Gertrude Cramp (Doom Patrol TV Series)

Rita Farr
HBO Max's Doom Patrol‎
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Real Name	Gertrude Cramp
Main Alias	Rita Farr
Other Aliases	Elasti-Woman (see Notes), The Beekeeper, The Blob Lady, Bendy
Relatives	Addie Cramp (mother, deceased) Vance Cramp (father)
Affiliation	Sisterhood of Dada · formerly Doom Patrol, Hollywood
Base Of Operations	Ant Farm · formerly Doom Manor, Hollywood
Status
Alignment	Good
Identity	Secret Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Actress (formerly)
Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5' 7"
Eyes	Brown
Hair	Brown
Origin
Universe	Doom Patrol (TV Series)
Creators	Arnold Drake · Bob Haney · Bruno Premiani
First Appearance	"Pilot" (February 15, 2019)

Apparently, I'm a time-traveler who makes films and has allies in the afterlife. I don't feel worthy of that, either. But I have to believe that eventually my purpose or destiny will come and snatch me from this infernal stasis. In the meantime, I drink!

— Rita Farr

Rita Farr (born Gertrude Cramp) is a flamboyant and regal member of the Doom Patrol who used to be a Hollywood actress. After an experiment engineered by Niles Caulder transformed her into a physically unstable and elastic metahuman, Caulder took her in and introduced her to her friends on the team. Originally selfish and standoffish, Rita became more kind, empathetic, and even heroic, searching for a destiny as a hero as she formed close bonds with her teammates, Larry Trainor in particular.

History

Early Life

Gertrude Cramp was born in 1929 to Vance and Addie Cramp. Gertrude was pushed by Addie into becoming an actress like her, and adopted the stage name "Rita Farr". In order to ensure her daughter's success, her mother had sex with producers and directors to ensure Rita's roles instead of just auditioning her. This caused a serious sense of inadequacy to develop in Rita, as well as a need to prove that she could act and didn't need her mother's help. Over the course of the next few decades, she perfected her acting skills and rose to stardom, gaining many prominent roles in big pictures, and was even nominated for a Golden Globe.

The end of an actress

Eventually, in the 1950s, Rita struck up a deal with a film producer who gave her roles in his films for her finding him actresses to sexually exploit. Rita justified her actions by reminding herself that the exploited women also went on to become successful, but her actions caught up to her when one of the women became pregnant and was placed in her care in 1955. She rejected the woman, who killed herself, leaving her baby orphaned, and instead of adopting the child, but instead decided to take the leading role in Gene's new picture, "Forbidden Congo". Around this time, Rita was selected as a candidate for experiments in immortality by scientist Niles Caulder. While in Africa to film Forbidden Congo, she was exposed to a a mysterious green substance that made her body highly elastic and molecularly unstable. Unable to control her body from grossly contorting, Rita's film career floundered, and so she accepted the invitation of help from Caulder himself, who she would come to call "the Chief", unaware he had caused her "accident".

New Life at Doom Manor

Rita moved into Caulder's home, a manor house just outside Cloverton, Ohio, to attempt to control her unstable, gelatinous form, enlisting the help of powerful psychic Steve Dayton, a founding member of Caulder's superhero team, the Doom Patrol. He used his powers to help Rita stabilize herself and maintain her appearance, and the two had a brief romantic fling. However, he broke off their relationship when he read her mind and discovered in horror what she'd done for her role in Forbidden Congo.

Life as a patient

Over the years, other test subjects of the Chief would come to live in his house. Of all of them, she formed the closest friendship with Larry Trainor, a quiet and remorseful Air Force test pilot fused to a radioactive Negative Spirit. These tenants also included Crazy Jane, a woman with sixty-four separate superpowered personalities, the primary of which was an aggressive loner, and Cliff Steele, a loud-mouthed and angry but well-meaning racecar driver whose brain was placed in a powerful but unfeeling robot body. None of the tenants knew of Caulder's involvement in their "accidents".

Search for the Chief

A new team

In 2019, soon after the Chief left on one of his regular expeditions, Jane convinced Rita, Larry, and Cliff to go into downtown Cloverton for a day. The trip was a disaster thanks to Rita losing control and turning into a giant blob mass that had to be calmed down by Cliff. The group returned to the manor, but their antics had caught the attention of Mister Nobody, the Chief's nemesis, who had been searching for him for years. When Caulder returned, he bade them leave, but Cliff convinced the others to stay and protect the town. They made their way downtown where they spotted an albino donkey, and watched a giant vortex open up in the ground, devouring the entire town, and sucking in all its residents, including Jane and the Chief.

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Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Elasticity
  • Longevity
  • Regeneration: Rita is able to regrow her own limbs.
  • Size Alteration
  • Superhuman Durability
  • Superhuman Strength: Rita can lift 10 tons with one hand.

Abilities

• Acting: Rita was a talented actor before suffering the accident that made her superhuman.
• Cooking
• Medicine
• Pedagogy

Weaknesses

• Power Instability: If Rita loses control of her emotions, she has trouble maintaining her form, resulting in her body parts drooping and, more extremely, turning her into a blob.
  

Paraphernalia

Transportation

• Doom Bus

Notes

• This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of the television series Doom Patrol and is an adaptation of Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr). The original character was created by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani and first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80.
• Rita Farr is portrayed as an adult by April Bowlby and as a kid by Lana Jean Turner.
• Another version of Rita Farr, also portrayed by April Bowlby, had earlier appeared in the Titans episode "Doom Patrol".
• Though she has never taken the superhero name in the show, promotional marketing officially provided by DC Comics identified Rita as "Elasti-Woman".

Related

• 32 Appearances of Gertrude Cramp (Doom Patrol TV Series)
• 17 Images featuring Gertrude Cramp (Doom Patrol TV Series)
• 1 Quotations by or about Gertrude Cramp (Doom Patrol TV Series)
• Character Gallery: Gertrude Cramp (Doom Patrol TV Series)

External Links

• Rita Farr at the Doom Patrol Wiki

Footnotes

Doom Patrol member This character was at some point primarily a member of the Doom Patrol. A long-running team of rag-tag misfit heroes who work together for the common good, fighting evil against all odds. This template will categorize any article that includes it into the Doom Patrol members category.