explained that he works out all the logical steps in his head, but sees no reason to share any more than the conclusion.
    • Then subverted when he usually has to explain what his one-word outburst means anyway.
  • Kubo in Krabat, who gets just one line in the book.
  • "Lofty," from Monstrous Regiment, definitely has "deep psychological problems."
  • Maggie from Old Mans War.
Cquote1

 We all turned to look at her. She was visibly annoyed. “I’m not mute,” she said. “I just don’t talk much. This deserves comment of some kind.”

Cquote2
  • The narrator of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a physically imposing man who pretends to be deaf and mute. Between his deliberate silence, his hallucinations and his distorted view of himself and others, it is assumed that he has schizophrenia.
    • He does. Unless you believe that the asylum actually inserted electronics into the patients every night.
      • Why else did that Acute die after Bromden's nightmare?
  • Shane Drinion in The Pale King. When he does speak, he has a lengthy, thought-provoking conversation with Meredith Rand and completely throws her off her game.
  • Amy from The Passage is a subversion as, being a six year old girl, she's hardly physically imposing. Then she becomes a vampire.
  • Ruth in Someone Elses War.
  • Emperor Gregor Vorbarra from the Vorkosigan Saga.

Live-Action TV[]

  • On AngelWesley becomes a lot darker and quieter as the seasons progress, most noticeably in season four (part of this may be a result of getting his throat cut. The scar is visible for a long time afterward, so it's possible that too much talking is physically painful for him).
  • Ricky Fitness in The Aquabats Super Show usually has one line an episode that is when he's not having A Day in the Limelight.
  • Kosh of Babylon 5 barely ever speaks at all. When he does it's generally a sentence fragment, and fragmentary or not, it rarely makes any sense.
    • Interestingly, his most powerful statements are usually his shortest as well, in large part because they generally make more sense than usual. Often the emphasis he puts on words carries more meaning than the words themselves.
  • Capt. Ronald Speirs in Band of Brothers.
  • Henchmen of Gus Fring in Breaking Bad, especially Victor and Tyrus Kitt, have a habit of this to be more intimidating.
  • Daniel "Oz" Osbourne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who famously explained his lycanthropy as follows:
Cquote1

 Buffy: It's a Long Story.

Oz: Got bit.

Buffy: Apparently not that long.

Cquote2
    • We see the Hidden Depths behind his laconic demeanor, when Buffy is granted telepathy and overhears Oz's thoughts:
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 (thinking): I am my thoughts. But if Buffy can hear my thoughts, they exist in her, independent of me. I cease to exist.

(aloud) "Huh."

Cquote2
    • Angel's not known for his talkativeness, either; lampshaded when the two chat:
Cquote1

 Angel: Oz.

Oz: Hey.

Angel: Nice surprise.

Oz: Thanks.

Angel: Staying long?

Oz: Few days.

Doyle: Are they always like this?

Oz: No, we're usually laconic.

