Klaus Baudelaire

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Klaus Baudelaire
Biographical Information
Born	Late fall to winter (before False Spring), Year of the Pig November 3rd (Netflix)
Alias	Cakesniffer (by Carmelita Spats) Doctor Tocuna Kla (by Beatrice Baudelaire II) Four-eyed kitten (by Count Olaf) Doctor Faustus (TV series) Elliot, The Two-Headed Freak Klyde (The Daily Punctilio)
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Height	Between 5'4" and 5'5" (Netflix)
Hair	Black (books) Brown (movie and Netflix)
Eye	Brown
Skin	Light
Relationships
Family Members	Bertrand Baudelaire † (father) Beatrice Baudelaire † (mother) Violet Baudelaire, Sunny Baudelaire (sisters) Beatrice Baudelaire II (adopted daughter) Elwyn (uncle)
Love Interests	Fiona Isadora Quagmire (implied, Netflix)
Affiliation
Interest	Books / Reading
Profession	Researcher
Loyalty	Baudelaire Family
Behind the Scenes
Appearances	The Bad Beginning The Reptile Room The Wide Window The Miserable Mill The Austere Academy The Ersatz Elevator The Vile Village The Hostile Hospital The Carnivorous Carnival The Slippery Slope The Grim Grotto The Penultimate Peril The End The Beatrice Letters (mentioned)
Adaptation Appearances	2004 Film Netflix Adaptation: all episodes
Portrayed by	Mitchell Federan (multi-voice recording) Liam Aiken (film) Louis Hynes (TV series)

“	There are some things we might not know, but that doesn't mean we should give up. We can find out what we need to know. We can find out anything.	”
	— Klaus Baudelaire in The Carnivorous Carnival

Klaus Baudelaire is the middle Baudelaire child and one of the main protagonists of A Series of Unfortunate Events. He is the younger brother of Violet Baudelaire, older brother of Sunny Baudelaire, and is the only boy among his siblings.

He is very intelligent and enjoys reading books and conducting research for fun. However, he is also an extremely unlucky and unfortunate boy.

Klaus is twelve at the beginning of the series, turns thirteen while incarcerated for a brief period of time in The Vile Village, and is fourteen when he left the Island at the end of The End.

Despite his research, Lemony Snicket does not know what happened to Klaus after the final novel. There is a possibility that Klaus and his siblings died, either while leaving the island in The End or during other untrackable circumstances. 

Personality

Klaus is extremely intelligent for someone a little older than twelve years old (at the beginning of the series). A running gag in the series is someone explaining what a word means, and he replies, "I/We know what [Word] means."

Klaus reading.

Klaus is acknowledged as the reader and researcher of his siblings. He is a bibliophile and loves nothing more than to read a good book. Having read more books than most people do in a lifetime, Klaus thrives off reading and would want no more than a good book, a comfy chair, and the warm glow of a reading lamp. He is known to have read a good deal of the Baudelaire's private library before it was destroyed in the terrible fire in which the children's parents both perished. He also reads whatever he can anywhere else including the remains of the V.F.D Library, Josephine Anwhistle's grammar library, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery's reptile library, Charles' library, etc.

Klaus is always there to help his siblings with most words and phrases they do not understand and has a photographic memory, able to remember many things he reads. This has helped the Baudelaire orphans immensely. Klaus believed all his life that if you read enough books, you could solve any problem, something about which the Baudelaires' friend Quigley Quagmire agrees, although after living with Count Olaf, he is no longer so sure about this.

Despite being knowledgeable, Klaus does not already know all things in all fields. For example, in The Bad Beginning, he doesn't know what Molotov cocktails are. In The Ersatz Elevator, he doesn't know what "xenophobe" means, so Jerome Squalor explains it.

Herman Melville is one of his favorite authors, and he particularly enjoys "the way Melville dramatizes the plight of overlooked people, such as poor sailors or exploited youngsters, through his strange, often experimental philosophical prose." which is basically what A Series of Unfortunate Events is. He also admires Hammurabi. His least favorite poet is Edgar Guest, saying, "he was a writer of limited skill, who wrote awkward, tedious poetry on hopelessly sentimental topics."

While generally polite and well-mannered like Violet, Klaus has a tendency to correct people when they are wrong, which can make him seem like a rude and annoying know-it-all at times. For example, he can't help but correct someone who claims an eagle is a mammal instead of a bird. When someone says, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar", Klaus replies, "Actually, you'll catch the most flies with manure." (Note: He only says this in the TV series, not the books.) However, Klaus does not do this because he is trying to be elitist or condescending, but rather, he cares a lot about accurate information because he feels true knowledge can empower people and make the world a better place.

