411's Top 100 Movie/TV Characters: 60 - 51

Posted by Scott Rutherford on 02.08.2008

We've reached the halfway point of the countdwn. Come and see if where your favourite characters ranK!

#100 - #91
#90 - #81
#80 - #71
#70 - #61
#60 - #51
#50 - #41
#40 - #31

Well, here it is. This is this weeks final installment of 411's Top 100 TV & movie characters. It's been a huge week with many people venting some serious steam over rankings and even who was included. As always, please continue to leave feedback no matter what your opinion is. We do features like this to get people talking and that is exactly whats happening now.

I encourage all people who disagree with what he have presented to head to the 411 Forums and present your own Top 100 characters in the TV/Movie boards.

Our first character today was nothing short of an instant classic when he hit our screens when he created one of themost graphic and memorable scenes in all cinema history.

Lets get going!

#60 – Mr. Blonde

As Played By – Michael Madsen
Where Have You Seen Them - Reservoir Dogs
Famous Dialogue - Listen kid, I'm not gonna bullshit you, all right? I don't give a good fuck what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway, regardless. Not to get information. It's amusing, to me, to torture a cop. You can say anything you want cause I've heard it all before. All you can do is pray for a quick death, which you ain't gonna get. You ever listen to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the Seventies" weekend? It's my personal favorite.
Well Known Trait - Removing ears to the strains of "Stuck in the Middle With You
Write-Up By 411's - Ben Piper
"Stuck In The Middle With You"

That is the name of a song from an early seventies folk rock duo that found limited success during that timeframe. I mean, neither you nor I should know this song by any means, because thirty years later? Who in the hell are they? Why is this song lingering in the public consciousness?

The reason why is because it turns out to be the soundtrack for one of the most disturbing scenes in early nineties independent cinema. The scene in question is why this character ranks so high upon this list. You can't help but to think of this scene or that song, without them being hand in hand.

The scene in question, and the movie that it was a part of, put Quentin Tarantino firmly on the map.

Vic Vega is a common career criminal. After spending time in the clink he returns to the outside and meets up with his former employers, willing and eager to get back to his kind of work. They set him up to be a part of a diamond heist. Needless to say, the heist goes wrong on so many levels. It turns out to be a bloodbath of epic proportions with Vic, aka Mr. Blonde being at the epicenter of the violence that takes place off screen. Coupled with the fact that this crew of thieves is beset with a rat amongst their mist is the basis of the movie's plot.

After the first act, which introduces all the characters and the storyline, Mr. Blonde reemerges. Seemingly cool, calm, and collected, he admits after almost coming to blows with "Mr. White" over the bad outcome of the heist that his heart is beating so fast he can barely keep himself together. Although we, as viewers find that hard to believe as he references Lee Marvin and coolly sips a cold beverage from a straw, explaining that he ate his fries on the way over.

He takes his counterparts out to the car he hijacked and opens up the trunk, revealing a uniformed cop that he took hostage to escape the law-abiding onslaught that beset the flawed heist.

Long story short, Mr. Blonde finds himself alone with the cop. With the policeman taped down to a chair and exclaiming that he could be tortured six ways to Sunday, it doesn't matter because he doesn't know anything, Mr. Blonde retorts that he thinks torture is a really good idea. It isn't that he is seeking answers, because really, at this point, he could care less. He just finds the pure prospect of doing whatever he can and will to a man in uniform to be so tantalizing that he simply can't resist.

At first he points his gun at his hapless victim, laughing at his fear and his cries of mercy that he has a wife and child. Nah, that would be too easy, too quick. Vic Vega has something else in mind. As he switches on a nearby radio and tunes it in to K-Billy's super sounds of the seventies (With monotoned Stephen Wright voicing the deejay) He pulls out a straight-razor from his boot as "Stuck in the Middle with You" begins to play. He sings along with the song, and dances in front of the cop, tauntingly. Here's a guy that is having a good time, someone who is currently enjoying what he is doing. He then proceeds to sit himself upon the cop's lap as the camera pans away. Screams can be heard. Blonde says "Stop moving!" A moment later he steps back into frame, holding the cop's bloody ear in his hand.

