Douglas Fredericks was an executive on the board of Wayne Enterprises, and a friend of Thomas Wayne until Thomas was killed by Joe Chill. Fredericks continued to serve on the board, and several years later expressed his displeasure at William Earle moving the company's direction towards heavy arms manufacture. That day, Thomas's son Bruce returned from Asia, having been previously presumed dead.
Bruce held a party for his birthday at Wayne Manor, which Fredericks attended, but Bruce arrived late and half way through the party announced that all the guests were phonies and had to leave. Just before exiting, Fredericks told Bruce that the apple had fallen far from the tree. That night, Wayne Manor burned to the ground, and later Wayne Enterprises went public with Bruce buying the majority of the shares, and replacing William Earle with Lucius Fox as CEO.
Several years later, a mercenary named Bane invade the Wayne Enterprises boardroom and took the executives hostage. He asked for a board member to accompany them to the fusion reactor, and Fredericks volunteered. He went down with Fox and Miranda Tate, and Bane's men threatened to kill him if Fox didn't unlock the reactor to be turned into a bomb by Dr Leonid Pavel.
Background information and notes[]
- Fredericks' first name is not given in the films - however, in the in-universe Gotham Tonight segment on The Dark Knight DVD his name is given as "Douglas". The Batman Begins novelisation gives his name as "Joseph", and other sources name him as "George".