Miles Finch

Miles Finch is a fictional author and a supporting character in the 2003 holiday comedy film Elf. He is played by actor Peter Dinklage. He has one scene in the film, admittedly one of the more humorous and memorable parts of the movie, and appears about midway through the film's running time.

Biography
Miles Finch was an American author of children's books. Great success brought with it great wealth, and he was considered a giant of the industry, despite having dwarfism. It is said that he has more top-selling books than Doctor Seuss. When a New York City publisher of children's books named Walter Hobbs was threatened with dismissal unless he came up with a stellar idea for a new project by Christmas, he consulted with his top writers, Morris and Eugene. Morris and Eugene were stumped to come up with anything of value on such a strict deadline, so instead, they told Walter that they should bring in Miles Finch. Walter was flummoxed that the most creative idea that his two top writers could come up was to hire yet another writer.

Regardless, Walter went with the idea and contacted Finch, who agreed to come to New York for a meeting. During the meeting, Finch laid out the groundwork for some ideas that he was really excited about. As he laid out his pitch, Walter's adult son, Buddy, burst into the room in a state of great joy and excitement. Buddy grew up in the North Pole, and had a keen insight into the legitimacy of concepts such as Santa Claus, flying reindeer and Christmas magic. Because of Finch's dwarfism, Buddy mistakenly believed that he was one of Santa's elves. He innocently asked if questions such as "Does Santa know you're here", and "Did you have to borrow a reindeer to get down here". Finch was naturally quite angered by this, and bragged about his accomplishments before threatening to take physical action against Buddy if he continued to call him an elf. Buddy whispered, "He's an angry elf", at which point, Miles leaped out of his chair, ran across the conference room table and leaped at Buddy, hitting him several times, then pinning him to the table.

When the incident settled, Miles Finch lost all interest in working with Walter Hobbs, and stormed out of the meeting room. In his haste, he left behind his book of ideas. This affair caused a great amount of tension between Walter and Buddy.

Notes & Trivia



 * Despite Buddy's assertion, Miles Finch was not actually an elf. This should have been clear to Buddy immediately, as elves had pointed ears, and Miles did not.


 * It is unclear exactly where Miles Finch hails from, but he is not originally from New York City.


 * Miles Finch claimed to have houses in Los Angeles, Paris, and Vail with a 70-inc plasma television in each one. He also bragged about his sexual exploits, noting to Buddy that he got more action in a week than he ever had in his entire life.


 * Actor Peter Dinklage has Achondroplasia, a common form of proportionate dwarfism as does his character Miles Finch. This means that he is short in stature, but all of his body parts are of standard size in relation to his height and weight. Dinklage is 4'5" tall.


 * Peter Dinklage is best known for playing the role of Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series Game of Thrones, for which he has received an Emmy Award.


 * Another character who is both an author and an a-hole is Jack Torrance from the 1980 horror film The Shining. Unlike Miles Finch however, Jack was also a murderous psychopath (or as Buddy might call him, "A cotton-headed ninnymoggins").