While Violet tries to be hopeful and optimistic, Klaus seems to have a bit of a pessimistic side, especially his film version who shoves Captain Sham to the floor. He is often shown complaining and venting about his situations.

Biography

Early Life

Klaus was born about two years after his sister Violet, to Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire. His parents appear to not have exposed him to anything related to V.F.D, as he has no memories of their code phrases. Klaus became very interested in books, and would spend a lot of time in his family's library.

When he was very young, and had only just started reading, his mother spent one summer reading him Anna Karenina while he sat on her lap, helping him with the big words and occasionally stopping to explain what was happening in the story.

Sometimes, Bertrand would appear into Klaus's room in the mornings to wake him up and find him asleep with a book in one hand and a flashlight in the other; sometimes he would come at night, and when Klaus asked about the inexplicable noises outside his window, Bertrand and Beatrice insisted it was nothing more than the wind, even on windless evenings.

Klaus used a stepladder to take an atlas from a high shelf, where his parents kept several books they wanted to keep secret. He and Violet left the atlas under an open window on a rainy night, ruining it. His parents yelled at him and then moved their books to another hiding place that Klaus couldn't reach.

At some point, Beatrice and Bertrand took their children to a vineyard for the weekend. However, the family had to transfer trains in order to reach their destination, and Violet and Klaus were isolated from their parents in the crowd. They went outside to the nearby shops, and soon the local shoemaker, blacksmith, chimney sweep and computer technician helped reunite the family. While relieved, their parents told their children that if they got lost again, to stay put and let their parents find them.

Beatrice once took Klaus fishing, as he had read up on different kinds of fish and wanted to see them. However, the two of them were bored the entire evening. During another boring evening, when Klaus was inside during a rainy afternoon and about eight years old, he measured the width of all the doorways in the mansion.

When his younger sister Sunny was born, Klaus didn't like her at all; however, by the time she was six weeks old, the two of them were thick as thieves.

On Beatrice's birthday, the family awoke early to make her a cake, and Klaus sifted through the flour with the cinnamon, pausing every few minutes to wipe his glasses. After the can opener broke, Sunny used her teeth to open a can of condensed milk, which impressed Klaus and the rest of the family.

They once all stayed inside one boring, rainy afternoon, and they all painted their toenails bright red. Violet spilled some polish onto the yellow chair, leaving a stain that never really came out. At some point, the children watched a horror film, and the rest of the night they were afraid every noise was vampires breaking into the house to take them away- however, Klaus later hypothesizes that perhaps someone had broken into the house after all.

The family once had a picnic at the Rutabaga River, and Bertrand was so excited that he forgot to pack silverware, and the family had to eat sweet-and-sour shrimp with their hands, and wash their hands in the river; afterward, Klaus and Beatrice picked blackberries. The children also went to the Hotel Preludio with their parents for a weekend, where Bertrand taught them an elevator prank; to press all the buttons right before exiting, so everyone left inside would have to go to every floor.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny had a routine for whenever their parents went out to the orchestra; first, Violet and Klaus would play a few games of checkers while Sunny ripped up old newspapers, and then the children would read in the library until they fell asleep on the sofas.

The Bad Beginning

Klaus reading Justice Strauss' inheritance law book to discover Olaf's plan.

Klaus lived with his parents and two siblings Violet and Sunny until he was twelve years old, at which time the Baudelaire Mansion burned to the ground while he, Sunny, and Violet were at Briny Beach. The Baudelaire children became the Baudelaire orphans. He and his sisters were sent to live with the dreadful Count Olaf. Fortunately, Klaus got along with their neighbor Justice Strauss who let the Baudelaires read her library.

Count Olaf forced them to do all of his chores and treated them abysmally, a word which here means, "awfully, especially in the field of parenting and trying to get his hands on their enormous fortune". At one point during dinner, when Klaus reminded Olaf that they are unable to use their inheritance until Violet is of age, Olaf slaps Klaus so hard that it leaves a bruise the next day. Violet complains about it to Mr. Poe, although he could not care less.

Olaf tried to gain control of the massive Baudelaire Fortune by illegally attempting to marry Violet during a play he and his acting troupe wrote. To keep Klaus under his control, Olaf forced Klaus to play the role of a sailor in the play. Due to Klaus's excellent researching skills in which he stayed up all night reading a book on nuptial law, Olaf's plot was foiled and he was almost arrested before managing to escape with his comrades.

