Category: top 100 characters
played by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird Grown men and women can’t help but feel like wide-eyed children in the presence of Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch. Stern, loving and more than able to teach the most important lessons...
played by Frances McDormand in Fargo Marge Gunderson may be the best bit of PR middle America has ever had. Underneath the good-natured folksiness that many mistake for naivete lies an unflinchingly frank understanding of the darkest side of humanity....
played by Sean Connery in Goldfinger In the midst of the Cold War, where every global decision seemed like life or death, one man had the bravery to look at it all and simply smirk. That man was James Bond,...
played by Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia Perhaps no man is an island, but T.E. Lawrence, as played by Peter O’Toole, is, at the very least, a nation unto himself. He aligns himself with whomever he pleases, both politically...
played by John Wayne in The Searchers It’s not easy watching John Wayne, that champion of nobility, spouting racial hatred and talking about killing his own niece. Perhaps that’s why director John Ford cast him in the role. Wayne’s stoic...
played by Peter Finch in Network “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” This line, delivered with righteous fury by Peter Finch, awakened the anger of a generation fresh off Watergate and Vietnam. Howard...
played by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown Jake Gittes runs a nice, tidy little detective business. He sniffs out cheaters and exposes them. But, when Jake’s business lands him in the middle of a high profile murder, he begins to hear...
played by Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark Years before John McClane would smarm his way through a hostage crisis, Indiana Jones was the original exasperated action hero. Whether running panicked from a boulder or shooting the guy...
played by Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver His Mohawk makes him a punk rock icon. His desire to clean up the streets makes him a precursor of Giuliani Republicans. His taunting himself in the mirror made him one of the...
played by Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski Jeffrey Lebowski, whose preferred name is “The Dude,” drifts through life, not feeling too passionately about anything in particular. He smokes weed, listens to Bob Dylan, and goes bowling. How would a...