Uncle

"Why don't I gets a warm and﻿ tender embrace?"

- Uncle to John Marston when he returns to his Ranch

 is a Major character featured in Red Dead Redemption.

Background
Uncle is an aging alcoholic and reformed petty thief. Although borderline dysfunctional, Uncle resides with the Marston family, and is provided with food and shelter at the family ranch in exchange for work he rarely performs. He sometimes manages to contribute, but to his chagrin, he is often viewed by John as inept. "Uncle" is a nickname, and he is of no biological relation to any of the Marstons (John qualifies this statement with "at least I sincerely hope not.").

Uncle, in his own way, can be viewed as seeking redemption from his life of petty crime by working on the Marston ranch. This parallels the decisions of John and Abigail to leave the Van der Linde gang and lead a normal life.

Interactions
After Abigail and Jack are abducted by Edgar Ross, John reluctantly puts Uncle in charge of taking care of the ranch at Beecher's Hope. For the duration of the pursuit of Williamson and Escuella, Marston is not in any kind of contact with Uncle. When he finally returns to West Elizabeth, Marston finds the ranch in disrepair and livestock rustled. Marston continually berates Uncle for his inability to maintain the ranch on his own.

Uncle continues to live with the Marston family for some time after John's return. Working at the ranch, Uncle can be seen assisting with blacksmithing and animal tending duties. Uncle also helps John round up several wild horses.

Uncle is responsible for spotting the U.S. Army soldiers and Bureau agents approaching the ranch. Uncle immediately alerts John, enabling the defense and escape of Jack and Abigail Marston.

Uncle assists John in fighting the soldiers, showing great competence with a rifle. After the initial assault, John and Uncle retreat to the house. There they defend against the second assault. Uncle is quickly wounded in the chest. Jack ceases firing and comes to Uncle's side, while John continues to kill attacking soldiers.

John returns to Uncle and thanks him for his sacrifice, Uncle promptly demands that they escape, and quickly dies. Jack expresses horror at Uncle's death. Shortly afterward, John is gunned down by a large mob, and Jack and Abigail successfully evade the authorities.

At some point in time after the assault on the ranch, Uncle is buried atop the ridge at Beecher's Hope, just a few feet from the grave of John Marston. His grave marker provides no birth year and his epitaph reads "Impossible to forget."

Uncle is first seen when John Marston finally returns from his quest to bring his former gang members to justice as John reunites with his wife and son. Uncle is not pleased to see John, seeing that now, he will have to actually work. As Marston brings the ranch back to life with Jack, Uncle is seen variously napping.

To help out the ranch, he and John herd cattle on one occasion and break horses on another.

In the end, Uncle is shot in the chest by one of Edgar Ross's men. He is buried by Jack Marston on a hillside overlooking the ranch at Beecher's Hope.

Undead Nightmare
Uncle makes his first and last appearance in the mission Love in the Time of Plague. John, after riding through the intense downpour from the storm, comes home at night to find Uncle has not returned from town, with the family assuming he has taken shelter from the storm. Later that night, while John and Abigail  are in bed, Uncle bursts in, zombified, snarling and growling. As John tells Uncle he "don't look so good", Abigail sees Uncle's bloodied, torn up appearance and yelps in horror, placing herself as far as she can from him. Uncle slowly approaches John, with John grabbing him by the throat and asking what's wrong with him, ending the situation by beating the now Undead Uncle over the head with the base of a nearby lamp. John leaves the bedroom to go fetch his gun, leaving the disgusted Abigail to look at the beaten Uncle lying on the floor. As John is grabbing his shotgun from his workshop, Uncle chases Abigail out to the front porch. She trips in the yard near the porch, and Uncle takes the opportunity to jump Abigail and bite her on the neck, infecting her. John, arriving to see Uncle had already jumped Abigail, yells at Uncle, causing him to turn and face John. John then proceeds to shoot him in the head, putting Uncle out of his misery.

During this encounter, he has a deep gash crossing down diagonally from the top of his forehead to his left eye. He's missing his hat, revealing the bald spot atop his head. The part of his beard below his mouth is matted with blood, suggesting that he had already infected another victim or had been vomiting blood. His eyes appear to be heavily bloodshot with dried streaks of blood under his eyes, possibly from blood running out of his eyes. His clothes appear bloody and tattered, suggesting he either put up a fight trying to kill whatever infected him, or he received heavy resistance when he attacked one of his previous victims.

Mission Appearances

 * "The Outlaw's Return"
 * "By Sweat and Toil"
 * "A Continual Feast"
 * "Spare The Love, Spoil The Child"
 * "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed"
 * "Love in the Time of Plague" (Undead Nightmare)

Trivia

 * It is implied by John that Uncle has many illegitimate children.
 * Uncle can be seen with a yellow-brown residue in his beard. Players speculate this may be spilled alcohol, food, vomit or chewing tobacco. This appearance reinforces him as an unperceptive alcoholic.
 * John and Uncle were former drinking buddies. This is made clear when John says "this is why they say 'don't hire the people you drink with.'"
 * Uncle seems to bear a passing physical resemblance to the character of Uncle Albert from the long running British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, although it is not known if this is purely coincidental or not. He also resembles the character Freddie Sykes from the film The Wild Bunch.
 * When you walk by prostitutes, Jack may say "Uncle told me about girls like you." or "Uncle warned me about women like you."
 * Uncle shares a physical resemblance and character with the "Candy" character from Steinbecks' Of Mice And Men.
 * After hearing stories at a campfire, John will sometimes comment that he "knows an old drunk who would love that one." He is likely referring to Uncle.
 * There is also a rumor that Uncle is actually the old persona of Red Harlow. This is implied by the fact that both have similar scars on the left side of their faces. Uncle also wears one glove on his right hand, referencing the scorpion scar on Harlow's right hand. Uncle and Harlow also seem to have similar noses (in retrospect this would be untrue as Red would be expected to be more world-weary and cynical than Uncle is due to his past.). They are both also very experienced with a rifle. However, given that Uncle's stated year of birth is 1838, he would have been too old to have been Red, who was young and vital in the late 1880's.
 * Uncle is mostly lazy during the story when he was supposed to break horses with John and also not stopping Jack when he was about to hunt down a Grizzly even by warning.
 * If Uncle's hat is shot off, it is revealed he is bald.
 * Despite being elderly he seems to still have knowledge of weapons, because in the final mission he assists John and Jack in a final stand against the army leading to his death.
 * Despite being elderly he still seems to be able to hold his own against the great many waves of troops in the final quest.
 * On Uncle's grave it only has a death date but not a birth date
 * He has a brief appearence in Undead Nightmare
 * Uncle can sometimes be seen smoking at the dinner table in Beecher's Hope at around 8:40 PM.