10 best GTA side characters of all time, ranked

The GTA series has been around since 1997, and many fans of today weren't even born back then. For most fans, however, the series began with Claude's adventure in Three, which was released in 2001. Over the decades, the series has churned out some great performances by protagonists, antagonists, and side characters alike.

Fans resonate with quite a few of them as some leave indelible marks like CJ, Franklin, Niko, Michael, and many more. While most of the spotlight is reserved for protagonists and antagonists, some side characters manage to make the most of their time in the limelight. This list attempts to rank the best side characters the series has featured.

Note: This article presents the views and opinions of the writer.

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Best GTA side characters of all time, ranked

10) OG Loc

Jeffrey Cross, a.k.a. OG Loc, is a character in GTA San Andreas who grew up in Grove Street. He always liked the Grove Street Family gang lifestyle but was never a part of it due to physical shortcomings.

Jeffrey started his rap career as OG Loc and gained street cred during his time in prison. OG Loc also gets a mention in Five as his Gold Record sits at Franklin's house, and he also has a star on the Vinewood Walk of Fame.

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9) Phil Collins

Phil Collins, the iconic singer/musician, has lent his songs to quite a few GTA games in the past. Vice City Stories is special among those games as it sees Phil make an appearance in the game as himself. The character stops by Vice City as he has a live concert scheduled there.

Phil Collins' manager owes a debt to some very bad people, making Phil a target for many assassination attempts during his time at Vice City. There is even a mission where the player must protect Phil during the performance of his famous track In the Air Tonight.

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8) Elizabeta Torres

Elizabeta 'Liz' Torres appeared in GTA 4 and The Lost and the Damned DLC for the same game. No drug deals go down without Liz knowing about them, and her network has quite a far reach. She has used Niko's and Johnny's services at some point in time. She is one of the more serious characters in the series, although she does get quite worked up as things go sour.

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7) Umberto Robina

Umberto Robina made his appearances in GTA Vice City and Vice City Stories. He is the leader of the Cubans, also known as the Los Cabrones, and the owner of Cuban Cafe Robina.

Robina intends to call Leo Teal (whom Tommy killed and kept his phone) but ends up speaking to Tommy. After the introductions, Umberto praised Tommy's courage as he could kill Teal. Tommy then helped him in his fight against the Haitians.

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6) Tony Prince

Tony Prince is a legendary character in the GTA series, so much so that he has a separate game named after him: The Ballad of Gay Tony (TBoGT). He made his appearances in The Lost and the Damned (TLatD), TBoGT and GTA Online (After Hours DLC). He is also the owner of Hercules and Maisonette 9 in Liberty City.

Tony moved to Los Santos after the events of TBoGT and planned to open up ten new nightclubs. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, and all the clubs ended up on the Maze Bank Foreclosure website.

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5) Toni Cipriani

GTA 3 was the first game in the 3D era for Rockstar, and it was a huge deal back then. Most of the game focused on missions and gameplay and not much attention was paid to the characters and their arches. The lead not having any voice lines didn't help either.

Amidst all this, Antonio 'Toni' Cipriani really shone through thanks to his voice actors, Michael Madsen and Danny Mastrogiorgio. He had two voice actors for two games: GTA 3 and Liberty City Stories. He was the protagonist for the latter as well, eventually wiping out rival families from Liberty City.

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4) Jimmy de Santa

Jimmy de Santa is Michael de Santa's son in GTA 5 and is the reason for quite a bit of the comic relief in the game. Jimmy is an entitled little rich kid who is also smoking pot and busy with his games. His attitude towards his parents is quite questionable as he never has a straight answer to questions.

To be fair, the kid does try to help his father out but screws things up each time. Having parents like Michael and Amanda, one can wonder if it is the kid's fault.

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3) Lazlow Jones

Lazlow Jones may not seem all that important or impressive to newer fans of the GTA series. But in reality, he is the character with the most appearances throughout the series. Interestingly enough, Lazlow Jones is the real name of a person who has been involved in writing the games.

He has played a wide spectrum of characters over the years, like a radio talk-show host, a TV program host, an accomplice to a nightclub owner, and many more. He is said to have over thirty years of experience in the media industry.

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2) Ken Rosenberg

Ken Rosenberg is also a character who has made multiple appearances in the GTA series over the years. He played whatever role needed to be played and is vastly present in Vice City, San Andreas, and Vice City Stories.

Vice City sees him assisting Sonny Forelli to set up an all-important drug deal between Vance and Forelli families. He then becomes a close accomplice of Tommy. In San Andreas, he represents Mad Dogg, a rapper CJ manages.

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1) Lamar Davis

Lamar Davis is an important character in GTA 5 and is also one of the first characters gamers get to meet in GTA Online. Lamar is among the best-written characters in the game, and recently, he also became a playable character, thanks to the Short Trips missions.

If someone is responsible for the funniest cutscenes in the game, it must be Lamar. Slink Johnson's voice actor even roasted Franklin's voice actor Shawn Fonteno in real life. He is by far the most beloved side character in Grand Theft Auto 5.

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Is there a Grand Theft Auto character you would like to see on this list? Let us know in the comments section below!