The American Film Institute in Los Angeles conducted their sixth polling, 100 Heroes and Villains. AFI again celebrated American cinema, and revealed America’s 100 greatest good and bad guys/gals (50 of each), either fact-based or fantastically-fictional, as chosen by voters - a jury of 1,500 directors, actors, screenwriters, critics, historians and others.

[Compare to the list of The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) that had previously polled their own membership of Internet-based cinema journalists for the top 100 greatest screen villains of all time.] The list of 400 nominated films was made available before the final voting. The AFI left the judgment calls to jurors about the categorization of virtuous heroes and wicked villains, advising them only to not vote for a character as both.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films

Facts About the 400 Nominees for Greatest Heroes and Villains:

• The ballot featured 400 nominees -- alphabetical from Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey in Swimming with Sharks (1994)) to Zorro (Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro (1940)), with 398 others.
  
  
• 19 of the nominated candidates were team entries --
  • Nick & Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934)
  • Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
  • Dr. Einstein & Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
  • Phillip Morgan & Brandon Shaw in Rope (1948)
  • Noah Cullen & John "Joker" Jackson in The Defiant Ones (1958)
  • Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
  • Perry Smith & Dick Hickock in In Cold Blood (1967)
  • Minnie & Roman Castavet in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
  • Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  • Wyatt ("Captain America") & Billy in Easy Rider (1969)
  • Kit and Holly in Badlands (1973)
  • Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men (1976)
  • Martin Riggs & Roger Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon (1987)
  • Harry Lime & Marv Merchants in Home Alone (1990)
  • Thelma Dickinson & Louise Sawyer in Thelma & Louise (1991)
  • Vincent Vega & Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction (1994)
  • Annie Porter & Jack Traven in Speed (1994)
  • Carl Showalter & Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo (1996)
  • Agent J & Agent K in Men in Black (1997)
    
    
• Some of the candidates were nominated en masse --
  • the Three Musketeers in The Three Musketeers (1948)
  • the "Magnificent Seven" in The Magnificent Seven (1960)
  • the "Dirty Dozen" in The Dirty Dozen (1967)
  • the Zombies in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  • the "Wild Bunch" in The Wild Bunch (1969)
    
    
• The most represented male actor on the ballot was John "Duke" Wayne with seven characters, including:
  • The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach (1939)
  • Sgt. John M. Stryker in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
  • Captain Nathan Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
  • Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956)
  • Davy Crockett in The Alamo (1960)
  • Tom Doniphon in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
  • "Rooster" Cogburn in True Grit (1969)
    
    
• Harrison Ford, Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda each portrayed six different nominated characters.
  
  
• Bette Davis was the most represented actress with four mentions:
  • Julie Marsden in Jezebel (1938)
  • Leslie Crosbie in The Letter (1940)
  • Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1941)
  • Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
    
    
• Faye Dunaway and Sigourney Weaver both portrayed three different nominated characters. Other prominent women among the heroic nominees (who didn't place) included: Kay Miniver (#245) in Mrs. Miniver (1942), Foxy Brown (#39) in Foxy Brown (1974), Sarah Connor in The Terminator, and Scarlett O'Hara (#264) in Gone With the Wind (1939).
  
  
• Alfred Hitchcock directed 11 films starring nominated characters, the most on the ballot. Directors John Ford and Steven Spielberg each directed 7 nominated characters.
  
  
• John Huston penned the most screenplays featuring seven nominated characters:
  • Julie Marsden in Jezebel (1938)
  • Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941)
  • Kasper Gutman and Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  • Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
  • Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
  • Johnny Rocco in Key Largo (1948)
    
    
• Other screenwriters with multiple nominated characters included James Cameron (6), William Goldman (6), Oliver Stone (5), and David Webb Peoples (5).
  
