411's Top 100 Movie/TV Characters: 50 - 41

Posted by Scott Rutherford on 02.11.2008

We're back with the second half of our big feature. Come on in and see who came were!

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

Welcome back to the final week of 411's countdown of our Top 100 Movie/TV characters of all time. Last week we saw more than a few surprises as some big iconic characters made their way into the bottom half of this list. Many have wondered who will populate the top 50 and why did they get so far.

Last week sent readers off about how crappy/fantastic this countdown was. Most people seemed angered by Bart Simpsons very low ranking but more than a few people were indignant that their favourite character placed bottom 50. My only hope is this weeks 50 causes as much friction as the last!

So rather than talk let's get right back into it. Todays lead of character provided one ofthe great moments in recent cinema history. A quiet man with a quiet way, he has become a true icon of the human spirit and never giving up...

#50 – Andy Dufresne

As Played By – Tim Robbins
Where Have You Seen Them - The Shawshank Redemption
Classic Dialogue - Get busy livin' or get busy dying.
Well Known Trait - Not being afraid to crawl through shit.
Write-Up By 411's - Scott Rutherford
When you look up and down this list of characters you notice that they're iconic for their larger than life persona and ability to dominate the screen when you see them. Andy Dufresne is different. He was quiet and reserved and just wanted to stay out of everyone's way while he served out his prison time. However the truth is much better than the story that's usually is attached.

I'm sure most would agree the we remember The Shawshank Redemption more for the story than we do for the characters and really, that's what good movies are suppose to be. Somewhere in the past, movies became the vehicle to get actors and their characterisations over with the audience in the hope of building up their profile, Shawshank was littered with actors stowing their ego's to service the story and that fact right their should tell you why Tim Robbins creation of Andy Dufresne is held in such high regard.

There's nothing flashy about it at all. Robbins managed to create a vivid screen presence by underplaying his hand and why not, when you act across the way from Morgan Freeman you best not try to overshadpw him because you will come up short every time. No, Robbins used the considerable natural charisma of Freeman to flesh out all the character points and that's perhaps is why Andy Dufresne is such a long lasting movie character.

The Shawshank Redemption is told from the perspective of Feeman's Red Redding character. We hear his thoughts throughout the film because he's telling us the story of Andy through his eyes. Tim Robbins, being the smart man he is, creates the moments we remember as if it was happening to him in real life and is fully aware that Freeman will be telling us what he's feeling and what it means.

I also think we love the character because he represents the human spirit and why we just don't quit. He represents the every man wanting to break free of the cell we so often find ourselves stuck in and when he escapes through the sewer pipe of the prison and cleanses himself in the rain we all feel the joy of his freedom. It's powerful stuff.

While I'm sure people out there find the whole movie a tad on the schmaltzy side, having a character find himself the way that Andy does reminds us of your classic Hollywood movies where having a happy ending isn't a bad thing. Sometimes it's a good to have an audience go home happy.

#49 - Spike

As Played By – James Masters
Where Have You Seen Them - Buffy and Angel
Classic Dialogue - Sometimes I envy you so much it chokes me. And sometimes I think I got the better deal. To be that close to her and not have her, to be all alone even when you're holding her. Feeling her, feeling her beneath you. Surrounding you... the scent. No, you got the better deal.
Well Known Trait - The blonde hair and don't give a fuck attitude
Write-Up By 411's - Christi Csonka
Who isn't jumping with joy that Spike is here? How about you, Spike? "I would, but I'm paralyzed with not caring very much."

Alright, his lack of enthusiasm aside… Spike (a.k.a. William the Bloody) has to be one of the greatest surprises to hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s writers. Originally intended to be a short lived character, this impure soul quickly captured the hearts of Buffy fans, rather than drained them. "Damn right I'm impure, I'm as impure as the driven yellow snow!"

From the start, his character showed a wit and sharp tongue that left many in stitches no matter the body count. Some of the most memorable lines of the series can be attributed to Spike. Not to mention a memorable episode opener where from his lofty perch provided us with some interesting dialogue for poor Angel below. I can still remember the coughing fit I endured to prevent my drink escaping in a most unpleasant manner.

"If every vampire who said he was at the Crucifixion was actually there it would've been like Woodstock. I was at Woodstock. I fed off a flower person and I spent six hours watching my hand move." Spike was never one to hold his tongue, instead he spit it right out, which is what I think made so many of us love him. If there was ever a serious scene that needed comic relief, he often delivered.

