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Tex Murphy is the main character of what's today known as the Tex Murphy series of adventure games (go figure). He wears a fedora and a trenchcoat, being the OC of fans of films like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and characters like Philip Marlowe. Despite the games all taking place in the future (2033+), Tex himself is considered "a man out of time" due to his desire to roleplay as a 1930s PI as a profession.
He has thus far always been played by Chris Jones, largely because Jones was the first to volunteer when Mean Streets was being developed, and as the series progressed to FMV, he did a really good job bringing the character to life.
This box art image is the only decent image of Tex from Mean Streets, so you will be seeing it a lot.
Vanessa is Tex Murphy's secretary, because he had one in Mean Streets. She doesn't exist after the end of the game, and we never learn her last name.
Lee Chin is Tex's informant and, like Vanessa, also doesn't exist after Mean Streets. However, this doesn't stop her from becoming rich by doing Tex's job for him at times.
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Carl Linsky is the focus of Tex's investigation in Mean Streets. Carl was a scientist and former professor at USC before he was witnessed jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge by notorious low-life scumbag, Bash Dagot. He is survived by his daughter, Sylvia Linsky, whom he declared his beneficiary to the tune of $1,000,000 in the event of his untimely death. Linsky also left behind a fiancée, Delores Lightbody, the most gorgeous and desirable dame in all of San Francisco, if not the world.
Sylvia Linsky is the woman who hired us to investigate the cause of Carl Linsky's supposed suicide. Miss Linsky herself is unconvinced that her father would have commited suicide, and believes that he was murdered, though she claims she knows nothing of why anyone would want Carl dead.
Sylvia was set to gain $1,000,000 in the event of her father's death.
Delores Lightbody was Carl's fiancée, though she appears to be recovering quickly from his untimely death. Delores admits to never getting along with Sylvia, Carl's daughter, but claims she loved Carl very much. Miss Lightbody stated that before Carl's death, he had been very stressed, and had taken leave from his job at USC to work on a top secret contract, the details of which he had refused to disclose to anyone.
Steve Clements was the officer in charge of investigating Carl Linsky's death, a case that he ruled your standard everyday suicide. Despite breaking officer code in a multitude of ways, Clements appears to be ever ready to assist the investigation, either because he suspects there might be more to Linsky's suicide himself, or knows that the fastest way to get rid of Tex is to just tell him what he wants to know.
Bash Dagot is described by Clements as a "low-life scumbag" and by Tex as "likely inbred". There isn't much else to say about him other than that we got to punch him a lot. Oh, and he witnessed Carl Linsky jump from the Golden Gate Bridge.
John Richards is the San Fransisco M.E. and only existed to tell us gross things about Carl Linsky's gross dead body.
J. Saint Gideon is a borderline gross dead body himself and was former head of British intelligence before being the former head of Gideon Enterprises. He really has it out for his successor, Frank Schimming.
Frank Schimming is the current head of Gideon Enterprises and prides himself on being a shrewd businessman. Mysteriously keeps MTC Corp running as a subsidiary of Gideon Enterprises despite his claim that it isn't necessary.
Sonny Fletcher is the rival P.I. Carl Linsky hired to investigate MTC Corp. Currently, he lives in a seedy apartment in L.A., which is like an expensive French villa in the eyes of detectives. He doesn't think much of our investigation, and insists that we stop for our own good. The only reasonable explanation for his warnings is that he wants our case for himself - well you're not getting it Fletcher!
Peter Dull is the vice-president of the TransAmerica Insurance company - Carl's insurance provider. He is as ruthless as he is cold and uninteresting. Single-handedly, he prevents Carl Linsky's daughter, Sylvia Linsky, from obtaining the 1,000,000 insurance dollars that Carl bequeathed to her in the event of his early demise. There may or may not be a murderer, but Mr. Dull is certainly a villain.
Wanda Peck is a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, but appears to do some freelance investigating for interested parties on the side. Recently, she had taken on a request from Larry Hammond to investigate MCT Corp, and was more than happy to pass on her findings to Tex. Also, it's a little difficult to tell which direction she's looking at, at times.
Smiley Jones is a Santa Barbara police detective and a lead investigator into the accidental poisoning case surrounding Cal Davis' death. Despite his sunny attitude, he's a pretty jaded individual and would rather swindle others out of their dollar than put in the work to make his own.
Aaron Sternwood was a close friend of the late Cal Davis, and currently spends most of his time smoking on the beaches of Santa Barbara. He told us Cal Davis' Nexus password (checkmate) and that Davis' pass card was stored in the ape cage at his lab.
Cal Davis was a former MCT employee like Carl Linsky, but died after ingesting cyanide while working in his lab. Davis studied the control of primates via microchip technology, which doesn't sound like it could be re-purposed in a malicious way whatsoever.
Ron Meat is one of San Francisco's mutant population, and spends a good portion of his time hanging around Coit Tower. He's a friend of Larry Hammond, and points us to him after a little forceful persuasion.
Larry Hammond is a computer specialist and former MCT employee. He developed the Nexus system of computers that all MCT scientists are provided with and put together the system controlling MCT's doomsday satellite. It's no doubt he's a genius, which isn't all too surprising since two heads are arguably better than one.
John Klaus is another former MCT employee currently in hiding. He gave us his green keycard, and we left him to mope in Nevada.