Cquote2
  • In Fargo, Ohanzee Dent, the favored retainer of the Gerhardts, doesn't say much, probably because he's spent decades suppressing his feelings about having to be the "pet Indian" to a brood of German thugs. This, of course, makes it all the more shocking to the Gerhardts when he sets them all up to be wiped out by state troopers.
  • Firefly's River Tam both plays this straight and subverts it; she typically has the fewest lines of dialogue in any given episode, and will go through a lot of scenes without ever saying anything. When she does talk, its usually in the form of traumatized crying, gibberish, or veiled warnings or predictions.
    • Wash was once laconic, but that was a long time ago.
  • Nathan Wournos in Haven.
  • The Haitian, of Heroes fame, was speechless in most of his early appearances and many of his later ones. He refuses to reveal his given name and, since he speaks so rarely, one wonders how everyone knows he is from Haiti.
  • Horatio Hornblower: In "The Even Chance," Lieutenant Chadd appears to be a fairly prominent character who hardly opens his mouth, and mostly he only grins or looks worried, awed or amused, as the situation requires. He spoke exactly twice. First when he ordered his men to fire guns, and second when he got a splinter in his arm, he allowed Doctor Hepplewhite to take care of Hornblower's sailor ahead of him because the poor guy had lost his leg. Chadd dies during their next battle on a French ship which they boarded.
  • The badass priest "Mr Eko" from Lost does not speak for forty days after he kills two of the "Others" in self-defense.
  • Marilyn Whirlwind from Northern Exposure speaks few words, and when she does it's barely above a whisper. She stands out in a show filled with kvetchers (Joel), blowhards (Maurice), and philosophical chatterboxes (Chris).
  • Power Rangers has its fair share of this trope in the following seasons:
  • Nasir of Robin of Sherwood could go entire episodes without speaking.
    • It's implied that in early episodes he doesn't know much English. He gets to talk a bit more later on.
  • Robin Hood:
    • Will Scarlett is known to keep his own council.
    • To a lesser extent, Little John - though when he did talk, he usually did so quite loudly.
  • On Saturday Night Live, Robin Gibb in "The Barry Gibb Talk Show."
  • Sherlock:
  • In the first series of Skins, Effy Stonem only spoke twice - and she was incredibly intriguing as a result. In the later series, she talks progressively more often, although she continues to maintain long periods of silence and usually speaks less than the other characters. Nevertheless, most fans preferred her as The Stoic Ice Queen and grew increasingly disappointed with the character the more she spoke.
  • Smallville: Emil Hamilton, the team's medic, often has very few lines in the scenes that he's in, and what he does say is said in a quiet, almost monotone voice. (Unless of course you get him completely wasted.)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: Malcolm Reed. Don't screw with his friends, though.
  • Teal'c from Stargate SG-1. "You speak?" "Only when it is appropriate." Indeed.
    • He did become more talkative as time went by (presumably from spending so much time with humans), so much so that the commentary on an early episode of season 9 had the director joking that Teal'c had spoken more in the first few episodes of that season than in the previous eight seasons combined.
  • In Supernatural, season six, Sam and Dean's distant cousin Mark was introduced. Mark barely avoided becoming The Silent Bob. Promptly lampshaded.
Cquote1

Dean: You don't say much, do you?

Mark: Enough.

Cquote2

Multiple Media[]

  • Technically all of the ice-characters in BIONICLE, but Kopeke especially. Since he got appointed to be the official Chronicler, it's likely that he's more wordy in his writing. Onua, an Earth Earth character, is also known to only speak up when necessary in most of his appearances.

Professional Wrestling[]

  • Randy Orton seems to fit this trope. While he cuts promos and talks to other wrestlers like his fellow sports-entertainers, he doesn't do much of trash-talking in the ring, and a lot of his "interviews" (especially as a Heel) are Orton simply being asked a question and responding with one word ("No..." or "Pain..." or something of the sort), or responding by... not responding. He'd simply stare at the interviewer and then walk away.
  • Everyone by now knows Christian to be a bit of a Loud Mouth...but before that happened, he and Edge were part of a group known as the Brood (a gimmick of pseudo-vampires). He didn't even speak the first few months...until Ken Shamrock ankle locked him to revealing where Stephanie McMahon was during the Ministry of Darkness era.
  • Brock Lesnar usually lets Paul Heyman do the talking for him.
  • The Undertaker is also one; unless he's cutting one of his amazing promos.
  • Kanako Urai, better known as Kana in Japan and Asuka in America rarely speaks and often resorts to a Slasher Smile to get her point across. Part of the reason why she does this (in WWE NXT as least) is because she doesn't speak English all that well.
  • After Vixen was billed as the American Kong by AJPW, she stopped speaking almost entirely, though she spoke in the NWA mostly in Pro Wrestling Zero 1, she went quiet for ROHSHIMMER and stayed quiet in TNA until she yelled "Raisha." Broke silence to announce she would no longer be able to wrestle at a WWE event, stayed talkative after returning to the ring in SHINE, though still not particularly talkative by wrestler standards.