One can't think of the Verizon commercials when Vic speaks into the disembodied ear, "Can you hear me?"

This is one of the most visceral, shocking, disturbing scenes ever filmed. Partly because the camera pans away so we don't see the ear being hacked off, but also because we witness the pure joy of the act demonstrated by its perpetrator.

Mr. Blonde serves as the catalyst for this great film. Not only is he the instigator of the unseen bloodbath of the heist, but his death towards the end prompts the bloody Mexican standoff that occurs as the finale.

In any other hands, this would be a one-note character. But when relegated to the likes of Tarantino and Michael Madsen?

He's one for the ages…

#59 – Alex P. Keaton

As Played By – Michael J. Fox
Where Have You Seen Them - Family Ties
Famous Dialogue - Hey, I don't mind if I toot my own horn. Toot, toot!
Well Known Trait - An ego the size of the shows ratings.
Write-Up By 411's - Scott Rutherford
Greed is good.

It was the catch phrase from a rather forgotten about 80's movie titled Wall Street. In it, a Wall Street guru played by Michael Douglas pimped the virtues of accumulation wealth as a means of happiness. He wasn't shy about making money and didn't much care (i.e. he had the conscious of a rubber ball) about who he had to stomp on to get it. While that movie didn't have legs past the initial buzz it did give raise to the archetypal 80's yuppie male playing the money market and no one and I mean NO ONE was better at playing this character than Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton.

Coming from the drippy, drippy 80's sitcom Family Ties which preached family, unity and love and if it wasn't for the conservative Nixon loving, egotistical Alex it would have died a quick death with no one much caring. Alex Keaton created the counterpoint for the show on which it turned into an 8 season juggernaut.

It was an obvious fit with the premise of the show about a couple of ageing hippies
raising a family who's opinions and lifestyle jib with their own ideals. So imagine their horror when their first born was the polar opposite of them. This dynamic was so electric that the show which was to have been centered around the adults quickly centered around Alex and their reactions to his exploits.

While the content never really rose above 80's sitcom dreck it was Fox and his uncanny ability to make even the simple things funny without having to fallback on broad brushstrokes to sell the situation. Its a credit Fox's skill as an actor that he can make a character that is so inherently unlikable and selfish so entertaining an charming.

While the sitcom itself hasn't held up well in the transition to our newer cynical age of entertainment the character of Alex P. Keaton has. He's a signpost to a different era and a different way of life that's stuck in the imagination of those who grew up on this form of entertainment

#58 – Frasier Crane

As Played By – Kelsey Grammar
Where Have You Seen Them - Cheers & Frasier
Famous Dialogue - I'm listening.
Well Known Trait - Pompous snob who likes to mix with the middle class.
Write-Up By 411's - Larry Csonka
rasier Crane's life didn't start out as he would have liked. Born in Seattle, he never had many friends, just his trusty brother as his sidekick. Both boys were never interested in sports, instead spent time reading, listening to classical music and doing scientific experiment. Although this makes Frasier out to be a loser, he did have one major accomplishment before leaving Seattle for Harvard. He lost his virginity to his piano teacher. GO GET HER BOY! Frasier would move onto Harvard and them Oxford for his studies, which he excelled at.

In 1977 he began his psychiatric practice, but would eventually move onto a job at the Golden Brook Sanatorium. This is where he met Diane Chambers, and would be forever linked to the Cheers universe. Frasier and Diane never worked out, and after a time of emotional distress, he would marry Dr. Lileth Sternan. The couple would have one son, Frederick. The marriage would only last 3-years, as Lileth left Frasier for another man and went to live with him in an ECHO-POD. Frasier was understandably upset, upset to the point that he tried to commit suicide. Frederick would be the reason Frasier didn't do the deed, hell he even tried to reconcile, but when that failed, Frasier returned to his home of Seattle.

