Victor Maitland

Victor Maitland is the main antagonist of Beverly Hills Cop.

Beverly Hills Cop
Victor Maitland was an influential businessman who owned an art gallery in Beverly Hills which was really a front for a large-scale smuggling operation. His organisation's modus operandi involved bribing key customs officers to separate deliveries for his gallery, which were then transported to one of his warehouses, where the contraband - either foreign bearer bonds or drugs - would be removed and the shipment returned to the federal customs office.

Maitland eventually hired Jenny Summers as the manager of his gallery, and upon her request he also hired one of her childhood friends, Michael Tandino, as a security guard for the warehouse. One day, just before he went to visit his and Jenny's mutual old friend, Axel Foley, in Detroit, Tandino chanced upon an opened shipment crate left unattended, and grabbed some of the bearer bonds inside for himself. But the theft did not go unnoticed; Maitland sent his chief henchman, Zack, after Tandino. They caught up with him right in front of Foley's apartment, and after retrieving the stolen bonds, Zack personally killed Tandino by shooting him through the back of the head.

Foley, who had been knocked unconscious during the deed, decided to investigate Tandino's murder and travelled to Beverly Hills, where he first visited Summers to inform her of Tandino's death and then went to Maitland to question him about Tandino's activities. Confronted with Foley's snooping, Maitland had Foley forcibly evicted from his office and arrested for disturbance of peace, but this only served to pique Foley's interest even more. Eventually Foley came behind Maitland's clandestine operation, but at first lacked solid evidence to convince his new allies at the Beverly Hills Police Department, Lieutenant Bogomil, Sergeant Taggart and Detective Rosewood, of Maitland's criminality.

After winning Rosewood's friendship, Foley eventually uncovered a cache of recently arrived drugs stashed at Maitland's warehouse. However, Maitland had anticipated this action and took Foley and Summers, who had entered the warehouse without Rosewood, prisoner. After taking Summers with him for possible torture and execution, Maitland retreated to his mansion at 609 Palm Canyon Road, leaving Axel to be beaten to death by his bodyguards. Thanks to Rosewood's timely intervention, Foley managed to escape, and the two officers, soon joined by Taggart, prepared to enter the Maitland mansion and free Summers from captivity.

After engaging some of Maitland's thugs in a series of firefights, Foley managed to penetrate the mansion and kill Zack, but was right afterwards wounded by Maitland. Before Maitland could finish him off, Foley managed to get away, forcing Maitland to take Summers as a hostage for his escape. However, Foley and company's activities on the mansion ground had alarmed Bogomil, who swiftly proceeded to the mansion with a large police relief force. Bogomil's arrival to back up Foley managed to catch Maitland off-guard. After Summers managed to use this distraction to slip out of his clutches, Maitland fired at Foley, but his shot missed. In turn, Foley and Bogomil opened fire on Maitland, who was killed in a hail of bullets.

Beverly Hills Cop III
Maitland is briefly (though not by name) mentioned in the third film by Serge, who tells Foley and Rosewood that the art gallery went bankrupt after Foley had shot its financer.

Trivia

 * Actor Steven Berkoff is perhaps best known for his three villainous roles in Beverly Hills Cop, as the Russian general Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy and as the ruthless Russian colonel Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II. In Beverly Hills Cop II, a poster for the latter film is seen in Billy's home.