Radio[]

  • Fred Norris of The Howard Stern Show. Although he's in the studio, his job is sound effects, and they'll often do more talking than he does. When he does talk it could be just a quip or a punchline to jokes or impressions or even responding to Howard or Robin. If you even dare insult him or call him on something, run he has been known to react very strongly to criticism, sensitive issues in his life among other incidents, once Howard looked in his bag and Fred nearly quit the show after an ugly outburst.
  • The classic Jack Benny-Mel Blanc "Sí, Sy, Sue" routine might fit here, with Blanc's character responding entirely in deadpan monosyllables that are, in context and timing, hilarious.

Tabletop Games[]

  • In Warhammer 40000, a Space Marine chapter's Honour Guard are said to speak and advise little, as to not undermine the authority of the Captains despite how they are likely even more experienced than them, but this gives their words considerable weight to all of their battle brothers, even the Chapter Master.
    • The Dark Angels and their successor chapters are known for this. They rarely speak to anyone outside of the chapter, and in one noticeable instance, the entire Consecrators Chapter deployed en masse and relieved an Imperial Guard force by fighting for six straight hours and killing the enemy's leader without sending a single transmission to the guard.

Theatre[]

  • Thomas Jefferson is portrayed like this in 1776, in light of Adams' claim that he "never heard him speak three sentences together." The first time he speaks without prompting, he saves Adams and Franklin from their flailing for an excuse to delay voting by giving a clear, concise reason why they need to write a Declaration of Independence first.
  • In the musical How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Miss Jones is the quietest of the secretaries until she lets loose in "Brotherhood Of Man."

Video Games[]

  • Gage/Trak from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Repeatedly lampshaded by the reminding cast, who complain about how he never speaks more than a sentence at a time.
  • Backyard Sports: Ricky Johnson fits this trope to a bang.
  • Valygar from Baldur's Gate 2. Putting him in the same party as Jan Jansen makes him a great example of The Comically Serious as well.
  • Frankenstein's monster is this in Die Reise Ins All, especially when he is first met.
  • Serph from Digital Devil Saga would be a Heroic Mime if not for certain cutscenes when the player is given a choice of lines of dialogue for him to speak. Interestingly, the other characters sometimes comment on this; in the first game, Heat notices Serph has been silent for a long time and asks him to say something, and in the second, Gale tells him "It's alright, you don't have to say anything."
  • Cloud of Dissidia Final Fantasy canon seems to fit this trope, with other characters going so far as to praise him for his calm and collected mindset. He also speaks relatively few words to the other Warriors of Cosmos, not to mention it seems like he's always in a perpetual contest with himself to see how he can express a thought in as few words as possible when he does speak.
    • During the ending, he almost shows off his laconic attitude. Everyone is saying their goodbyes (in reverse series order):
Cquote1

 Squall: Maybe we can go on a mission together again sometime. (disappears)

Cloud: Not interested. (disappears)

