In March 2008 Premiere magazine published a list of the 100 greatest movie characters. This is very much a commercial Hollywood list with no representation of foreign films. There’s certainly some strange choices with Jeff Spicoli, portrayed by Sean Penn, the perpetually stoned surfer from Fast Times at Ridgemont High making the top 10!
1. Vito Corleone of The Godfather
2. Fred C. Dobbs of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
3. Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With the Wind
4. Norman Bates of Psycho
5. James Bond of Dr. No
6. Annie Hall of Annie Hall
7. Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Ellen Ripley of Alien
9. Jeff Spicoli of Fast Times at Ridgemont High
10. Gollum of Lord of the Rings
11. Margo Channing of All About Eve
12. Charles Foster Kane of Citizen Kane
13. Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird
14. Randle McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
15. Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs
16. Robin Hood of The Adventures of Robin Hood
17. Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz
18. Carl Spackler of Caddyshack
19. Rick Blaine of Casablanca
20. Virgil Tibbs of In the Heat of the Night
21. Susan Vance of Bringing up Baby
22. Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver
23. Eathan Edwards of The Searchers
24. The Little Tramp of Mabel’s Strange Predicament
25. Gordon Gekko of Wall Street
26. E.T. of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
27. Marge Gunderson of Fargo
28. Captain Quint of Jaws
29. Daphne/Jerry of Some Like it Hot
30. King Kong of King Kong
31. Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard
32. Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany’s
33. Ratso Rizzo of Midnight Cowboy
34. Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde
35. Dr. Evil of Austin Powers
36. Alex Forrest of Fatal Attraction
37. Jake Gittes of Chinatown
38. Willy Wonka of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
39. Michael Dorsey/Dorthy Michaels of Tootsie
40. The Terminator of The Terminator
41. Jane Craig of Broadcast News
42. “Dirty” Harry Callahan of Dirty Harry
43. Forrest Gump of Forrest Gump
44. Jules Winnfield of Pulp Fiction
45. Mary Poppins of Mary Poppins
46. John McClane of Die Hard
47. Mrs. Robinson of The Graduate
48. John “Bluto” Blutarsky of Animal House
49. Chance the Gardener of Being There
50. Blondie of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
51. Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street
52. Howard Beale of Network
53. Ninotchka of Ninotchka
54. Frank Booth of Blue Velvet
55. The Dude of The Big Lebowski
56. Alan Swann of My Favorite Year
57. Tom Powers of The Public Enemy
58. Phyliss Dietrichson of Double Indemnity
59. Lt. Kilgore of Apocalypse Now
60. George Bailey of It’s a Wonderful Life
61. J.J. Hunsecker of Sweet Smell of Success
62. John Shaft of Shaft
63. Carrie White of Carrie
64. Rocky Balboa of Rocky
65. Edward Scissorhands of Edward Scissorhands
66. Navin Johnson of The Jerk
67. Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther
68. Alex DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange
69. Terry Malloy of On the Waterfront
70. Judy Benjamin of Private Benjamin
71. Rev. Harry Powell of The Night of the Hunter
72. Lloyd Dobler of Say Anything
73. Norma Rae of Norma Rae
74. Tony Montana of Scarface
75. Dr. Strangelove of Dr. Strangelove
76. Tony Manero of Saturday Night Fever
77. Annie Wilkes of Misery
78. “Mad” Max Rockatansky of Mad Max
79. Hans Beckert of M
80. Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon
81. Aurora Greenway of Terms of Endearment
82. Jack Torrance of The Shining
83. William Cutting of Gangs of New York
84. Darth Vader of Star Wars
85. Stanley Kowalski of A Streetcar Named Desire
86. Melanie Daniels of The Birds
87. Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
88. Raymond Babbitt of Rain Man
89. Sandy Olsson of Grease
90. John Malkovich of Being John Malkovich
91. Mrs. Iselin of The Manchurian Candidate
92. Dil of The Crying Game
93. Harry Lime of The Third Man
94. Rose Sayer of The African Queen
95. Oda Mae Brown of Ghost
96. Tommy DeVito of GoodFellas
97. Ace Ventura of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
98. Antoine Doinel of The 400 Blows
99. Kevin McCallister of Home Alone
100. Roger “Verbal” Kint of The Usual Suspects
See Also –
- Premiere’s 100 Greatest Performances of All-Time (2006)
- The 100 Greatest Movie Characters (2015)
- The Pendragon Society’s 100 Greatest Film Acting Performances of All-Time (2019)
- AFI’s 100 years…100 heroes and villains (2003)
- 50 Greatest Superhero Movie Performances of All Time (2017)
- TotalFilm’s 150 Greatest Film Performances (2009)
- Total Film’s 50 greatest movie heroes and baddies of all time (2007)