Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time
Published April 21, 2004
Premiere Magazine has released a list of what its editors think are the hundred greatest movie characters of all time. I hope this will stimulate conversation akin to that generated by Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarist list. I may chime in with comments later, but for now, here's the list:
The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time
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
- Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time
- Published: April 21, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: News, Video: Classics
- Writer: Taloran
- Taloran's BC Writer page
- Taloran's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
What a great list. I can see that I'll have some viewing to do over the summer to evaluate the top 25 or so.
But why did Yoda not make it?
Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest."
Billy Bob Thornton as the "Sling Blade" guy. Mmm hmmm.
Marty Feldman as Eyegore in "Young Frankenstein." What hump?
Where's Sla...I mean, where's W.C. Fields? Harold Bissonette in "It's a Gift." I'll be sober tomorrow, but you'll be stupid for the rest of your life.
Hey Tal, great to see you back, what have you been up to?
Great list, hard to argue with most of them and not too "critic-y" either: Ace Ventura!
I would include Andy Griffith's astounding character Lonesome Rhodes in A Face In the Crowd.
Wolfman Jack's radio DJ character in American Graffiti.
Tom Hanks' Woody and Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Stories
And Good God! how could they leave off Ferris Bueller??
Throwing a cat in among the pigeons here (as is my life's destiny), shouldn't characters created in other media have been excluded (Corleone, Lecter) unless substantially changed from their original conception (Dorothy Gale, Gump)?
Where's Ferris Bueller?!
Holly Golightly never struck me as any kind of interesting character really at all. Audrey Hepburn is cute and all, but a big nothing really.
If I were picking an interesting character from Breakfast at Tiffany's, it would definitely be Buddy Ebsen as Doc, the ex-husband. His speech in the park to Hannibal recounting his child bride was way the best scene in the film.
SOME REALLY OBVIOUS ONES THEY MISSED...
(how could they leave these off!?)
Luke - Cool Hand Luke
Pollyanna - Pollyanna
Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon) - Glengarry Glen Ross
Godzilla - Godzilla, et al
Mike Campbell (Errol Flynn) - The Sun Also Rises
Harry Stoner (J. Lemmon) - Save the Tiger
Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) - Barton Fink
Edwina 'Ed' McDonnough (Holly Hunter) - Raising Arizona
Death - The Seventh Seal
Zampano (A. Quinn) - La Strada
T. E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia !!!!!!!
Little Tramp - Gold Rush/City Lights !!!!!!!
the feather - Forrest Gump (also the most interesting character in that film)
Hhhhello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
And how 'bout Joe Morgan's The Brother in Brother from Another Planet? Probably the greatest silent character from the history of film with sound.
Charles bronsons as Harmonica in one upon a time in the west should have been on the list!!
How can it be limited to 100!? This is another exercise in making us all crazy! And yeah - Inigo Montoya was a great character, I agree!
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/14944)
"This is my BOOMSTICK" Ash of Evil Dead 3: Army Of Darkness should really be in there somewhere...