Cquote2
  • Sten, in Dragon Age: Origins, is very much like this. He's extremely intelligent and deep, but doesn't chat much except in certain situations. There is a point when he monologues a bit with the player character about the nature of mages, and the Warden can respond by saying that it was the most words he/she ever heard Sten say. Sten's Deadpan Snarker reply: "I've been saving them up."
    • In-universe materials seem to indicate that most Qunari are like this when they aren't speaking their native tongue. Since they pride themselves on doing everything perfectly, the prospect of possibly committing a linguistic error mortifies them.
  • Arioch from Drakengard, except when she speaks it's usually to say something deliciously morbid or insane.
  • Until the fifth chapter of Duel Savior Destiny Rico is almost silent and when she does speak it's nearly inaudible. This is because without a proper master she burns through her lifespan when she takes action. Once this is taken care of, she becomes simply soft spoken.
  • The Mysterious Stranger from the Fallout series. Clicking on him produces only two floating text balloon statements: "I will help thee." and "I don't talk much."
  • Minor character Fujin from Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts (going by Fuu there) speaks in broken statements of only one or two words at a time.
    • In the Japanese version, Fujin talked in only one kanji at a time. It's not a bad English equivalent.
      • Her last line of dialogue in Final Fantasy VIII is (in both versions) relatively long and spoken normally. In addition to highlighting the importance of what she has to say, it surprises the other characters, who presumably thought she was incapable of normal speech.
    • FFVIII's main character, Squall, is also not much of a talker, particularly early on when his Jerkass Facade is at its strongest, to the point that "Whatever," and "..." are his Catch Phrases. Since the game allows the player to listen in on his Inner Monologues, the reasons for Squall's silences become increasingly more apparent as the game goes on.
    • For a character of Kingdom Hearts, Lexaeus of Organization XIII.
  • Auron from Final Fantasy X is a stoic, taciturn man who chooses to only talk when it is important. Kimahri, who talks even less than Auron does, also qualifies.
    • Kimahri in particular is so quiet that he doesn't even have a spoken line until about a third of the way through the game.
      • That's because Kimahri was giving main character Tidus the silent treatment (for whatever reason).
  • Gerome, a wyvern rider from Fire Emblem Awakening is also not as talkative as the rest of the second generation characters. He also states that conversation and charisma are not his strong suits. His specialty exists on the battlefield.
  • Beruka from Fire Emblem Fates is an assassin who is not very talkative, and when she does talk, she tends to speak in very short, clipped sentences.
  • In Fleuret Blanc, you're unlikely to get anything other than grunts and terse sentences out of Masque. In a subversion, he can actually be quite the chatterbox if you engage him on a topic he actually cares about; however, the list rarely extends past masks.
  • Unlike the Rookie from Halo 3: ODST, Noble Six from Halo: Reach does have a few lines in the cutscenes, but it's usually in brief sentences.
  • Agent 47 from Hitman makes this trope look badass. A man of few words and mercy, Agent 47 talks when it's necessary but when he isn't saying anything, that's when you should start running.
  • League of Legends Champion Rammus. His standard exclamations include "yup" and "okay." His longest known statement is "shut up." Most other champions in the game use actual sentences.
  • In a mix between this and the Voiceless, as her name suggests, Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V is not only a less talkative character, but is in fact entirely mute capable of only a few subtle noises due to the parasites infecting her. Besides being rather unpredictable at first, Quiet eventually shows her softer side even if she is a former enemy. The reason why she is on this page is that the player finds out later that she can speak other languages, particularly Navajo, she prefers not to speak in English because it would activate her vocal cord parasites.
  • Persona examples, much like the Digital Devil Saga examples above.
    • The main character (Minato) from Persona 3 fits this trope to a T — a Heroic Mime and never actually heard to speak (outside of summoning his Persona). However, the player is able to choose dialogue options for him when speaking to others. None of these options are ever more than one sentence long, and other characters have commented on his quietness.
    • The Protagonist of Persona 4, canonically known as Yu Narukami, actually has a large number of responses that are "....."
      • However, the motives of the Persona 3 and Persona 4 heroes having so many '...' options are implied to be different from their subtle characterisation with the former appearing to not care about things, while the latter tends to have it available more when it will spare feelings or the situation is awkward. In Persona Q which involves both casts, this trope is inverted as the P4 hero talks in the P3 route and in the P4 route the P3 hero talks which also highlights the contrast in personality when you see how each one does speak.
  • Red Faction's protagonist Parker almost never says anything although it may be because he is too busy shooting Ultor's minions. The only time he says things are doing the few cut scenes in the game.
  • RPG Shooter Starwish has Mare, whose dialogue consists solely of "..." until the post-Earthwall-battle cutscene.
  • Henry Townshend is listed in the Silent Hill 4 manual as a "quiet individual who never lets his feelings show." Apparently he's (mostly) capable of saying "What...the hell..?"
  • Stare Pris of Tail Concerto.
  • Kratos from Tales of Symphonia. He has emotions, they're just not obvious at first glance.
  • Team Fortress 2-Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's grandfather, is "a man of many ideas and few words."
    • This is what the official bio for the Heavy claims him to be. He cheers up once he starts mowing people down with Sasha.
  • Iceman, from the original Wing Commander easily qualifies, save one cutscene where he's oddly chosen to play Mr. Exposition. It's said that even when he does speak, he does so only barely louder than a whisper, and you have to listen closely to hear him.

