Premiere's 100 Greatest Movie Characters

[zero]

Okay... usually I try not to think too hard about these lazy lists people put together anymore, but fucking Darth Vader at 84?! Dr. Evil above Darth Vader?! Are you fucking kidding me?!

The Complete List

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

[GA!]

Captain Jack Sparrow is on the list. Fail!

[Matt]

Captain Jack Sparrow is on the list. Fail!

Captain Jack Sparrow is awesome... in the first film anyway. Or was it the second? Either way the third sucks.

The list however fails for having Willy Wonka so high.

[Skummy]

The one saving grace is the presence of Harry Powell. I was prepared to tear this to shreds if he wasn't up there.

[zero]

The list however fails for having Willy Wonka so high.

Blasphemy... Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka should be in the top ten.

And Jack Sparrow definitely deserves a spot on the list, he's probably the biggest original movie character in the last decade.

[NobBe Nobbs]

You know what's worse? Total FIlm's (I think) same list had Jack Sparrow at NUMBER ONE.

[GA!]

The list however fails for having Willy Wonka so high.

Blasphemy... Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka should be in the top ten.

And Jack Sparrow definitely deserves a spot on the list, he's probably the biggest original movie character in the last decade.

I agree the Willy Wonka statement, Gene Wilder is awesome in that role.

And while I agree that Jack Sparrow is the biggest original film character in the last decade, it reflects how weak cinema has been in the past several years. There have been many films from the 2000's I admire, but I can't really recall any film that will forever go down as a 'classic' due to its great narrative and (more importantly considering the topic) its characters. Well, minus the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which isn't my cup of tea to be honest.

[Sousa]

99. Kevin McCallister of Home Alone

Ahahahahahaha, whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

[Vendetta]

Captain Quint from Jaws is a great character..surprised he was so high though.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The list however fails for having Willy Wonka so high.

Blasphemy... Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka should be in the top ten.

And Jack Sparrow definitely deserves a spot on the list, he's probably the biggest original movie character in the last decade.

Agreed. About Wilder's Wonka anyway. He was just amazing.

Dunno who I'd have in my list - maybe Mifune's character from Seven Samurai or Willard and Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, or Bateman from American Psycho, or Tyler Durden from Fight Club, or Roy Scheider's in Jaws, or Jack Torrance in The Shining...

[Thatz]

EWB needs a favorite film character list. Anyone want to volunteer to run it?

[Lint]

Verbal Kint being at 100 is wrong. Surprised he's on the list, but I think he should be higher

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'm a little surprised to see Alex from A Clockwork Orange as low as '68. Not the most mainstream movie I guess...

[Walker]

Sam Spade at 80 just makes me happy for being in the list. The lack of Walter Neff from Double Indemnity cancels that out though.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Outside of Vito and Bates, I wouldn't agree with any of that top ten, but that's down to my taste I guess. I'd certainly have Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates at number one.

And no Jack Dawson

[GoGo Yubari]

The one saving grace is the presence of Harry Powell. I was prepared to tear this to shreds if he wasn't up there.

I also want to give props to the presence of Hans Beckert. That was an amazing performance by Peter Lorre and a really groundbreaking character in film.

[MalaCloudy Black]

What the fuck? Gollum at ELEVEN?

[Slogger]

John McClane at #46?

MOTHERFUCKING BLASPHEMY!

[Jimmy]

Glad to see Atticus Finch and Randle McMurphey getting good showings, I really dug both of those characters and were instantly memorable. All in all, I don't think the list's that bad at all other than the odd piece of misplaced shit it seems pretty fair.

[TMM]

I'm confused...if Gollum is in there (and I think he probably should be, just not so bleedin' high) where is Aragorn or Harry Potter? Or Luke Skywalker? Or motherfucking HAN SOLO!?!

Edited November 29, 2008 by TMM