A typical greasy mob boss, Rupert Thorne had a run-in with Batman very early on in his career, but wasn't deterred from giving up his life of crime.
History
In the first episode, Rupert Thorne's criminal empire falls apart before supervillains like the Joker appear in Gotham. He also makes a cameo in the episode "A Matter of Family." In "Rumors," he was shown to be one of the captive victims of Rumor.
Thorne plays a larger role in The Batman Strikes!, a comic based in the continuity of the show. In one issue, he works with Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim to create an army of super-villains based on Bane, Man-Bat, and Firefly.