Marcus Starke is a character who appears on the television show Leverage.
History[]
Marcus Starke is a brilliant grifter and an even better forger primarily working out of Europe. He has worked with Sophie in the past including a job in Copenhagen in 1997, the Berlin Polytech job in 1998, and also some jobs in Moscow. This is unusual for him, as he doesn't keep a permanent crew, but specializes in whiz mobs. He puts a team together, they slam into town for one high-profile job and then they scatter. However, they usually do one smaller job first, just to work out the kinks in the team. He never stays in a city for more than two days. In "The Two Live Crew Job", his crew consists of a Hitter, Hacker, and Thief, and they run into the Leverage team in the middle of their caper. When Starke tries to beat Nate at his own game, the Leverage team saves his life, as his hacker, Colin "Chaos" Mason was trying to double-cross and kill Starke.
His favorite scam is The Mona Lisa Variant. In 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen and the con man that did it made six identical copies. He then put them on the black market and each buyer thought that they had the original. The con man then sold the same painting six times. Starke likes to use auctions to figure out who wants the painting and then picks who he is going to sell the fakes to. This bit he got from working with Sophie, who came up with the idea. This scam requires a lot of publicity, and usually paintings of $10 million or more. He does all his own forgeries and is particularly good at Postimpressionists, the late 1800s.
Skills[]
- Mastermind
- Forger
- Grifter
Notes[]
- It is unclear if Starke knows Sophie's Real Name. When he chats with Nate at the funeral, he simply says that he knew Katherine Clive under another name (Presumably "Sophie", given that he calls her that when he sees her in North's building)
Trivia[]
- Has a soft spot for Van Gogh paintings.