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The 100 Greatest Movie Characters: 100-81

May 10, 2010 at 11:00 am
Maggie Van Ostrand
1

As a longtime student of film, this list of 100 Greatest Movie Characters is based solely on my visceral reaction plus their unforgettability. Did they seriously scare me? Make me laugh? Cry? Did they become part of the American culture? Are they even more badass than, say, Jack Bauer? Are they so lethal, funny, poignant, psycho, that I couldn’t forget them if I tried?

I limited my choices to American films, allowed more than one character from a single film, and stayed away from franchises as much as possible. It wasn’t difficult to come up with 100, but it was incredibly difficult assigning numbers; many deserve top 10 but hey, that’s not the way lists work.

100. Song Liling

songliling

M Butterfly, 1993, David Cronenberg

Married French diplomat René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) in China falls in love with a beautiful Opera singer, Song Liling (John Lone) who spies on him for the Chinese government. The affair lasts 20 years, with Gallimard never realizing she is a man.

Memorable Moment: When exposed at last, Song says, “Only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.”

99. Det. Graham Waters

grahamwaters

Crash, 2004, Paul Haggis

A serious auto crash flashes back to the lives of those involved.

Memorable Moment: Waters (Don Cheadle) returns to where his dead brother was found and finds the statue of St. Christopher.

98. Noah Cross

noahcross

Chinatown, 1974, Roman Polanski

Wealthy landowner Noah Cross (John Huston) seduces and has a baby with his own daughter, then wants to seduce his granddaughter too.

Memorable Moment: After his daughter is killed, Cross grabs their child and you know he’ll have her. “I’m your grandfather, my dear.”

97. Zhora

zhora

Blade Runner, 1982, Ridley Scott

Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), a replicant with super human endurance, targeted for assassination by Deckard (Harrison Ford).

Memorable Moment: Zhora, in black bikini and clear coat, bursts out of a door through plate glass trying to evade him. He shoots her several times before she dies in a shower of glass.

96. George Hanson

georgehanson

Easy Rider, 1969, Dennis Hopper

Counterculture bikers Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) travel cross country and meet Hanson (Jack Nicholson) who joins them.

Memorable Moment: Camping, Wyatt, and Billy introduce George to marijuana.

95. Preacher Harry Powell

harrypowell

The Night of the Hunter, 1955, Charles Laughton

Children flee from rabid preacher Powell (Robert Mitchum), who killed their mother to find hidden money.

Memorable Moment: Powell’s tattooed knuckles: LOVE and HATE. “Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left hand?”

94. C.C. Baxter

ccbaxter

The Apartment, 1960, Billy Wilder

Happy-go-lucky insurance clerk, C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Jack Lemmon), hoping to advance in the company, lends his apartment key to execs for romantic interludes with their girlfriends.

Memorable Moment: Baxter in his apartment cooking spaghetti, using his tennis racket as a strainer.

93. Capt. Virgil Hilts “The Cooler King”

virgilhilts

The Great Escape, 1963, John Sturges

A daring escape is planned by 600 Allied POWs in a German camp during WWII.

Memorable Moment: With Nazis chasing him, Hilts (Steve McQueen) jumps his motorcycle over a 60-foot high wire fence. Real-life biker McQueen also rode as one of the Nazis so he was, in effect, chasing himself.

92. Emiliano Zapata

emilianozapata

Viva Zapata!, 1952, Elia Kazan

Zapata (Marlon Brando), a Mexican farmer seeking justice from a corrupt government, leads a rebellion against oppression.

Memorable Moment: Zapata has been betrayed and shot to ribbons by federal soldiers, his body tenderly washed by the women of the village.

91. Felix Unger

felixunger

The Odd Couple, 1968, Gene Saks

Felix (Jack Lemmon), a finicky man dumped by his wife, moves in with divorced buddy Oscar (Walter Matthau), a slob.

Memorable Moment: Felix’s sinus attack in a restaurant.

90. J.J. Hunsecker and Sidney Falco

hunseckerfalco

Sweet Smell of Success, 1957, Alexander Mackendrick

Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), an all-powerful Broadway gossip columnist, intimidates a fawning press agent, Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) by constantly humiliating him.