The Reptile Room

The Baudelaires are sent to live with their giddy Uncle Monty. The story may start cheerily at first, with the Baudelaire orphans having a splendid time with their Uncle Monty in the Reptile Room, but when Monty's new assistant Stephano comes to stay, terror shadows the children's lives once more. Stephano is recognized by the children as Count Olaf in disguise the moment they lay eyes on him. Stephano tries acting normally, though he once smashed a brass reading lamp over Monty's head, blaming Klaus. Then, after seeing the movie "Zombies in the Snow", Stephano uses poison from a venomous snake, the Mamba du Mal, to murder Uncle Monty, blaming it on the snake. While Violet tried to find evidence Stephano murdered Uncle Monty, Klaus used the books in the library to do some research, and found out that the Mamba du Mal killed its victims by strangling them. With that and the evidence Violet found in Stephano's case, they were able to prove Uncle Monty was murdered by Stephano. Unfortunately, Olaf managed to escape, and when Poe tried to call the police, it was already too late.

The Wide Window

Klaus and his sisters were transferred to their ever-fearful Aunt Josephine. Klaus' only toy, after trading with Sunny and Violet, was a rattle.

Captain Sham (Count Olaf) appears and pretends to have an affair with Josephine, but eventually, he reveals his identity, and threatens Josephine, forcing her to write a suicide note that will leave the children in his care. Josephine faked her suicide. Klaus noticed many grammatical errors in the suicide note, which he found weird coming from a woman who loved grammar. Violet, annoyed with Klaus being infatuated by the errors, called her brother unbearable, causing him to call her stupid, prompting Sunny to break it up. Klaus then decoded a message from Aunt Josephine's suicide note with a swelled tongue via peppermint allergy. The message read "Curdled Cave".

They went there after borrowing a sailboat and tried to convince Josephine to come back. Josephine was unwilling, so Klaus used his trump card, turning Josephine's fear of realtors against her, by telling her that the cave was for sale and that there would be realtors coming.

During the boat ride, Klaus watches helplessly as Aunt Josephine gets thrown to the leeches and calls Olaf a fiend for murdering her.

The Miserable Mill

Klaus' glasses break as he is tripped.

Klaus, Violet, and Sunny were sent to Lucky Smells Lumbermill, where they were put to work by Sir, for a pathetic wage of coupons and gum (which is later revealed to be illegal).

After a few days, Klaus is tripped by Foreman Flacutono (who is later revealed to be the bald man with the long nose, one of Olaf's associates) and his glasses are destroyed. Klaus is brought to the optometrist, Georgina Orwell, to get repairs, but she hypnotizes him since she is working with Count Olaf.

Klaus is later found by his sisters in a daze in front of the mill, and immediately Violet suspects something is wrong. After being instructed to operate the stamping machine the next day, Klaus is forced to cause an accident when the stamping machine destroys a string machine and falls on Phil's leg, the Baudelaires' optimistic friend. While in a rant, the foreman accidentally says "inordinate", undoing Klaus' hypnosis. However, the foreman trips him again and his glasses break, causing him to be hypnotized once more.

Later that night, a hypnotized Klaus is instructed to slice up Charles, Sir's assistant. This would cause the Baudelaires to be fired and put in the hands of Count Olaf, who is under the alias of Shirley. Violet is able to un-hypnotize him with the word "inordinate", and while his sisters are overwhelmed, Klaus is able to save Charles using an invention he crafted, despite his field being research. Dr. Orwell gets into a sword against teeth fight with Sunny. Eventually, Sir enters the mill, surprising Orwell so much she stepped backward, right into the sawing machine, fatally sliced. (In the Netflix series, Dr. Orwell instead stumbles backward into the furnace when confronted with an angry mob of unhypnotized workers.)

Although Klaus is not put into Shirley's care, he is fired by Sir and sent off to boarding school with his siblings.

The Austere Academy

The Baudelaires were sent to Prufrock Preparatory School, a boarding school run by Vice Principal Nero. There seems to be no actual principal of the school. They were forced to stay in a shack overrun by small, toe-pinching crabs, attend dull classes, bullied by Carmelita Spats, and listen to long violin rehearsals by the Vice Principal, who was a terrible violin player. They met two orphaned triplets named Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, who they became quite close with after they were defended by them from Carmelita Spats, the school bully. A friendship developed between Klaus and Isadora, from whom Klaus learned the usefulness of a commonplace book. There were subtle allusions to a romantic relationship between the two.

Olaf disguises himself as Coach Genghis and forces the Baudelaires to do hundreds of laps, making them flunk school due to exhaustion. Fortunately, the Baudelaires expose him, but he flees with the Quagmires. Klaus runs to the car and almost rescues them, but one of the White-Faced Women bites Klaus' hand, and Olaf kicks Klaus in the stomach, knocking him away from the car.

