30 Greatest Fictional Characters
(TV & Movies division)
Nos.30- Through 16

Lately I'd been giving a lot of thought to what makes a great character. Especially in the visual medium, that combination of appearance and substance and character that resonates with someone or something we want to look like, be like, or be with, put up a poster of the character on our basement wall, and recite lines that character said.

In coming up with this list one thing to keep in mind that I only considered characters whose primary usage was in the visual medium. This lends itself to a gray area of course, mainly because many popular characters exist in very different areas in fiction. For example Ebenezer Scrooge is certainly a very well known character in both fiction and films, but his origin is in a novel and the novel is more famous than any of the film adaptations, so Scrooge is ineligible for the purposes of this exercise. That said, Bill Murray's character Frank Cross from "Scrooged" is eligible because it's a singular version of the character. Another example would be Batman, who is more well known because of and his origin comes from a comic book, but if I specified the treatment of said character in say, Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" then I could use Batman. Additionally, a character is eligible if he/she is more famous for the movie/TV program than his origin, like say, Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" who is certainly more famous because of Malcolm McDowell's performance in the classic Stanley Kubrick film than the Anthony Burgess novel that it is based on. Also, real people portrayed in films/tv are ineligible, so no Bonnie Parker, Elliot Ness, Richard Nixon, Jake LaMotta, etc. even if they were more famous for their movie role than real life, and yes, I'm looking at you Jake.

I think you see my point, so with that settled let's get to the list.

30. Indiana Jones (played by: Harrison Ford in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade") - If I had made this list prior to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, rumors of a 4th Indy movie, and the obvious declining cool of an aging, earring wearing, skeleton banging Harrison Ford, then Indy would have been much higher. That said, his influence cannot be denied. The professor/sex symbol/adventurer led most 10-year-old boys to at least consider a career in archeology.

29. Wooderson - (played by: Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed and Confused") - The man with the coolest car, and old enough to buy beer, Wooderson is at the same time a good friend, a hero, a chick magnet, and espouser of philosophy "just keep on livin' man."

28. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - (played by: Cassandra Peterson in literally hundreds of TV specials and movies including "Elvira - Mistress of the Dark" and "Elvira's Haunted Hills) - A very personal choice, Elvira not only helped me through some of my ahem·lonely teenage years, and by lonely, I mean before the Internet, but she also really contributed to my appreciation for old school monster movies, and cheesy horror flicks. Apparently Cassandra Paterson is hosting a reality TV show looking for a new Elvira that might be the first reality show I tune in for in about 10 years.

27. Rocky Balboa - (played by Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky, Rocky II, III, IV, and V") - Is Rocky an American hero because he conquered adversity, a speech impediment, Apollo Creed, and the Soviet Union? Yes, but more importantly, Rocky was a dummy, and we're dummies, and Rocky fights against things we're afraid of, in 1-3 it was blacks, 4 it's communism, and 5 it's youth. Rocky prevails and makes us think that we can too even though we're stupid, fat and lazy. Let's here it for America! (And yes, I intentionally spelled "hear" wrong there, that's me being clever.)

26. Jack Torrence - (played by Jack Nicholson in "The Shining") - Here we've got a literary character from Stephen King's novel of the same name, but it was Jack Nicholson who took the character to the next level, and put his face on a million college freshmen's T-shirts.

25. Mr. Pink - (played by Steve Buscemi in "Reservoir Dogs") - For most of us it was the first time we'd ever seen Buscemi, and he jumps off the screen, to use a clichˇ. In fact in an acting class sophomore year in college, me and Dan Hoag recreated the initial scene from Reservoir Dogs where Mr. Pink and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) bring gun shot wounded Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) back to the safe house, and have an all time great scene. I'm not sure we pulled it off, but that scene was a seminal moment for 90s independent film and for me as a movie viewer. The dialog was unlike anything I'd ever heard before, so sharp and creative, and the acting, for an independent, was truly great. Buscemi went on to many great things obviously, but he followed shortly by taking a cameo spot in Pulp Fiction as a Buddy Holly impersonator and various Adam Sandler flicks, just to prove he didn't take himself too seriously.

24. Reed Rothchild - (played by John C. Reilly in "Boogie Nights) - What do you bench? Best delivery of that line ever. I almost threw Scotty J (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) in here instead, but it's not quite as strong a character as Reed, and I just couldn't decide on any of the dozens of awesome PSH roles (the Dustman "Twister", Brandt "Lebowski", Allen "Happiness") but I couldn't decide on any, so I left him out, but felt it necessary to note him here.

23.Elaine Benes - (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus in "Seinfeld") - No one is cooler than Elaine, not only is she hot, promiscuous, funny, and possessed a bit of a drinking problem, but was also the only woman in the history of women to successfully be a platonic friend to a man after being in a relationship.

22. Lo Pan - (played by James Hong in "Big Trouble in Little China") - First of all he's like 3,000 years old or something, and can shoot powerful green laser things out of his mouth, that's certainly worthy of the top 25.

21. Trent Walker - (played by Vince Vaughn in "Swingers") - For like the first few years Swingers was out I probably saw it about 10 times, then got sick of it for a few years and didn't see it for awhile, then went back and saw it again a couple years ago, and remembered how awesome it was. No one is happier than me to see Vince Vaughn's career resurrected in these crazy comedies he's been in the past few years after his awkwardly unsuccessful attempt at dramatic acting, but his best work will always be in Swingers.

20. Cornelius - (played by Roddy McDowell in "Planet of the Apes", "Escape from the Planet of the Apes", "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes") - Roddy McDowell also played Galen in the under-rated Planet of the Apes TV Series, but that doesn't count since it's a different character. Anyway, Cornelius is the hero of the entire Planet of the Apes series, and the one he's not in, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" sucks. Cause of no Cornelius.

19. Max Fischer - (played by Jason Schwartzman in "Rushmore") - "Where you in the shit?" Works on so many levels.

18. Lloyd Dobler - (played by John Cusack in "Say Anything") - Cusack in the role he was born to play, and the role he has basically been playing in every movie since then ("Grosse Pointe Blank" - what if Lloyd grew up to be a hit man; "High Fidelity" - what if Llloyd grew up to run a record store?)

17. Amelie - (played by Audrey Tautou in "Amelie") - Who didn't fall in love with Amelie? I don't see any hands, do I?

16. Quint - (played by Robert Shaw in "Jaws") - There's a possibly apocryphal story that Steven Spielberg didn't want to have the classic scene where Quint tells his story about being on the Indianapolis, but needed to fill some production time with something because the shark wouldn't work. Wouldn't you know that even as a young man Spielberg was a talentless hack who basically lucked out in making a classic movie, because his shark didn't work, and one of the reasons why Jaws works so well is because you hardly ever see the damn shark. Maybe Spielberg's CGI 'puter will stop working and he'll actually make a good movie someday.

Take a look at #15 - #1