Pública y la vida privada Chuck

Chuck is the son of the late Bart Bass and his wife, Evelyn, who died in childbirth. In Season One, Bart married socialite Lily van der Woodsen (who has two children, Serena and Eric), but he died in Season Two, prompting his smarmy brother Jack to try to steal the family fortune from a grieving Chuck. Nonetheless, Chuck became the C.E.O. of Bass Industries after his father passed away.TKTKTKTKTKTK

The Bass dynasty's roots date back to Sid Williams Richardson, a self-made Texas oilman and rancher who was born in 1891. Richardson was a lifelong bachelor whose closest relative was his only nephew, Perry Bass. When Richardson died in 1959, Perry received stakes in Richardson's companies, and each of Perry's four sons (Sid, Edward, Richard, and Lee) inherited $2.8 million. In 1960, the sons pooled their assets, forming Bass Brothers Enterprises. The eldest, Sid, eventually took control of the family fortune. Sid and Robert parted ways soon after. Today Robert is a financier in Fort Worth, Texas, while Sid, who was drawn to New York society more than his brother, splits his time between the Upper East Side and the Lone Star State. This year, Robert is ranked No. 110 on the Forbes 400 list, with an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion. Sid and Lee (who is widely considered to be Sid's understudy) are ranked No. 334, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, while Edward is No. 468, at $1.5 billion.TKTKTKTKTKTK

Persona

In the first two seasons, Chuck was portrayed as a bad-boy Casanova. This season, he's started to drop his slick exterior, revealing a softer side.

A 1988 New York Times article quotes one Bass business associate saying, "There's not an ounce of sleaze in these guys."

Education

Chuck didn't go to college, but his girlfriend, Blair Waldorf, was obsessed with attending Yale (she didn't get in). Now Blair is a student at N.Y.U.

All of the Bass brothers went to Yale.

Business Dealings

Chuck's father owned the New York Palace Hotel, and this season, Chuck purchased the Empire Hotel by cashing out his share in Bass Industries. He was spurred to buy the hotel when he couldn't close a deal to open a nightclub. (In the Gossip Girl book series, Chuck lives at the Plaza hotel.)

The Bass brothers are known for making major investments in publicly traded and private companies, with a portfolio comprising oil, tech, biotech, media, and real-estate investments. Traditionally, they've looked to take stakes in undervalued companies or assets. With the Japanese company Aoki Corporation, the Robert M. Bass Group purchased Westin Hotels and Resorts for $1.53 billion, in 1988. The deal gave the Bass Group ownership of Manhattan's storied Plaza hotel, which it sold to Donald Trump for $410 million that same year. (In 1994, Aoki sold Westin to Starwood Capital and Goldman Sachs; in 1998, Starwood assumed ownership of the company.)

Public and Private Lives

Chuck is constantly working to get the Empire Hotel in the gossip pages, employing such attention-getting tactics as opening a speakeasy at the hotel and hosting a party in the penthouse for Trip Vanderbilt when he was running for Congress. Meanwhile, his father's wedding to Lily van der Woodsen was the social event of the year.

The Basses don't really speak to the media, and they discourage business associates from talking to reporters, too. But a public scandal did erupt when Sid Bass, who was married to Anne Bass, wooed the then-married Mercedes Kellogg, in 1986. Sid and Mercedes both left their spouses and later married at the Plaza hotel, in 1998.

The Second Wives' Club

Lily, Bart's second wife, is a prominent New York City socialite and philanthropist. She's always been in love with Rufus Humphrey, a musician with whom she had an affair during her engagement to Bart.

...