When Frasier Crane moved to Seattle, he was a noticeably changed man. With the divorce to Lillith, Frasier seemed to reinvent himself. While in Boston he was more of a conformist. Sure he was snobby, but he was all to eager to sit at Cheers and share a brew with the common man. But the divorce left him not knowing who he was, and when he went to Seattle that Frasier was gone. He became a high society man, gone was a cold beer and in was a light Sherry to relax with. With Lillith gone, Frasier lived with his father Martin Crane, and his caregiver Daphne Moon. While Frasier tried his best to be a social giant, while focusing on his radio career, his father was a constant reminder of things he didn't want to be, a common Joe, drinking a beer and relaxing. Truth be told Frasier wanted to be more like his brother, who also was a psychologist. He wanted to be high society, he wanted the rich wife, and he wanted the wine clubs. Frasier worked hard for these things, but the past would always come back to haunt him in his eyes with visits from Woody, Sam, Diane and even Lillith at times.

While he may be a snob, stuck up and even a bit pompous at times, Frasier wasn't a bad guy. He was actually a guy with very good intentions. Unfortunately for him he was always more interested in analyzing everyday life and each situation way too much. He just has to know what makes each person the way they are, and it is that trait that cost him many a relationship. The good news was that while he did have problems, we did get to see the good in him and he did find out that while he didn't want to be like his father, he loved, admired and respected him. It is this history, these traits that made Frasier such an interesting character and is why he was able to span so many years in both the Cheers and Frasier universe.

#57 – "Fast" Eddie Felson

As Played By – Paul Newman
Where Have You Seen Them - The Color of Money & The Hustler
Famous Dialogue - You can't see it, can you, Charlie? I mean, you've never been able to see it. I came after him. And I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats?
Well Known Trait - Young, cocky and good
Write-Up By 411's - Tim O'Sullivan
Damn, I love The Color of Money. Seriously, what a fucking fantastic movie that is.

Screw you Cruise-haters, because the little wizard is great in this too – remember the showmanship, "awooooo, awoooo", yet still he was overshadowed. Paul Newman was just ultra-cool and the character of Fast Eddie was made for him.

From patronizing Turturro's not-so-hot Julian and feeling up Carmen, to getting hustled by a young and creepy Forrest Whittaker, Fast Eddie is the king of this excellent movie.

……….and remember, "HE'S BACK!"

#56 – Dr. Evil

As Played By – Mike Myers
Where Have You Seen Them - The Austin Powers films
Famous Dialogue - Riiggghhhht. How about no
Well Known Trait - The bald head and his mini me
Write-Up By 411's - Tim O'Sullivan
Let's be honest 411 readers…..for a little half-second at least – the Austin Powers films haven't aged all that well, have they? I watched the "trilogy" again last year and they seemed to be missing that spark they had when I rushed to watch them at the cinema in my mid-teens.

However, the premise is still endearing and in Doctor Evil, Myers really did produce one of the greatest comedy characters ever.

Technically he stole him from the pussy-stroking villain of campness from that Bond film, but still, the creativity of Myers was still the work of an inventive genius. He didn't really come into his own until the sequel, but the foundations were there from his first scene of 1997's original.

Perhaps the joke wore thin, but at the time everyone in the world was raising their little finger to the corner of their mouth.

#55 – John Rambo

As Played By – Sylvester Stallone
Where Have You Seen Them - The Rambo films
Famous Dialogue - Murdoch, I'm coming to get you.
Well Known Trait - Not having the greatest command of the English language
Write-Up By 411's - Bryan Kristopowitz
"I could have killed 'em all, I could kill you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Don't push it. Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go. Let it go."

There are two versions of the movie character made famous on the big screen by Sylvester Stallone. The first version, the one we see in the first flick "First Blood," is that of a troubled loner deeply traumatized by his time in Vietnam. He's obviously not the person he used to be, both before he enlisted in the US Army and the guy on his first trip into a war zone. What he did, what he saw, and subsequently what was done to him, changed him. He really has no interest in being a part of a group, part of the general society. He just wants to be left alone. When Sheriff Teasle confronts him, tells him he doesn't want him in his town, and then forcibly removes him, for Rambo that's a challenge. All Rambo wants to do is pass through town.

That's all. Pass through. And not be pushed around.

So Rambo gets arrested, beaten, and humiliated. He's put in lock up. And then he escapes. He then just wants to get away again and stay away. But then Teasle challenges him again. And then it's all out war.