Webcomics[]

  • Bittersweet Candy Bowl has McCain, in addition to the Voiceless Amaya.
  • In Boozle, the eponymous protagonist doesn't say much, and when he does, his speech bubbles contain only images or icons. Still, the other characters seem to understand him just fine (although Bitsy does comment that his speech sounds funny).
  • Kid Katydid from The Bug Pond.
  • Kanryl of Ears for Elves fits this, possibly because he spends most of his time with animals.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Roofus the Robot is probably the least talkative castmember, and he's nearly monosyllabic when he does speak. He's also probably the least intelligent of the regular cast (apart from wacky neighbors like Floyd and Heywood), though he comes across as one of the most soulful because he is so quiet. "Will I see the sky... when I am off?"
  • X of A Magical Roommate has never once spoken more than four words or six syllables in a single panel.
  • Zz'dtri from Order of the Stick. Fitting as he is the Evil Counterpart of Vaarsuvius.
  • Pacificators gives us Taffe, with bits of The Stoic and Emotionless Girl thrown in. Daryl getting Taffe to warm up to other people and opening up is a subplot, especially when it comes to Taffe's relationship with Larima.
  • Paradox Space has Die of "The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven." He's a shameful mobster who's always caught in some embarrassing incident, and spends most of his time mumbling an explanation, only briefly raising his voice to inquire about chickens, before trailing off into mumbles.
  • Both of the Finland siblings in Scandinavia and the World, especially the brother who only swears every now and then. Except for in the sauna.
  • Coincidentally (or maybe not?), Lalli from Finland in Stand Still, Stay Silent is also this. A large part of it results from Language Barrier, although he doesn't talk much with his cousin Tuuri either.
  • Mikkel also qualifies to a lesser extent, in addition to being the Stoic.
  • Ben in Storywisher is this, and the polar opposite of his cousin Fi.
  • Akryung from Tower of God only communicates with a cackle that creeps everybody out.
  • Naim, from UC, so very much so. It’s so bad that the only way Iku even found out his name was by breaking into the school records.

Web Original[]

  • Ray Narvaez Jr. is, or at least was, this for Achievement Hunter. While he talks as much as everyone else, he's less hammy on the whole. Vocal Evolution eventually kicked in and he became more energetic, at least until 2014 when he was understandably annoyed by his Twitch account forcibly being taken over.
  • Teardrop from Battle for Dream Island. Though she has spoken, however that was with the other contestants when they all shouted "Cake At Stake" in the finale.
  • Jennifer O'Connell from Behind the Veil communicates entirely through written notes, sign-language and text-to-speech programs, but only because of psychological reasons (her parents were killed in a car crash and she was trapped in the car with them for several hours because she had been paralysed for years and couldn't escape herself). She is still capable of speech, and recently began talking to her step-mother, but limits herself to short sentences.
  • Kamimura from Broken Saints, apart from his internal monologues, is not the most talkative guy around. Of course, his limited knowledge of English, the language spoken to and around him for most of the series, could be part of that.
  • Evek is the most silent of the Freelance Astronauts, but then, given his competition, it's not exactly a hard title to achieve.
  • Sabastian in The Graystone Saga hates talking. When narrator Tobiah asks him questions, he answers with as few words as possible - and occasionally, none at all.
  • NintendoCapriSun while on The Runaway Guys. It doesn't help that the other two have No Indoor Voice.
  • Fantöm from Noob doesn't speak much and sometimes seems to have developped his "I see" Verbal Tic as a conversation filler.
  • While not quiet per se, Maine of Red vs. Blue comes very close to this trope - mainly because he almost never makes noise, and when he does he sounds like a Predator. Part of this is due to being shot in the throat during a mission (which we see in the prequel portions of Season 9) so he's actually physically incapable of speech, but it's established that even before that he very rarely said anything.
  • Handsome Tom in Suburban Knights.
  • DaveChaos of the Yogscast tends to say little when doing multiplayer content with the others. Granted, this could be because he's often with Simon Lane, the noisiest member by far.