The Ersatz Elevator

The Baudelaires are taken in by Esmé and Jerome Squalor, who live at 667 Dark Avenue. Esmé is very "in style" and bases all her decisions on whether it is "in" or "out". The orphans meet up again with the two Quagmire triplets who are caged in a secret tunnel underneath the apartment building in which Esmé and Jerome reside. They are very close to rescuing them when the two triplets mysteriously vanish.

The Baudelaires are then taken to an auction by the Squalors, which they have discovered is the location that the Quagmire triplets have been moved to. Klaus reads a catalog and claims that the Quagmires are inside the VFD (Very Fancy Doilies) lot at the in the auction, but they are really hidden in Lot #48, a literal red herring. The Baudelaires are motivated to rescue their friends but Jerome is not, forcing another guardian on them.

The Vile Village 

Following the clue of V.F.D., the Baudelaires decided to be adopted by the Village of Fowl Devotees, specifically a caring but skittish villager named Hector. Hector had an inventing studio and a library in the barn right next to his house which seemed to be very comfortable for the Baudelaires. There, the Baudelaires received coded poems from Isadora, via the migrating crows that lived in the village.

Meanwhile, the villagers thought they had caught Olaf at last, but only the Baudelaires knew that this man was not Olaf at all. The Baudelaires tried to rescue the man, whose name was Jacques Snicket, from being burned at the stake. Klaus reads about mob psychology and the rules of the village. However, the Baudelaires were accused of the later murder of Jacques by none other than the real Count Olaf disguised as a Detective Dupin.

Klaus being attacked by crows.

All three Baudelaires were jailed by the village to be burned at the stake. Klaus realizes he is spending his 13th birthday in a jail cell. In the nick of time, though, Violet invented a water pump to dissolve the mortar of the jail cell's brick walls, which then served as a handy battering ram.

After escaping, the Baudelaires rescued Duncan and Isadora from within a fountain, using clues in the coded poems. The Baudelaires almost escape with Hector and the Quagmires on the mobile air home, but they are forced to go back down when the rope ladder begins to rope.

Due to The Daily Punctilio, the news of what the Baudelaires were accused of spread quickly. Realizing they need to leave, the Baudelaires flee from the village, although Klaus tries to collect the scraps of the Quagmire's notebook.

The Hostile Hospital

While running away from the authorities after being framed for murder, the Baudelaires arrive at the Last Chance General Store to send a telegram to Mr. Poe seeking help. However, he doesn't reply before the delivery of The Daily Punctilio forces the reported murderers to flee once more. Afterward, they were picked up by the Volunteers Fighting Disease.

Klaus and Sunny hiding their faces.

They arrived at Heimlich Hospital and obtained the thirteenth page of the Snicket File while working with Hal at the Library of Records. Later, Esmé chased them for the file. Violet got caught when she is too big to escape up a chute.

Klaus and Sunny work together to rescue their older sister. They almost killed Violet when disguising themselves as the two White-Faced Women, disguised as nurses, when they were nearly forced to perform a craniectomy on their sister. He had to stall to keep Violet alive, such as explaining an unnecessarily long-winded history of a knife and stalling on doing paperwork.

They find the last page of the Snicket File which is safely kept in his pocket. With Violet's hair ribbon, they steal the keys to the Library of Records from Hal. The hospital is set on fire and Klaus wheels his unconscious sister to safety. They jump out a window and hide in Count Olaf's car to prevent asphyxiation and escape the police.

The Carnivorous Carnival

During the car ride, the Baudelaires overhear the conversation going on between Olaf and his theater troupe. Klaus, along with Violet, pretends to be a two-headed freak along with Sunny who disguises herself as a wolf baby named Chabo in the Caligari Carnival. Klaus' name in disguise is Elliot.

At the end of the book they pretend to decide to join Count Olaf, although since Olaf knows they are the Baudelaires, he unhooks the caravan Violet and Klaus from the one with him and his other associates. Sunny, in Olaf's car, has been kidnapped by the troupe.

The Slippery Slope

Klaus helps Violet to stop the rolling caravan and search for poor Sunny. Klaus and Violet disguise themselves as Snow Scouts and end up meeting Quigley Quagmire, who was thought to be dead in the fire that killed his parents. Klaus starts his own commonplace book after Quigley gives him one. He helped decode using the Verbal Fridge Dialogue saying that the V.F.D. meeting would be on Thursday.

They managed to rescue Sunny from Count Olaf's clutches after she signaled them with Esmé's Verdant Flaming Device. They learn of the sugar bowl, which is revealed to be stolen by Lemony Snicket, and Beatrice their mother. At the end of the book, the Baudelaires and Quigley become separated and they are drifted on a sled into the sea.