Teasle brings in Col. Trautman, Rambo's former Army commander, to help bring Rambo in. Trautman tells Teasle that he should just give up and leave it be, that he's not going to be able to capture Rambo. Ever. Teasle doesn't listen, and the "war" rages on. Rambo eventually gives up and, while talking with Trautman, emotionally breaks down. He explains the obvious: that he can't live in "the world" anymore because he doesn't understand it. He's not "trained" for it. He doesn't understand why the people he basically fought and his buddies died for don't understand or care about his pain. He really doesn't know what to do, to make it "better." All Rambo knows is that he doesn't want to be a part of "the world" anymore. Again, he doesn't understand it, and it doesn't understand him. This version of the character is the closest to the original source novel by David Morrell. If you read the novel First Blood you'll notice that the novel version is much more ruthless and destructive than the movie version. And the Teasle character is much more developed (the novel is also about him). Teasle is a Korean War veteran, and, in a sense, the novel is a story about the conflict between two different war generations and how neither one really understands the other one. The movie doesn't deal specifically with that, it's more general. It's the "civilized world" and the war world butting heads.

"Sir, do we get to win this time?"

"I always thought that the mind was the best weapon."

The second version of the character, as seen in the George P. Cosmatos directed "Rambo: First Blood part II," is a superman, a super soldier, an idealized version of the American warrior that fought in Vietnam. He's a one man killing machine, a one man army that can handle any enemy force with extreme prejudice. The plot of part II involves locating and rescuing prisoners of war believed to be left behind in Vietnam and all of the hooha involved with following through/not following through with the promise that if you fight for your country your country will, in essence fight for you. Some people have called the plot of part II "America fighting the Vietnam War all over again, but this time they win" or just "refighting Vietnam but with a different outcome," which is true to a degree. Because, if you think about it, part of the whole "I don't understand the world anymore and the world doesn't understand me" thing is how the war was perceived by the American public. The soldiers, when they weren't "baby killers," were bums and failures, a national disgrace that didn't "get the job done." So, if the ones who were forced out of the war zone before achieving victory are allowed to go back and win things will change, perceptions will change. To make a long story short, Rambo rescues the POW's that were actually there, kills a bunch of Commies (both evil Russian Commies and Vietnamese Commies), kicks some bureaucratic butt (scumbag CIA guys among them), and then gets to walk off, "victorious." Rambo finally got a chance to win, and so did everyone else who "spilled his guts and gave everything he had" over there.

"Who are you?"

"Your worst nightmare."

In the third movie, "Rambo III," Rambo is basically the same guy he was in part 2 but slightly more contemplative. His mission, going into Afghanistan to rescue Col. Trautman, is personal, but it ends up being bigger than expected when Rambo ends up fighting the Russians with the Afghanis.

So which one is the "real" Rambo?

Neither. You really can't have one without the other.

#54 – Charles Foster Kane

As Played By – Orson Wells
Where Have You Seen Them - Citizen Kane
Famous Dialogue - Rosebud.
Well Known Trait - Believing he could shape public opinion through power and control
Write-Up By 411's - Leonard Hayhurst
Charles Foster Kane is more than a thinly veiled characterization of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. At the core of the character is the basic human need and want for a safe place. A place where one can be themselves and not plagued by the worries of life. For many this mystical place resides in childhood, as it did for Kane. Rosebud was more than a sled to him. It was a representation of lost youth, lost innocence and lost family. Kane briefly found this again in a stolen night with Susan, simply because she didn't know who he was so he felt free to be the real him. However, once the outside world encroached on their relationship Kane felt driven to turn Susan into another headline and craft her into a singer she really wasn't. Kane was compelled by public perception to take the "quote marks" away from her title as a singer. Kane did the same thing to her that was done to him. It's a toss off, but notice this takes place after Kane's first wife and son died in a car accident. While Jed Leland is his closest friend, he's also the moral sounding board of Kane's life. He's the one there to tell Kane he's wrong, but he ultimately can't face the music. Once again we have a character that is larger than life, but achieves greatness through their human failings.