Western Animation[]

  • In The 7D barring Dopey who cannot speak but uses whistles and other sounds to communicate, Bashful and Sleepy are the least talkative of the dwarves, Bashful due to his shy nature and Sleepy due to being asleep half the time, some episodes have one or both of them having a line or two or remaining silent throughout the whole cartoon.
  • In Animaniacs Wakko is the least talkative of the Warner siblings as in some segments he doesn't say anything.
  • As a reference to how she hasn't spoken in the twenty years she's been a background character, Maria from Arthur is presented as this in her Lower-Deck Episode. She prefers to write her replies when Ratburn calls upon her in class, was a mime on Halloween, and Arthur has apparently never even heard her speak. It turns out she has a terrible stutter and, despite seeing a speech therapist, is very embarrassed of it.
  • Mai on Avatar: The Last Airbender.
    • On the DVD commentary, the creators said that when they were looking for a VA for Zuko, they were looking for someone who could say one word but imply a lifetime of suffering. He was a man of few words for the first two seasons.
    • Longshot's whole character revolves around this.
  • Black Panther in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!
Cquote1

Wasp: "I forgot you talked!"

Cquote2
  • Austin from The Backyardigans in some episodes, such as "Heart of the Jungle."
  • Katana from Batman the Brave And The Bold. When she does speak, her Outsiders teammates immediately stop whatever they're doing and listen to her.
    • In the episode "Inside the Outsiders," there's a flashback dream sequence to a time when she was chattier. It's revealed that she doesn't speak in the present in order to honor her sensei's memory... and because she blames her loose tongue for indirectly causing the sensei's death.
  • Shifty Dingo from Blinky Bill, mainly due to being a Shrinking Violet.
  • Of the main trio in Camp LazloClam is the least talkative of the three. Most of his lines are just one-word repetitions of what others have said. In fact, Word of God stated he was intended to be totally mute, but changed as the creator felt it wouldn't work well.
  • All the operatives of Sector V on Codename: Kids Next Door have a position/nickname: Number 3 is "The Flirt," Number 2 is "The Inventor," and Number 5 is "The Quiet One," although she's more like the Only Sane Man.
  • Brainy on Hey Arnold has only said eight words in all the series: “something”, “I dunno,” “Hi Helga.” “I’ll go with you.” However, it’s because his Vader Breath.
  • Applejack's brother Big Macintosh in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.
    • To elaborate, starting with Season 2, he normally only says "Eeyup" or "Nope"... Apart from two times, one in which he switched speaking roles with Applejack, and one where he was under the influence of the a Love Potion.
  • Spoofed in Pepper Ann with, "Hush, the senior who never speaks."
  • Brenda from Perfect Hair Forever almost never speaks. She does, however, battle cry on occasion, and she said something in Japanese exactly once.
  • Ferb from the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb, who, despite being one of the two main characters, generally only speaks once or twice per episode, expressing himself the rest of the time through nonverbal cues. These lines tend to be either the most random or funniest of the episode.
    • And like everything on the show, this is lampshaded to death. In the first episode he's introduced as being "a man of action." In the episode "Candence Interrupted" he says two conservative lines, prompting Phineas to say, "well, aren't you chatty today."
    • The most lines Ferb has ever said at once can be seen here. Watch and be amazed.
  • Velma Dinkley on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo ("Velma said 'Jinkies!'" "It must be a clue!")
  • Ashley T. from Recess.
  • The eponymous character of Samurai Jack is one of these there are several episodes in which he never speaks.
    • He didn't speak much as a child either, of the five flashback episodes to his childhood he only spoke in one of them.
  • Referenced in The Simpsons, "Lemon of Troy," where Bart and friends prepare to raid Shelbyville; Bart declares that Rod Flanders will be "the quiet religious guy who ends up going crazy."
    • In the episode where Homer joins the Navy, his superior officer gives the following keynote speech: "I'm a man of few words. Any questions?"
  • Kenny from South Park especially in the later episodes rarely talks and he is not involved in the plots as much as he used to be. And besides, he's The Unintelligible too.
  • Raven from Teen Titans.
Cquote1

  Slade: "It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"

Cquote2
  • Leon in Titan Maximum is incredibly quiet for a monkey and his only response to things is usually just a blink. He does seem to be the Only Sane Man of the group though.
  • Tammy of the LARPers and Mary of the Geniuses from Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race both barely spoke 
  • Ice Bear from We Bare Bears rarely says more than a handful of terse sentences in the space of a single episode. In a few episodes, such as "Everyday Bears" and "The Road", Ice Bear doesn't speak at all.
  • Apocalypse from X-Men: Evolution, in contrast to other versions of the character. Despite being the Big Bad of the last two seasons, he never speaks at all until the Grand Finale, and then his dialogue consists entirely of terse orders for minions or blunt statements of superiority (almost all delivered telepathically). One gets the sense that he simply dislikes lowering himself to speak to common mortals.