The Grim Grotto

Klaus diving to Anwhistle Aquatics.

The Baudelaires are under the sea after being picked up by a submarine. They meet Captain Widdershins and Fiona. It is unknown if she took her stepfather's last name or not. Captain Widdershins is the sort of man who takes some getting used to, being very outspoken, confusing, and true to his motto "He (or she) who hesitates is lost". Captain Widdershins shows them a big black question mark on the submarine's radar, called The Great Unknown. Then he sends the children and Fiona out into the sea to the cave where the sugar bowl has been dumped by the sea.

The sugar bowl ends up not being there, having been removed by a mysterious swimming woman. Fiona tells the Baudelaires about the Medusoid Mycelium and how dangerous and poisonous it is. She recites the poem: "A single spore has such grim power/ that you may die within the hour/ Is dilution simple?/ But of course!/ Just one small dose/ of root of horse." Soon after that, Sunny ends up getting sick and starts dying from the Medusoid Mycelium. Klaus, Fiona, and Violet try to find a way to save her; though due to a wave of emotions going through the three it is more close than they would like. Fortunately, they find wasabi which is a condiment that is similar to horseradish, and give it to Sunny, resulting in her being cured.

Fiona later joins Count Olaf and his troupe (to be with her brother Fernald, who is the hook-handed man). Fiona then kisses Klaus before saying good-bye. It is mentioned in later books that 'a girl named Fiona had broken Klaus' heart', indicating that he had a crush on her. The Baudelaires go to Briny Beach and meet Kit Snicket, Lemony Snicket's younger sister, in a taxi, due to finding a coded poem sent from Quigley.

The Penultimate Peril

Klaus and his sisters pretend to be concierges at the Hotel Denouement. Kit tells them that Ernest in on the other side of V.F.D. and Frank is on their side but they are identical, actually being a pair of identical triplets.

Later, when they try to stop Count Olaf from killing Dewey Denouement, the romantic interest of Kit and the father of her baby (later named Beatrice), the harpoon gun that they procure from Count Olaf slips from their grasp and it fires a harpoon, killing Dewey Denouement. They blame themselves for his death, even though it is not really their fault.

Klaus helps open the Vernacularly Fastened Door using three codes. The Baudelaires burn down the Hotel Denouement in order to send a message to cancel the V.F.D. gathering on Thursday of that week and escape with Olaf in a boat which continues in the next and final book.

The End

The Baudelaires wash up with Count Olaf on an island filled with people who have been shipwrecked. They are then deserted on the coastal shelf with Olaf and the pregnant Kit Snicket.

During the book, Olaf and Kit die, and the Islanders leave the Baudelaires. Kit gave birth to Beatrice Snicket before her death. The Baudelaires bury Kit and Olaf at the shores of the island and have adopted little Beatrice. They spend the next year cataloging the items from the arboretum and filling in the commonplace book left by their parents. At the end of the bonus mini-book, Chapter 14, the Baudelaires and Beatrice leave the island via boat.

After The End

Despite all his research and hard work, Lemony does not know the current position, location, and status of Klaus or his siblings.

However, there is a bit of a contradiction. In The Reptile Room, it says that “For years after this moment in the lives of the Baudelaire orphans, Klaus thought of the time when he and his siblings realized that Stephano was Count Olaf”. This implies that he survived for years, although it is possible this was retconned out.

Disguises

• The Hostile Hospital - Klaus disguises himself as one of the White-Faced Women, who were disguised as Doctor Tocuna and Nurse Flo. Klaus is Doctor Tocuna.
  • In the TV series, Klaus disguises himself as a male doctor named Doctor Faustus by donning a fake beard and speaking lower. Sunny poses as his belly under his coat and she is held by straps.
• The Carnivorous Carnival - Klaus disguises himself (with Violet) as a two-headed freak, named Elliot and Beverly.
• The Slippery Slope - Klaus is disguised as a Snow Scout.
• The Penultimate Peril - Klaus, along with his sisters, is disguised as a concierge working in the Hotel Denouement.

Known crimes

Klaus labeled a murderer on The Daily Punctilio.

Klaus, despite being a volunteer and is considered a protagonist, has committed a variety of crimes. He:

• Stole a sailboat in The Wide Window - In order to save his aunt, although he wanted to borrow it.
• Hitchhiked without the driver's permission(TV series only).
• Caused serious damage to Phil's leg, although he was hypnotized.
• Helped Georgina Orwell in her murder attempt of Charles, although he was hypnotized.
• Broke many rules of Prufrock Preparatory School and had Duncan Quagmire impersonate him so he could skip a S.O.R.E. meeting in order to study for a crucial exam.

