YOUR greatest movie characters list

Ok, so heheh, the Empire magazine top 100 list has not made our members exactly happy, sooooo, I thought, as everybody seems to have an opinion (which is good as always), let´s make a list of our own? Shall we? Let´s say...mmm, 20 picks, ok? But if you want more, let´s go for it. And just as Empire´s list, make the list as subjective as you want, cause objectivity never works, so keep in mind that it´s all personal taste here. I think later on we can make a Top 100 list out of the results, much like the one about albums... if anybody want´s to help that would be great

Ok, so, keep in mind, subjectivity, please rank them and but whatever you feel like...   

Toshiro Mifune in any Kurosawa film 

Edited by Swan Song - January 11 2009 at 10:23

Here I go:

1. Henry Spencer - from Eraserhead, played by Jack Nance
2. Aguirre - from Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes, played by Klaus Kinski
3. Andrei Rublev - from Andrei Rublev, played by Anatoli Solonitsyn
4. Carole Ledoux - from Repulsion, played by Catherine Deneuve
5. Antoine Doinel - from Les Quatre cents coups and several other films by Truffaut, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud
6. Cosmo Vitelli - from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, played by Ben Gazzara
7. Le père Jules - from L'Atalante, played by Michel Simon
8. Alex - from Boy Meets Girl, played by Denis Lavant
9. Ville Alfa - from Valehtelija, played by Aki Kaurismäki
10. The samurai - from Sanjuro and Yojimbo, played by Toshirô Mifune
11. Sergeant Howie - from Wicker Man, played by Edward Woodward
12. Rick Deckard - from Blade Runner, played by Harrison Ford
13. Jim Stark - from Rebel Without a Cause, played by James Dean
14. Holly Golightly - from Breakfast at Tiffany's, played by Audrey Hepburn
15. Gustav von Aschenback - from Morte a Venezia, played by Dirk Bogarde
16. Jake La Motta - from Raging Bull, played by Robert De Niro
17. Bruno Stroszek - from Stroszek, played by Bruno S.
18. Grace - from Dogville, played by Nicole Kidman
19. William Foster - from Falling Down, played by Michael Douglas
20. Jack Torrance - from The Shining, played by Jack Nicholson



Edited by Vompatti - January 11 2009 at 13:44

^ Who would've seen that one coming?

Mine, in no particular order (includes TV series characters):

Homer Simpson
The Dude from The Big Lebowski
George Baby Face Nelson from Brother Where Art Thou
John Goodman's character from the very same movie
The obligatory Toshiro Mifune Samurai
The ultra-badass silent samurai from The Seven Samurai
John Turturro's character from Anger Management
The Donkey from Shrek (but only for a few select scenes, like when he thinks Shrek is seriously wounded)
The Bundies
Reverend Lovejoy from The Simpsons
half of Friends (Chandler, Phoebe and Joey)
Mr Fawlty from Fawlty Towers
and a host of characters from Polish sitcoms, the watching of which will make your brain melt

Yeah, apart from Kurosawa I don't watch ambitious cinema.


Edited by Visitor13 - January 11 2009 at 12:52

There are many I could name, but here's ten from me:

Red (Morgan Freeman)- The Shawshank Redemption
Mrs. Munson (Irma B. Hayes) - The Lady Killers
The Joker (Heath Ledger) - The Dark Knight
Rochester (Alan Cummings) - Plunkett & Maclene
Fletcher Reed (Jim Carrey) - Liar Liar
Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) - Varsity Blues
Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) - The Patriot
William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) - The Patriot
Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) - The Green Mile
Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) - The Lord of the Rings

quite the task to come up with something definitive but here's some off the top my head

(Selma-Bjork) - Dancer in the Dark
(Frank Booth-Dennis Hopper) - Blue Velvet
(MacReady-Kurt Russel) - The Thing
(Roy Batty-Rutgur Hauer) - Blade Runner
(Lawrence-Peter O Toole) - Lawrence of Arabia
(Pazuzu-Linda Blair) - The Exorcist
(Bato) - Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence
(Hedwig-John Cameron Mitchell) - Hedwig and The Angry Inch
(horny 14 year old girl) A Real Young Girl
(Dr Robert Morgan-Vincent Price) - The Last Man on Earth
(Hitler-Bruno Ganz) - Der Untergang
(Hombré-Helmut Doring) Even Dwarves Started Small
(Baron Harkonen-Kenneth Mcmillan) - Dune

Leningrad wrote: Visitor13 wrote: Yeah, apart from Kurosawa I don't watch ambitious cinema.   Well, if we're nominating from Kurosawa now, my choice is Kanji Watanabe from Ikiru. That being said, most of Seven Samurai is hard to beat as well.

how about Toshiro Mifune asTajomaro in "Rashomon"? my favorite movie, by the way

other great characters:
Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert in Fritz Lang's "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder"
Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in "Julius Caesar"
Donald Sutherland as John Baxter in "Don't Look Now!"
Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet in "Rosemary's Baby"
Jim van der Woude as the pointsman in Jos Stelling's "De Wisselwachter" ("The Pointsman")
Renée Soutendijk as Chrsitine Halssl*g in "De vierde Man" ("The Fourth Man") by Paul Verhoven



Edited by BaldJean - January 13 2009 at 04:08

I like how a thread was started because Empire's list was so insane yet people are posting just as many recent pop culture characters as they are emblematic cinematic icons.

In addition to some of the more salient choices, I add:

Harry Lime- Orson Welles (The Third Man)
Charles Chaplin- Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin)- best acting performance of the 90s, IMO
Dr Mabuse- Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse)
Frank- Henry Fonda (Once Upon a Time in the West)
Man With no Name- Clint Eastwood (Dollars Trilogy)

1. Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) - Evil Dead, Evil Dead II
2. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) - American Psycho
3. Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) - Life of Brian
4. Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) - A Clockwork Orange
5. Kim Jong-il (Trey Parker) - Team America: World Police
6. Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) - La Vie en Rose
7. Spongebob Squarepants (Tom Kenny) - The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
8. Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) - Blue Velvet
9. Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) - There Will Be Blood
10. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) - Amelie
11. Creedence Leonore Gielgud (Deborah Reed) - Troll 2
12. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) - Forrest Gump
13. Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) - There Will Be Blood
14. Dory (Ellen DeGeneres)  - Finding Nemo
15. Main Knight Who Says “Ni” (Michael Palin) - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
16 & 17. Timon and Pumbaa (Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella) - The Lion King
18. The Man in the Planet (Jack Fisk) - Eraserhead
19. Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) - Chicago
20. Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) – The Producers

In no particular order, just some favorites of mine

Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) - Mystery Men
John Malkovich (John Malkovich) - Being John Malkovich
One (Ron Perlman) - The City of Lost Children
Sam Lowry (Jonathan Price) - Brazil
Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) - 12 Monkeys
Karl Childers (Billy Bob Thornton) - Sling Blade
Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) - Ed Wood
The beautiful girl who dismembers people with razor wire in Audition
Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) - Monster
Ernesto Guevera (Gael Garcia Bernal) - Motorcycle Diaries
Derrick Smalls (Harry Shearer) - This is Spinal Tap
Begbie (Robert Carlyle) - Trainspotting
Bricktop (Alan Ford) - Snatch
The Captain (Jurgen Prochnow) - Das Boot
Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) - American Psycho
Seagent Hartman (Lee Emery) - Full Metal Jacket
Robin Hood (John Cleese) - Time Bandits
Khan (Ricardo Mantalban) - Star Trek 2
Angel (Antonio Banderas) - Matador
The Brother (Joe Morton) - The Brother From Another Planet