Bank Teller
A bank employee whose job it is to receive deposits from customers, and to facilitate withdrawals. Generally, they are found behind a counter, often with some sort of fence or window to help protect them from direct assault, and often wearing the same translucent green cap that accountants and card sharks wear. For many bank customers, this is the only employee they will see on a regular basis.
In the Situation Comedy, the Bank Teller is generally an Obstructive Bureaucrat, who makes the simplest transaction into an exercise in negotiation, resulting in long lines. Often punctuated by closing the window just as the protagonist finally gets to the front of the line.
In more dramatic fiction, such as The Western, the bank teller's primary function is appearing in a Bank Robbery plotline. They will be threatened by the robbers, sometimes killed, and may be taken hostage. (Especially if young, female and at least moderately attractive.)
More rarely, but especially in the mystery genre, a bank teller may commit or be accused of committing embezzlement.
In the 21st Century, the use of automatic teller machines, credit cards and Internet banking have made the bank teller less visible, but no less important to a bank's image.
Film
- Mike Donovan in the 1954 film Loophole.
- Debbie Wylder (played by Olivia Newton-John) in the box office bomb Two of a Kind.
- Dog Day Afternoon. The tellers are significant characters with personalities.
- The Sting. In a brief scene, one of the grifters is working as a bank teller before he joins the scam.
- The Silent Partner. A teller takes advantage of his bank being robbed to steal some money himself, knowing the robber will be blamed for it. The robber doesn't appreciate this and comes after him.
- Seducing Dr. Lewis has Henri, the manager and bank teller from the tiny little town of Sainte-Marie-la-Mauderne, who's constantly being threatened to be replaced by an ATM.
- In Woody Allen's Take the Money And Run, Woody's character is robbing a bank. He hands the teller a note demanding money. The teller has trouble reading his hand writing and starts asking the other tellers what the words are.
Literature
- Charles Ewell in the Jack Finney short story Of Missing Persons.
Live Action Television
- The Twilight Zone TOS episode "Time Enough at Last". A bank teller is the sole survivor of a nuclear attack.
- In an episode of Medium, a somewhat frumpy bank teller who is courted by a bank robber in order to get inside info on her bank, figures out the scam, turns the tables on the gang and steals their cash.