 Greatest
Movie Characters: Criteria for Selection
 What
are the greatest or most memorable film roles or characters in the history
of cinema? What criteria have been used to choose from the thousands
of candidates? These selections are:
- unique, fully-realized character roles
that made a strong cultural impact in feature films (either live-action
or animated)
- award-winning, enduring, multi-dimensional
and memorable characterizations
- iconic individuals highlighted
with notable characteristics (often instantly recognizable), or
with identifiable phrases or lines of dialogue and behaviors
- classic roles from both Hollywood's
Golden Era and more recent roles, and some roles from non-English
language films
- sometimes a pair or group of characters
who often appeared in a long-running film series or franchise
- equally representative of heroes, anti-heroes, villains,
heroines, super-heroes, killers, saints, as well as historical
figures (non-fiction) and fictional individuals, and even a few
monsters or creatures
- inclusive of a wide range of genres (biopics,
horror, westerns, action, war, comedy, etc.)
Some of these great character roles were:
- Career-making (e.g.,
Dorothy (Judy Garland) in
 The
Wizard of Oz (1939), Tom Powers
(James Cagney) in Public Enemy (1931),
Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) in Roman
Holiday (1953), and
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) in The
Graduate (1967))
- Inspired casting choices that brought Oscar-winning
performances (e.g., Marty (Ernest Borgnine) in Marty
(1955), Cesira (Sophia Loren) in Two Women (1960, It.),
Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) in Annie
Hall (1977), and Gen. Patton
(George C. Scott) in Patton (1970))
- Responsible for typecasting
an actor forever (e.g., Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) in Dracula
(1931), or Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho
(1960))
- Derived from the lives of real-life characters
(e.g., T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in Lawrence
of Arabia (1962),
Sir William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart (1995))
- Roles that summed up entire careers (e.g.,
Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) in The
Searchers (1956), Margo Channing
(Bette Davis) in All
About Eve (1950))
- Responsible for jump-starting a sagging
or failing career (e.g., Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) in Mildred
Pierce (1945),
Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) in The
Philadelphia Story (1940))
- Pairings or teamings of two performers who went
on to repeat their roles (e.g., Nick and Nora Charles (William
Powell and Myrna Loy) in The Thin Man films,
or Astaire/Rogers in their many films together)
- Often not the performers' best role or even
very well-acted (e.g., The Sheik (Rudolph Valentino) in The
Sheik (1925),
Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) in the Tarzan films,
the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) in Smokey and the Bandit (1977),
and Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman (1990))
Filmsite doesn't believe in ranking one character against
another, so they are organized here alphabetically by character name.
Also, the list has more than a select number, such as 100, since
this list should be inclusive, not exclusionary.
Additionally
Recommended:
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 |