Klaus sentenced to a stake burning for a murder he did not commit.

• Broke rule #1,742 of the Village of Fowl Devotees: "No one is allowed to escape from jail." - Klaus broke out of jail during The Vile Village, although he was wrongfully imprisoned and he would have been burned at the stake had he not escape.
• Impersonated a doctor in The Hostile Hospital(TV series only, in the books he and Sunny dress up as the White Faced Woman in disguise as nurses).
• Hitchhiked a ride in the trunk of Olaf's car without permission, in order to avoid asphyxiation.
• Aided in burning down Caligari Carnival in order to travel with Olaf's group.
• Pretended to be a staff member (a concierge) of Hotel Denouement, despite not being legally employed there.
• Burnt down the Hotel Denouement as a signal to fellow V.F.D members, likely killing many people inside.
• Is guilty of indirect manslaughter (Count Olaf tossed a harpoon gun into his hands, which Klaus accidentally slips and sets off, killing Dewey Denouement).
• Partially responsible for infecting the Islanders with the Medusoid Mycelium spores and potentially killing them, as he knew it was brought to the island and kept it a secret from the Islanders.

Physical Appearance

Books

While Klaus's physical appearance is never described, he is drawn as being white, and shown in the original illustrations to be about a head shorter than Violet. He has black hair with loose bangs parted in the center. His eye color is hard to determine- it is seen as purple on the cover of The Miserable Mill, but that may be due to his hypnotism. His cheeks are often drawn as rosy, and he has circular-lensed glasses, which he cannot see without.

He wears formal clothing, usually dark navy in color. His outfit consists of a blue jacket, a white dress shirt underneath, pants matching his jacket that are either shorts or dress pants tucked into his long socks, and brown ankle boots. He has a bow tie, which, like Violet's hair ribbon, often varies with its color, although red seems to be the most common color for it. He along with the rest of his siblings were said to be pleasant-looking, so he may be viewed as handsome.

Film

In the film, Klaus has curly light brown hair, bangs falling over his forehead and reaching his eyebrows, pale skin with faint freckles, and dark brown eyes. Unlike the books, he is only briefly seen with glasses, when he is reading at the beginning of the film and in the Reptile Room- as thus, they are likely reading glasses and thus not for everyday use. The removal of glasses has been speculated to be to prevent comparison to Harry Potter, though this was never confirmed, and it may have been a costuming choice for another reason.

Klaus wears a dark blue sweater with a white undershirt- similar colors to the book illustrations of Klaus's suit- long light brown pants and brown shoes. In The Wide Window segments, he has a dark blue jacket to wear over his sweater. In The Marvelous Marriage, he is given a brown overshirt to wear to symbolize that he is playing a camel. Violet also made him a reading headlamp for dark nights.

TV Series

In the 2017-2019 Netflix adaptation, Klaus has brown hair that darkens over the seasons, with bangs parted to his left. While it begins very straight and light, it curls and darkens over the course of the series, due to actor Louis Hynes's hair doing the same. He has light skin, hazel eyes, and brown Wayfarer glasses. While he begins about the same height as Violet, maybe slightly taller, he shoots up in height in-between "The Miserable Mill: Part Two" and "The Austere Academy: Part One," and he remains about a head taller than his sister for the rest of the series.

He has a much wider variety of outfits than previous adaptations. His most marketed outfits are the red sweater, white undershirt, dark gray-brown jacket and light gray pants from The Bad Beginning and the beginning of "The Reptile Room: Part One," The same outfit but with a light blue undershirt is worn in "The Wide Window: Part One. his brown vest, dark blue undershirt, light brown overcoat, dark brown pants and black shoes from The Vile Village through "The Slippery Slope: Part One," and his light gray suit with a lavender undershirt and blue tie (designed after the book illustrations) from "The Penultimate Peril: Part Two." The second mentioned outfit is his most worn in-series due to the amount of episodes it appears in, though he loses the light brown jacket around "The Hostile Hospital: Part Two."

By the time he leaves the island, his hair is much darker and very curly, and he is wearing a light suit that makes him resemble his father in a flashback from earlier in the episode.

Behind the scenes

• In the 2003 Multi-Voice Recording of The Bad Beginning, he is voiced by Mitchell Federan. 
• In the film, Klaus is portrayed by Liam Aiken.
• In the video game, Klaus is voiced by Liam Aiken.
• In the TV series, Klaus is portrayed by Louis Hynes.

Etymology

His name Klaus was chosen because it sounded German and Daniel Handler wanted to make the setting of the series ambiguous; Violet is a fairly British name; Klaus is a fairly German name; Sunny is a fairly American name, and Olaf is a fairly Scandinavian name, and that creates a certain amount of confusion.

