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Steve Banning
Steve Banning
The Mummy character
First appearance	The Mummy's Hand
Last appearance	The Mummy
Created by	Christy Cabanne
Portrayed by	Dick Foran (1940–1942); Felix Aylmer (1959)
In-universe information
Gender	male
Occupation	Archaeologist; Treasure hunter
Spouse	Marta Solvani/Sullivan (Universal Series only)
Relatives	John Banning (son); Jane Banning (sister); Solvani/Tim Sullivan (father-in-law); Joseph Whemple (cousin brother); Ella Evans (sister-in-law); Isobel Evans/Banning (daughter-in-law)
Nationality	American (Universal Series); British (Hammer Series)
Status	Deceased

Steve Banning is a character from the Mummy franchise who starred in the movies The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb & The Mummy portrayed by Dick Foran in the former 2 and by Felix Aylmer in the latter 1.

Appearances

Early life

Nothing is known about Banning's early life in all of the films. In the Universal films, Steve grew up in Mapleton, Massachusetts with his older sister Jane, became an archaeologist in his early 20s and went on many famous expeditions as mentioned by Professor Andoheb in The Mummy's Hand. During those expeditions, he met and befriended fellow archaeologist Babe Jenson. After a while, he was suspended by the Scripps Museum and sent to Cairo, Egypt to search for Princess Ananka's tomb along with Babe. In the Hammer Mummy movies, Steve grew up having a cousin brother named Joseph Whemple, married an unnamed woman and had a son, John Banning, with her. After she died, Steve, Joseph & John went on an expedition to Cairo, Egypt in the year 1895 to find Princess Ananka's tomb where John sustained a leg injury.

Universal Series

The Mummy's Hand

In 1912, Banning and Babe are on an expedition in Cairo, Egypt, sent by the Scripps Museum to do so, at a town market, Steve finds a vase which had Princess Ananka's tomb written on it, he purchases the vase for 75 bucks, spending his last few cents on it and upsets Babe who had bought an Egyptian lucky charm doll for himself. The 2 take it to the local Cairo Museum where archaeologist Dr. Charles Petrie decides to join and create an expedition to the Hill of the 7 Jackals to search for Ananka's tomb, Steve and Babe also meet archaeologist and secret high priest Professor Andoheb who says that the vase was a total fake and breaks it purposefully but makes it accidental, saying that they wasted the money, also creating an enemy in Steve even though Dr. Petrie still decides to create and join the expedition with the 2 whilst Andoheb meets with his agent The Cairo Beggar who decides to assassinate the 2 for going to Ananka's tomb.

After that, Steve tries to find another member of the expedition who will pay the money to fund it and join them, however, he finds no luck as everybody he talks to with refuses to join the expedition or even pay money to fund it. Disappointed, him and Babe drown their sorrows in the hotel bar, in it, Babe decides to play magic games with a man, who is revealed to be famous magician Solvani who easily tricks him. After that, the 3 have a discussion at the restaurant table were Steve and Babe tell Solvani about the expedition, Solvani agrees to fund it, paying his money to them and agreeing to join the expedition, also revealing his real name to be Tim Sullivan from Brooklyn. Their conversation is cut short by Andoheb's agents led by the Beggar attacking the 3, Steve, Babe and Solvani manage to fight them and later escape the restaurant to their respective hotels. Later that night, Steve is brushing his teeth before going to bed, Babe meanwhile, is waiting outside talking to his new doll he named Poopsie until a knock comes on the door, Babe opens it and in comes Marta Sullivan/Solvani, the daughter of Solvani who points a gun at Babe because she thought that he and Steve robbed her and her father, Marta is then ready to shoot Babe until Steve takes the gun away from her from behind, hearing everything and introduces himself to her, she tells him and Babe that her and her father have no money now, that he gave their last few dollars to fund the expedition and tells them that she is going to join it along with her father to see if its an actual expedition, Steve tells her that the Cairo and Scripps Museum funded it before she leaves the room with Babe then telling Steve that now they have a "dame" in their expedition.

A few days later, Steve, Babe, Marta, Solvani and Dr. Petrie embark on the expedition to the Hill of the 7 Jackals were they meet their Egyptian guide Ali and their Egyptian companions. During the search, Babe accidentally blows up a few rocks using a dynamite which opens a secret cave there, the Egyptians refuse to go in, saying that it's cursed and run away from the expedition along with Ali, leaving the main 5 Americans to go inside the cave, watched upwards by Andoheb and the Cairo Beggar. They go into the cave and instead find the tombed coffin of Kharis lying inside, shocking them and scaring Marta because of the hideous way he looks. That night, Steve, Babe and Dr. Petrie examine Kharis with the latter adding that he is an example of a mummified Egyptian former high priest, Steve examines and explains the marks on his wrappings before leaving with Babe and outside, reuniting with Ali, before the 3 could talk further, a scream comes from inside the cave causing the 3 to run inside and find the dead body of Petrie along with noticing Kharis not being on the operating table anymore, concluding that he strangled Petrie to death and escaped.