#53 - Kramer

As Played By – Michael Richards
Where Have You Seen Them - Seinfeld
Famous Dialogue - What kind of a man are you? The guy is unconscious in a coma and you don't have the guts to kiss his girlfriend?
Well Known Trait - Never seems to have a job but always has plenty of money
Write-Up By 411's - Tim O'Sullivan
I'm not sure if I have to be entirely positive whilst doing these overviews on our elite 100 movie and television characters, but the buzz around young Kramer seems to have dwindled slightly.

The real-life racism didn't help much, but the truth of the matter is that I look back on Kramer as a very over-the-top, unrealistic member of the Seinfeld brigade.

Of course, the pimping, the entrances, the JFK spoof, the spontaneity, etc. etc. It was good. Don't get me wrong, he is still one of the most unique characters of all-time. I still watch my Seinfeld DVDs thinking he was a worthy section of the show's bandwagon, but maybe just maybe we've exaggerated his sitcom superstardom.

Or not, whatever………

#52 – Verbal Kint/Keyzer Soze

As Played By – Kevin Spacey
Where Have You Seen Them - The Usual Suspects
Famous Dialogue - After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone.
Well Known Trait - Being one of the best plot twists ever.
Write-Up By 411's - Tim O'Sullivan
Who the fuck is Keyzer Soze?

I should have asked someone if I'm meant to avoid spoilers here, but either way I'm going to go balls-deep into the reasons why this enigma of Soze is so awesome, and if you haven't seen it……………well you're a loser, kid, and you should watch the masterpiece already.

Basically, The Usual Suspects has far better repeat-watch value than many give it credit for and that's pretty much down to the quality of the acting and mystique of the characters. Soze is the pinnacle of that, and even today watching his identity unravel is still one of the greatest ever cinematic joys to behold.

#51 – Jason Voorhees

As Played By – Some giant dude in a mask
Where Have You Seen Them - Friday the 13th movies
Famous Dialogue - none
Well Known Trait - The hockey mask and serious blood lust
Write-Up By 411's - Trevor Snyder
Just as the horror-boom of the ‘30s and ‘40s was dominated by Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, so too can the ‘80s and early ‘90s surge in the genre's popularity be attributed almost exclusively to two modern terror icons. If Freddy Krueger was the wise-cracking class-clown of the slasher-movie craze, then Jason was its silent, brooding, bully. Over the course of 11 films (well, 9 – he made only a brief appearance in the first film, and did not appear at all in the fifth installment), Jason carved a bloody path of destruction through Camp Crystal Lake, in the process becoming one of horror's most enduring legends (and one of the most recognizable visages in the world – can anyone look at one of those old-fashioned hockey-masks and not immediately think of Jason?).

And yet, even his most devoted fans will tell you that, in all honesty, these were not great movies. Oh, sure, they're a lot of fun to watch with your buddies, and are an entertaining enough way to kill 90 minutes. But anyone watching the Friday the 13th series for its cinematic merits was sure to be disappointed. So what, then, kept us coming back, movie after movie, even as the series devolved further and further into sad, self-parody? Well, in a word…Jason. We didn't care about the one-note camp counselors and horny partygoers who made up the series' other "characters." All we wanted to see was what new, creative and gruesome way the hockey-mask wearing, machete-wielding Jason would finish them off. Conventional wisdom said Jason was the villain of the series, but he became a hero for a generation of gore-hounds – the ultimate symbol of mindless carnage and mayhem (I myself am the proud owner of a "What Would Jason Do?" t-shirt).

The producers eventually wised up to this, casting Jason as the de-facto "good guy" in Freddy vs. Jason. In a way, this was only appropriate, since Jason's motives could never be boiled down to anything as simplistic as "he's just evil." In fact, it could be argued that Jason himself was a victim – a simple, disfigured mama's boy, left to drown by uncaring, promiscuous counselors. I doubt that, as a boy, Jason had any aspirations of growing up to become the world's most notorious serial killer. But when those pesky Crystal Lake teens killed his mother (who was only trying to avenge his apparent death, after all), what else was he to do? I mean, come on, the boy loved his mom. Almost as much, I'd say, as horror fans love him.