| Caledon Hockley | |
 | |
| Born | 1882 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Died | 1929 Committed suicide |
| Spouse | Unnamed wife (married) |
| Partner | Rose DeWitt Bukater (ex-fiancée) |
| Parents | Nathan Hockley (father) |
Caledon (Cal) Hockley is a fictional character from the 1997 motion picture film Titanic. He is played by Billy Zane.
Caledon Hockley is the son of a millionare and boards the Titanic with his fiancee, Rose DeWitt Bukater, to go to New York and claim his fortune from his father.
Life on Titanic[]
The son of Pittsburgh steel tycoon, Nathan Hockley, in 1912, Caledon Hockley is on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic from Southampton, England, to New York City in order to marry his 17-year-old fiancée, Rose DeWitt Bukater. Rose does not want the marriage and despises Hockley, but the man either is oblivious to this or chooses to ignore it. In order to seal his relationship with Rose, he purchases a rare diamond once owned by King Louis XVI called the "Heart of the Ocean" and presents it to her. Caledon is not aware that Rose is driven to consider suicide during the voyage and that she is saved only by the intervention of a poor young man, Jack Dawson, with whom she falls in love. Hockley, initially unaware of this, invites Jack to dine with him as thanks for saving Rose's life (as far as he is concerned, she had accidentally fallen off the rail and was rescued by Jack). Hockley's bodyguard, a former Pinkerton's detective named Spicer Lovejoy, is the only one who doubts Rose and Jack's story because of some rudimentary deduction (he questions how Jack was able to remove his shoes so quickly). Eventually, Caledon realizes that Rose's affections lay with Jack and, even as the Titanic is starting to sink after having struck an iceberg, contrived with Lovejoy to have Jack arrested and locked deep belowdecks. (Jack is left to drown as the ship's brig starts to flood, and is later rescued by Rose.) Later, Caledon and Jack reluctantly join forces in order to get Rose to leave the sinking ship, but she defies both of them and jumps back on board. Caledon escapes the disaster unharmed, sneaking aboard a lifeboat while pretending to take care of a young child, but Lovejoy perishes when the Titanic splits in two. Although Hockley tries to find Rose afterwards, he is unsuccessful and believes that she died in the sinking. (In reality, he passes within a few feet of her, but Rose chooses not to reveal her presence). Later, Hockley marries someone else and inherits his family's millions, but he never gets over Rose's supposed death. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 ruins him even further, and he commits suicide by shooting himself in the mouth, or so Rose hears.