Memorable Moment: Hunsecker holds a cigarette and says “Match me, Sidney.”

89. Howard Beale

howardbeale

Network, 1976, Sidney Lumet

Behind-the-scenes network TV news commentator, disillusioned Beale (Peter Finch).

Memorable Moment: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!!!!!”

88. Roger Thornhill

rogerthornhill

North by Northwest, 1959, Alfred Hitchcock

Ad man Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a spy by enemy agents, culminating in a hair-raising chase across Mt. Rushmore.

Memorable Moment: Thornhill on steep rocks reaches down and grabs the wrist of falling Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) pulling her to safety, segueing into pulling her into the upper berth on a honeymoon train.

87. Howard

howard

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948, John Huston

A pair of losers hooks up with a grizzled old man, Howard (Walter Huston), who needs partners for a gold prospecting venture in Mexico.

Memorable Moment: Howard guffaws and does an energetic jig, dancing and kicking up his heels laughing at them. “You’re so dumb there’s nothin’ to compare you with … you don’t even see the very riches you’re treadin’ on with your own feet!”

86. Chuck Tatum

chucktatum

Ace in the Hole, 1951, Billy Wilder

Tatum (Kirk Douglas), an amoral reporter in New Mexico, manipulates a small story into a big one by delaying the rescue of a man trapped in a cave. The man dies with the rescue drill “just ten feet away.”

Memorable Moment: Remorseful for what he did, Tatum lets another reporter scoop the story.

85. Joel Goodsen

joelgoodsen

Risky Business, 1983, Paul Brickman

With his wealthy parents away, Joel (Tom Cruise) lets loose from his structured life.

Memorable Moment: Sliding, dancing to an air guitar, and shaking his booty to “Old Time Rock and Roll.”

84. Mr. Potter

mrpotter

It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946, Frank Capra

Without chortling antagonist Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), there’d be no Bedford Falls-cum-Potterville.

Memorable Moment: Greedy banker Potter’s fiendishly gleeful grin as he cheats George’s absent-minded uncle into thinking he lost an $8,000 bank deposit.

83. Mr. Blonde

mrblonde

Reservoir Dogs, 1992, Quentin Tarantino

Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), ex-con and psycho member of a gang of thieves, opens his car trunk revealing a cop who begs to be let go.

Memorable Moment: Blonde admits he loves torture, dances, then slices off the cop’s ear and douses him in gasoline.

82. Tony Manero

tonymanero

Saturday Night Fever, 1977, John Badham

Teenager Tony (John Travolta) has a dull life working in a paint store, but relieves boredom by being the best dancer in Brooklyn.

Memorable Moment: Tony Manero’s epic walk and epic dancing.

81. Chief Bromden

chiefbromden

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975, Miloš Forman

Chief (Will Sampson), a 6’5″ schizophrenic asylum inmate, learns his only friend there (Jack Nicholson) has been given a lobotomy.

Memorable Moment: Chief realizes there’s only one way his friend, now a vegetable, will be able to escape this terrible place: death. So he suffocates him with a pillow, rips a sink out of the wall and hurls it through a window, escaping alone.

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About the Author
Maggie Van Ostrand is ashamed to not be a geek, but she’s proud to have once attended a Star Trek convention where Bill Shatner spoke to her. He said “Hi. Are you anybody?” Maggie graduated from college so long ago, she can’t remember the name of it but thinks it was somewhere in New York. She majored in stuff that has nothing to do with anything she does today, except the classes she audited at the AFI. She knows little or nothing about comic book characters unless they’re drawn by Robert Crumb. She knows nothing of gaming outside of Vegas, and still thinks Moonlight was way better than True Blood. She is here because she reminds the publisher of his grandmother and he felt sorry for her. Her favorites are anything by Billy Wilder, Godfather I and II, Lawrence of Arabia, & Young Frankenstein. She writes political satire for Huffington Post, was head writer for movie trivia TV show; writes a column about Old West characters; was TV comedy ghostwriter; humor columnist for newspapers and online publications, and other boring stuff. Twitter: @magpie99 Website: www.maggievanostrand.com
One Comment
  1. Matt May 10, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    All interesting choices, but JJ Hunsecker and Sidney Falco were unexpected and good to see on the list. That was a great movie.

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