Richard Blaine

Richard "Rick" Blaine is the lead character in the fictional film Casablanca. An American who cannot return to his country for reasons that are "rather vague", Rick runs the biggest cafe in Casablanca, mecca for European refugees during World War II. Employing African American Sam ("As Time Goes By") as piano player and singer, Russian Sasha as bartender, and a French speaker at the roulette table, Rick has a microcosm of the world under his roof.

A girl he knew and loved in Paris, Ilsa Lund, suddenly appears in Rick's cafe on the arm of resistance hero Victor Laszlo; Rick is bitter that she left him and caught between self-interest and loyalty towards Ilsa.