Real Life[]

  • U.S. President Calvin Coolidge was famous for this, even gaining the nickname "Silent Cal". There is a longstanding joke that a woman at a party came up to him and said, "Mr. President, I just bet my friend that I could get you to say more than two words." Coolidge looked at her and said, "You lose."
    • She got the last laugh anyway; when the woman in question (Dorothy Parker, a famous and brilliant Deadpan Snarker) heard he'd died, she asked, "How can they tell?"
    • Which is derived from another Real Life incident in ancient Greece, but with a Spartan.
      • Indeed, we get the term "laconic" from "Laconia," a shortening of "Lacedaemonia", referring to the region in which Sparta lies, and often used to refer to Sparta itself.
      • The story goes as such: An emissary from Philip of Macedon (father of this guy) goes to Sparta and reads a long speech: "If we enter your lands, then we shall impale your men, violate your women and slaughter your children, burn your granaries, and put all priests to the sword..." and so forth. The Spartan king doesn't say anything until the end, when he replies: "If."
  • This story about a quiet stranger who joins a casino poker game. When The Quiet One finally breaks his silence, he turns out to be a truly awe-inspiring Deadpan Snarker.
  • In The Beatles, George Harrison was often considered the 'quiet one' being overshadowed both by the songwriting genius of Lennon & McCartney and the good natured clowning of Ringo Starr. Later, when he was allowed to write songs, he proved his innate talent was the equal of his comrades with 'Something' and 'Here Comes The Sun' amongst others.
  • John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, would later claim the title of "the quiet one" for himself - while his bandmates would flail wildly about the stage and destroy their instruments, he stood still as a statue, single-mindedly playing his bass, and rarely opening his mouth. He would eventually write a song called "The Quiet One" about himself.
  • Craig Jones of Slipknot has the title of The Silent One, choosing to never show up for interviews and never answer any questions when asked.
  • Pata of X Japan and Ra:IN. Generally seems quiet and sleepy, is the * least* showy member of his bands. Is also one of the most skilled who's had the least drama out of either.
  • Ira Hayes, one of the six flagraisers at Iwo Jima, was described by friends and family as this. He was still especially quiet even though his particular tribe didn't push talkativeness.
  • In Moneyball, Michael Lewis tells a story in which one of the scouts for the Oakland A's cultivates this image. Humorously, when he finally does speak for the first time in two days, what he says turns out to be completely inane.
  • Brazilian band Kid Abelha has Bruno Fortunato, who is practically the band's Garfunkel - Paula Toller sings and looks cute, George Israel writes the songs, plays many instruments and sometimes sings (not to mention working with other musicians)... and Bruno only plays the guitar. Hell, in the band's website, he doesn't even use the space that would be his blog.
  • Amy Acker, by her own admission.
  • William the Silent (1533-1584), Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch fight for independence.
    • He got the name for having the genius idea of not discussing his plans in bars where other people could hear them, not for being laconic.
  • Helmuth Count Moltke, who masterminded the Prussian campaign against Austria in 1866 and the German one against France in 1870/71, was known as "der große Schweiger" (the Great Silent).
  • Eric Wilson of the band Sublime. In the band's Rockumentary Stories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations Wilson does talk, but he gets no where near the screen time of fellow bandmate "Bud" Gaugh. Several interviewers have described him as quiet, but having great presence.
  • Introverts, especially IxxPs, tend to act like this.
  • John Deacon of Queen. When the band was together, he never sang on the albums and only answered questions in interviews if they were specifically directed to him. After Freddie Mercury died, he dropped out of the band and, aside from one single released in 1997, retired from the music business entirely.
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