At midnight, Marta and Steve examine the broken vase 1 more time and see what it actually means and where Ananka's tomb could be located, however, hope is lost as Babe explains that they had searched everywhere and failed to find any evidence of the tomb, leaving it behind, as midnight was still not over, Steve, Babe, Tim Sullivan and Marta are hanging outside their tents, asking each other what to do about the new news they had got until they suddenly hear a scream from Marta and Solvani's tent, the 4 go inside and saw the dead body of Ali, with the same strangle marks as Dr. Petrie, concluding that the now revived mummy of Kharis was killing off the expedition members. Steve still decides to search for Ananka's tomb with Babe and tells Marta to sleep in his tent tonight and go home with her father tomorrow morning and that he will return in a few days after finding the tomb. Marta agrees to and kisses Steve for the first time, signaling their romance to come. As the night passes, Steve and Babe are on the lookout for a mummy, Babe accidentally swallowing a rock along the way but spitting it out until suddenly, the 2 hear a sound from the tent and go inside, seeing Marta gone and Solvani injured and strangled, telling them that a mysterious intruder in bandages strangled him and took Marta to the caves, hearing this Steve and Babe start to rush to the caves to rescue Marta, noticing Kharis carrying her to the caves.

During the journey, the 2 are attacked by but kill the Cairo Beggar who tries to assassinate them before splitting up to go to different areas, Steve runs into the cave and passes through its many rooms before finally arriving at the main lair were Marta is tied up in, Steve sees Marta tied up, causing him to then attack an attacking Kharis who easily beats him twice, Marta tells him how to defeat him, Babe comes suddenly and shoots the container containing the tana leaves causing them to fall, Kharis gets down to get the leaves which then causes Steve to grab the container with fire and whack Kharis on the head with it knocking out and burning him to death before then reuniting with Marta and Babe. A few days later, Steve, Marta, Babe and Mr. Solvani are at the Cairo Bazaar were Steve gives back the now fixed vase to the shopkeeper, he finds another vase and tries to take it but Marta jokingly tells him to stop focusing on vases anymore and come with her and the others back to the states, ending with them going back to the states with the spoils of Ananka's tomb. After arriving at the states, Steve and Babe reunite with and Marta and Mr. Solvani meet Jane Banning, also during this time, Steve becomes rich and lives as a famous and wealthy archaeologist with Marta as his wife and Mr. Solvani as his father-in-law. Steve and Marta also have a son John Banning during this time. 1 day, Marta accidentally passes away from an unknown sickness and so does Mr. Solvani.

The Mummy's Tomb

30 years later in 1942 in his Mapleton Mansion, Steve, Jane, John, John's fiancé Isobel Evans and Isobel's mother Ella Evans are talking at Steve's Mapleton mansion and house about the events in Egypt 30 years ago, Steve mentions the whole thing and says it's sad that Marta won't be able to see John and Isobel's wedding before jokingly mentioning another topic.

A few days later, Steve, Isobel, Jane and John are at the mansion playing a board game when they hear a sound outside, John goes outside to see who was it with Steve's servant and dog handler Jim whilst Steve goes to sleep upstairs in his room, however from the dark, Kharis the mummy appears in front of Steve and strangles him to death, his body is found by the others soon and a funeral in Mapleton is made for him in which Babe visits.

Hammer Productions

The Mummy (1959)

In 1895, Steve Banning in this universe, his son John Banning and his cousin, Joseph Whemple go to Cairo, Egypt for an expedition to Princess Ananka's tomb, during the expedition, John gets a leg injury and has to limp which causes Steve and Joseph to leave him at the tent and go to the tomb themselves. When they arrive there, Steve finds the Scroll of Thoth and reads it out aloud, causing the mummy Kharis to awaken from his sleep and walk away, Steve, after seeing Kharis, becomes hysterical and starts laughing madly, Joseph sees him and after finding the tombs and going back to the UK, him and John put Steve in a psych ward to better him with John visiting him for the next few months alongside his wife Isobel Banning. Steve also goes in a catatonic state during this time.

3 years later in 1898, John visits Steve 1 day at the psych ward were Steve suddenly snaps out of catatonia and tells John the story of Kharis and Ananka and warns him that the mummy of Kharis is going to come after them, John disbelieves this at first but later finds out that he was telling the truth. 1 night, Steve is sleeping in his room until suddenly Kharis bursts through his windows and after a chase, corners and strangles him to death.^[1]

Character influence

Dick Foran's character of Steve Banning here of an adventurous archeologist fascinated with ancient artifacts served as partial inspiration for the later creation of Indiana Jones.^[2]

Universal Pictures released a comic in The Monsters of Filmland magazine which was a comic book adaptation of The Mummy's Hand and featured Banning made to look like Foran's character.^[3]

Steve Banning also inspired the character of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy film series from 1999 to 2008 portrayed by Brendan Fraser in the 3 movies as a treasure hunter and archaeologist in each one of them who grows rich in the later movies because of the artifacts he collects from Princess Anck-Su-Namun's tomb similar to Steve in The Mummy's Tomb and The Mummy's Hand.^[4]

References

^ "Steve Banning Character wiki". ComicVine.com. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
^ The Mummy's Hand. IMDb. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
^ Warren Teachbug (July 7, 2021). Famous Monsters Of Filmland 1969 Fearbook. Internet Archive. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
^ Roderick Heath (October 20, 2017). How The Mummy movies inspired Indiana Jones. Filmfreedonia.com. Retrieved December 6, 2023.