  
• Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars (1977) trilogy was joined on the ballot by four of his film comrades: Darth Vader, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. No other film placed more characters on the nominee list. However, Luke Skywalker (and Princess Leia) did not place in the top 50 Heroes list - they were superceded by Han Solo (#14) and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (#37). Vader made the top 50 Villains list at #3.
  
  
• Arnold Schwarzenegger was nominated twice in opposing roles as the android killer & protector robot: for the original The Terminator (1984), and again for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). He was honored for his villainous role (at # 22), but not for his heroic role.
  
  
• Non-human characters were on the ballot, including:
  • the Vampire in A Fool There Was (1915)
  • the Monster in Frankenstein (1931)
  • The Mummy (Imhotep) in The Mummy (1932)
  • Kong in King Kong (1933)
  • the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  • the Wolf Man in The Wolf Man (1941)
  • Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943)
  • Rin Tin Tin in The Return of Rin Tin Tin (1947)
  • robot Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
  • the Thing in The Thing (From Another World) (1951)
  • the Martians in The War of the Worlds (1953)
  • the Blob in The Blob (1958)
  • the Gill-Man in Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)
  • the Birds in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963)
  • the HAL 9000 Computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  • the Robot Gunslinger in Westworld (1973)
  • the Shark in Jaws (1975)
  • the Alien in Alien (1979)
  • Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  • Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)
  • Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  • the Terminator (T-800) in The Terminator (1984)
  • the Predator in Predator (1987)
  • the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
  • the pig in Babe (1995)
  • the Headless "Hessian" Horseman in Sleepy Hollow (1999)
    
    
• There were two no-shows within the nominees: the Blair Witch in The Blair Witch Project (1999), and 'The Man' in Bambi (1942).
  
  
• Comic book or animated characters included:
  • the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
  • Stromboli in Pinocchio (1940)
  • Lady Tremaine (Stepmother) in Cinderella (1950)
  • Peter Pan in Peter Pan (1953)
  • Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
  • Cruella DeVil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
  • Lex Luthor and Superman (Clark Kent) in Superman (1978)
  • Batman and The Joker (Jack Nicholson) in Batman (1989)
  • Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989)
  • Dick Tracy in Dick Tracy (1990)
  • Belle in Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  • Catwoman and the Penguin in Batman Returns (1992)
  • Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2 (1999)
  • Shrek in Shrek (2001)
    
    
• Real-life characters included the following, among others:
  • Louis Pasteur (Paul Muni) in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)
  • Emile Zola (Paul Muni) in The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
  • Geronimo (Chief Thundercloud) in Geronimo (1939)
  • Abraham Lincoln (Henry Fonda) in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
  • Thomas Alva Edison (Mickey Rooney) in Young Tom Edison (1940)
  • Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper) in The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
  • Marie Curie (Greer Garson) in Madame Curie (1943)
  • John Dillinger (Lawrence Tierney) in Dillinger (1945)
  • Lt. Colonel James H. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1945)
  • Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) in My Darling Clementine (1946)
  • Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman) in Joan of Arc (1948)
  • Annie Oakley (Betty Hutton) in Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
  • Calamity Jane (Doris Day) in Calamity Jane (1953)
  • Audie Murphy (Audie Murphy) in To Hell and Back (1955)
  • El Cid (Charlton Heston) in El Cid (1961)
  • T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  • Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones) in The Great White Hope (1970)
  • Gen. George Patton (George C. Scott) in Patton (1970)
  • Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Gregory Peck) in MacArthur (1977)
  • Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) in The Boys From Brazil (1978)
  • Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) in Gandhi (1982)
  • Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) in The Right Stuff (1983)
  • Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) in Silkwood (1983)
  • Steve Biko (Denzel Washington) in Cry Freedom (1987)
  • Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) and Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) in The Untouchables (1987)
  • Dian Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) in Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988)
  • Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) in Malcolm X (1992)
  • Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) in Apollo 13 (1995)
  • William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart (1995)
  • Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) in The Insider (1999)
  • Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) in Erin Brockovich (2000)