His surname Baudelaire comes from the poet Charles Baudelaire whose most famous work is The Flowers of Evil, a cycle of poems that discusses dreadful circumstances and finds beauty in them.

Quotes

Books

• "I wish our parents' money could be used now, instead of when you come of age. Then we could buy a castle and live in it, with armed guards patrolling the outside to keep out Count Olaf and his troupe."
• "You weren't being modest! You were LYING! And you are lying now! You're nothing but a liar and murderer!" (to Count Olaf as Stephano)
• Aunt Josephine: "I can't believe you would dare to disagree with a man who has eye problems."'
  Klaus: "I have eye problems, and you're disagreeing with me." (pointing at his glasses)
• "And you are being stupid, with an S." (snapping at Violet for downplaying the errors in Josephine's suicide note and calling him "unbearable with a U.")
• Mr. Poe: "You must forgive the children. They tend to see Count Olaf everywhere."
  Klaus: "That's because he IS everywhere."
• "The craniectomy will be performed with a knife, which is the oldest surgical tool in the world. Early knives have been found in Egyptian tombs and Mayan temples, where they were used for ceremonial purposes, and mostly fashioned out of stone. Gradually bronze and iron became the essential materials in knives, although some cultures fashioned them out of the incisors of slain animals. There are a number of different types of knives, including the pocket- knife, the penknife, and the drawing knife, but the one required for this craniectomy is a Bowie knife, named after Colonel James Bowie, who lived in Texas."
• "Before I make the first incision, I would like to say a few words concerning rust. Rust is a reddish-brown coating that forms on certain metals when they oxidize, which is a scientific term for a chemical reaction occurring when iron or steel comes into contact with moisture. The oxidation process is integral to a craniectomy due to the oxidative processes of cellular mitochondria and cosmetic demystification."
• Mr. Poe: "Don't be absurd! I don't know where you've been, or how you got here, or why you're wearing a picture of Santa Claus on your shirts, but–"
  Klaus: "It's Herman Melville. Goodbye, Mr. Poe."
• "Why are you doing this? You know we're not the root of the problem." (to Ishmael)

Movie

• "This is NOT home. HOME is where your parents put you to bed at night, where they teach you to ride a bike, or where they get choked up on your first day of school. This is NOT home. How could they do this to us?! Mom and Dad. Violet, you're thinking it, too. How could they?! They had no plan for us at all?! ...Do you think anything will ever feel like home again?" (Klaus trying to escape Olaf's house)
• Klaus: "You won't get a cent until Violet turns 18."
  Olaf: "Oh really... says who?"
  Klaus: "The law. Look it up."
• "Does it strike you as odd that none of our relatives are related to us?"
• "Captain Sham IS Count Olaf. I'm NOT going through this again!" (before shoving Olaf to the floor and attempting to expose his ankle)
• "Violet... You better tie your hair up."
• "Sure you tied your hair tight enough?"

TV series

• Count Olaf (Stephano): "Good morning! I am Stephano, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery's new assistant."
  Klaus: "It's afternoon. And you're Count Olaf. We will not help you with your luggage and we will not let you in this house."
• Charles: "I know Sir can be pricky, but you have to understand he had a very terrible childhood."
  Klaus: "I understand. I'm having a very terrible childhood right now."
  Charles: "...Okay." (shuts door)
• Violet: "How can he get our fortune as a gym teacher?"
  Klaus: "There's treachery lurking in most exercise programs."
• "You are our guardian! You're supposed to be keeping us safe, not throwing us down an elevator shaft and working with terrible villains and trying to steal our fortune!" (to Esmé)
• Violet: "There are better things to do with your life than get eaten at a carnival."'
  Colette: "Like what?"
  Klaus: "Like... literally anything."
• "You were going to BURN US AT THE STAKE!" (when Elder Jemma tries to make the Baudelaires seem guilty for breaking out of jail)
• "We're innocent... enough."
• "Let's go home." (final line in the TV series as he, his sisters and baby Beatrice set sail)

Trivia

Books

Larry Lotsaluck on The Pony Party!

