Captain Englehorn

Captain Englehorn is captain of the S.S Venture, and he saves the main characters twice.

1933 film
Englehorn is very laid back and world-weary. He was multilingual and spoke many different languages. An old friend of Carl Denham, Englehorn and his trusty first mate Jack Driscoll often ferried Denham on his globe-trotting moviemaking expeditions. The Venture took them all to Skull Island, where they encountered King Kong, and Englehorn's multilingual talents came in handy with dealing with the natives.. He is played by Frank Reicher.

Son of Kong
The story picks up about a month after the dramatic finale of the previous film and follows the further adventures of filmmaker Carl Denham (again played by Robert Armstrong), now implicated in numerous lawsuits following the destruction wrought by King Kong. Denham leaves New York with the captain of the Venture, Captain Englehorn, who is certain it is just a matter of time before he is similarly served. Their efforts to make money shipping cargo around the Orient are less than successful. In the Dutch port of Dakang, they run into Nils Helstrom, the former Norwegian skipper who sold Denham the map to Skull Island, who tells them there is a treasure on the island. Blinded by their financial situation, they believe him and agree to return. In fact, he is lying so they will take him to another jurisdiction, as he has just caused a man's death. Shortly after they put out to sea, a beautiful stowaway girl (Helen Mack) is found on board. She had been part of a traveling show run by her recently deceased father, Helstrom's victim.

They arrive at Skull Island where they meet, befriend, and are ultimately saved by Kong's easygoing albino son Kiko (a name used in production but never spoken in the film; he is referred to only as "Little Kong" and, by Denham, "Baby"). The son of Kong is portrayed as considerably smaller than his famous father, but is still twice the size of a man. He is much friendlier and saves Denham and the girl from a giant cave bear. Despite the fact that Helstrom made up his story on the spot out of desperation, a treasure is found. Shortly afterwards, Kiko, Denham and the girl are attacked by a long necked dinosaur which Kiko kills, while Helstrom tries to escape in the lifeboat but is eaten by an elasmosaurus. Eventually, Kiko dies saving Carl Denham, as does every other creature on Skull Island, when an earthquake strikes the island and it sinks into the ocean.

The King Kong Show
In this series, King Kong befriends the Bond Family, with whom he goes on various adventures, saving the world from monsters, robots, aliens, mad scientists and other threats.

2005 film
Englehorn is younger and less helpful to Denham. Initially Englehorn refused to leave port until they had the manifest, but Denham, sought by the police, paid him to leave New York that very night. Englehorn was well known for his tendency to take on illegal cargo, including rare animals for zoos and circuses, and on this particular voyage he had a shipment of chloroform for an unknown client. Englehorn was initially doubtful that Skull Island even existed, but just as he ordered his first mate, Ben Hayes, to turn the Venture around they sighted the isle.

When Denham went ashore with Ann Darrow and his film crew and they were attacked by the natives, it was Englehorn who came to their rescue and killed one of the warriors who was about to behead Denham. Following Ann's abduction to be a sacrifice to King Kong, Englehorn gave Denham and Jack Driscoll 24 hours to find her before he and his crew pulled anchor and left Skull Island. But Bruce Baxter persuaded Englehorn to mount a rescue operation when the search party did not return, and the Captain and his men managed to arrive in time to rescue Denham, Driscoll, Jimmy, and Preston from giant insects. Denham ultimately persuaded Englehorn to let him use the chloroform shipment to knock Kong out, allowing them to capture the gorilla in the game, he drops weapons on Skull Island for Jack and others, and recuses Jimmy. In the alternate ending he and Jack shoot the planes and lights so they can get Kong back to the island. He is played by German actor Thomas Kretschmann.

In Game, he isn't around as much. You can see him asking you if you are alright on The Venture chapter (to which you can respond), and he appears in other chapters flying his seaplane. Strangely enough, if you look up at the lookout that Jimmy used previously, that sailor seems to be identical to him. It is unknown why the developers put the second Englehorn there. His role in the game is flying, finding the various characters with his seaplane, and dropping weapons and ammunition supplies.

Trivia

 * Captain Englehorn is the single most recurring character in the King Kong franchise aside from Kong himself, having appeared in three films as well as the animated series The King Kong Show.