• His foil from The Luckiest Kids in the World! written by Loney M. Setnick is a boy named Larry Lotsaluck who, in The Pony Party!, is treated to a fun party, a big prize, a pony ride, several kind and sensible adults, and all the cake he can eat.
• Daniel Handler once confirmed that Klaus and his siblings are of Jewish descent. It is unknown if he means ethnicity only, religion only, or both. Klaus is never seen practicing any religious rituals relating to Judaism (although naming a baby after a deceased relative is common in Jewish families, hence "Beatrice" in The End.)
• In The Miserable Mill, Klaus mentions that if he could use the Baudelaire Fortune, he would build a public library, and buy back Uncle Monty's reptile collection, and take care of all the reptiles.
• His father used to take him to the Akhmatova Bookstore as a treat. Jerome takes him there in The Ersatz Elevator.
• He is allergic to peppermint, as are both of his sisters. In Klaus's case, his tongue swells up so much no one can understand a word he says.
• He enjoys custard eclairs which he had with his picnic with Kit Snicket.
• In The Bad Beginning and the film adaptation, it is mentioned that Klaus initially disliked Sunny when she was born. The reasons are unknown; it's possible that it was because his parents focused less on him and more on Sunny. However, he grew to love and accept her, and by six weeks, they were "thick as thieves."
• Klaus is drawn with a strong resemblance to Harry Potter. There are stories of boys dressing up as Klaus being mistaken for Harry, especially during Halloween. Due to the order of releases, Klaus would have been modelled after illustrations of Harry in the books, not Daniel Radcliffe. When asked about it, neither Daniel Handler or Brett Helquist replied. However, Handler once said in an interview, "All bookish white boys with glasses look alike."
  • It is possible Klaus was modeled after Harry to subconsciously boost ASOUE sales/popularity, as Harry Potter was booming with sales/popularity.
  • The Harry Potter series came out just before A Series of Unfortunate Events, so Klaus (and ASOUE) could be seen as a homage/satire/parody of Harry Potter. Klaus is forced to rely on his wits, while Harry often uses magic to solve his problems. Harry is a "chosen one" due to Sybill Trelawney's prophecy, while Klaus is merely an unfortunate boy trying to survive in a vicious world with disappointing people. Harry is very popular and has many friends and supportive figures at Hogwarts, while Klaus had an overwhelmingly horrible time at Prufrock, only having four people for support (his sisters and the Quagmires). Both Harry and Klaus are set to inherit enormous fortunes, while Klaus' fortune becomes a burden due to Count Olaf plotting to murder Klaus for it.
  • Liam Aiken, who portrays Klaus in the film, was almost cast as Harry Potter, but Rowling insisted on having a British cast. For his role in the movies, Daniel Radcliffe received around £74 million, meaning this was a lost fortune for Liam. The Lemony Snicket film sequels were dropped due to Paramount's corporate shakeups, in addition to the unnaturalness of recasting the same child actors in a film series not shot back-to-back when A Series of Unfortunate Events is not set over several years. Liam also experienced a house fire as a child which parallels Klaus' story who experienced a house fire and is never seen using the Baudelaire fortune.

Movie

• Klaus has an extended rant that was deleted.[1]

TV series

• In the TV series, Dewey Denouement states that Klaus's research skills are on par with V.F.D.'s greatest librarians.

Family

Unknown

Unknown if adoptive or biological

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unnamed Guardians

Biological Parents †

Unnamed Mother †

Unknown

Monty Montgomery †

Monty Montgomery's Sister

Bertrand's Cousin

Bertrand Baudelaire †

Beatrice Baudelaire †

Gregor Anwhistle †

Ike Anwhistle †

Josephine Anwhistle †

Violet Baudelaire

Klaus Baudelaire

Sunny Baudelaire

Beatrice Baudelaire II

Appearances

Books
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Books)
1. The Bad Beginning (1999):	Debut	7. The Vile Village (2001):	Appears
2. The Reptile Room (1999):	Appears	8. The Hostile Hospital (2001):	Appears
3. The Wide Window (2000):	Appears	9. The Carnivorous Carnival (2002):	Appears
4. The Miserable Mill (2000):	Appears	10. The Slippery Slope (2003):	Appears
5. The Austere Academy (2000):	Appears	11. The Grim Grotto (2004):	Appears
6. The Ersatz Elevator (2001):	Appears	12. The Penultimate Peril (2005):	Appears
13. The End (2006):		Appears
All the Wrong Questions
Who Could That Be at This Hour? (2012):	Absent	Shouldn't You Be in School? (2014):	Absent
When Did You See Her Last? (2013):	Absent	Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (2015):	Absent
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (2014):		Absent
Snicketverse
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (2002):		Mentioned
The Dismal Dinner (2004):		Appears
The Beatrice Letters (2006):		Mentioned
29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (2014):		Absent
The Hero of the Story (2017):		Absent
Poison for Breakfast (2021):		Absent
Other Snicket Books
The Baby in the Manger (2002):		Absent
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming (2007):		Absent
The Lump of Coal (2008):		Absent
The Composer Is Dead (2009):		Absent
13 Words (2010):		Absent
The Dark (2013):		Absent
Goldfish Ghost (2017):		Absent