But what is truly great about Spike is that he was more than that. He showed us vampires could be romantically involved, be devoted, and just as confused by our feelings as any of us living. He spent decades with Drusilla, his sire, caring for her in her weakened condition early on in our meeting him. When she left him, he strove to prove himself to her and win her back. And later, with Drusilla gone, he began battling with his own feelings for Buffy, a battle that didn't end with merely admitting he loved her, but continued with accepting the terms she laid down for them. "Rest in Peace", his solo in Once More With Feeling, the awesome musical episode, exposed him so painfully well, how couldn't we relate, and even hate Buffy a little?

"You know you take the killing for granted. And then it's gone. And you're like, I wish I'd appreciated it more. Stopped and smelled the corpses." Spike faced hardship with his trademark laid back attitude. When a chip is put in his head preventing him from being able to bite, it doesn't kill his spirit. Annoys the hell out of him, and makes him get more creative in finding a way to enjoy some destruction, but he doesn't let it get him down. Even in death overcoming adversity is apparently possible.

"Now, you listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you. And dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine- done things I'd prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood. Which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of. You." Then add in his struggle for his soul. Redemption. If he was devoted before, he proved his character was capable of life, or unlife, changing decisions. With a soul he had to face the music, deal with his past actions. Regret is a part of living and this brought our favorite badass vampire closer to being one of us than anything else. Here, my heart forever belonged to him, just as his did to Buffy.

#48 - Bender

As Played By – Voiced by John Di Maggio
Where Have You Seen Them - Futurama
Classic Dialogue - Bite my shiny metal ass
Well Known Trait - Drinking
Write-Up By 411's - Owain J. Brimfield
The irascible, banjo-playing robot from Futurama is one of the TV screen's finest sidekicks, displaying almost no redeemable qualities while still commanding the loyalty of his friends. Fuelled by alcohol (literally - he needs it to keep his systems running), Bender is a one-man - okay, one-bot - exploitation machine, determined to reap material gain out of any situation in which he finds himself. From pretending to be paralysed in order to gain public sympathy as a musician, to adopting a dozen orphans for the associated child benefit money, there are no depths to which Bender will not stoop if he thinks he can make a profit on the deal. Heck, the guy even pawned his own torso for beer money! Now that's dedication to the cause. You'd have to wonder how his friends put up with him, if his antics weren't so recklessly and perversely entertaining.

But of course, Bender wouldn't have made it onto this list if he was nothing more than a one-dimensional misanthropic git. His anger hides a nagging insecurity about his place in the world, and he is fiercely patriotic about his fellow robots, even if he does rather fancy himself as top of the mechanoid food chain. This arrogance serves him in good stead for the most part, but yet his crowning glory comes in one of
Futurama's finest episodes, 'Godfellas', in which Bender becomes the god of a miniature race of people, before meeting God himself. Bender's hubris is systematically eroded as he questions the nature of life, the universe and everything, and declares "ask not for whom the bone bones; it bones for thee". A more profound philosophy I have yet to hear. Long live Super King, Bender Bending Rodriguez. And if you don't agree, you can bite my shiny metal ass.

#47 - Yoda

As Played By – Voiced by Frank Oz
Where Have You Seen Them - The Star Wars Universe
Classic Dialogue - Yoda, you seek Yoda.
Well Known Trait - Sounding like a fortune cookie on crack
Write-Up By 411's - Ben Piper
George Lucas himself has stated publicly on more than one occasion that if the puppet hadn't have worked, the entire movie would've collapsed around it, seeing as the whole second act was based upon this character. If the audience didn't believe that they were watching a living, breathing entity, the entire movie would have failed miserably as a result.

Worked effectively, it did. Much money, it brought. Iconic, it would become.

The movie in question is of course what is in my eyes the greatest installment of the Star Wars franchise, The Empire Strikes Back. And the character that is being discussed is the diminutive green-skinned Jedi master, Yoda.

I could go off with a long-winded overview about what this character represents with regards to the overall Star Wars saga. But instead, I would like to focus in on what the character brought to the table when he was first presented.

Upon his first appearance in "Empire", it would seem like he was a completely inconsequential. He looked to be at first glance mere comic relief, relegated to being a thorn in the side of the movie's main character, Luke Skywalker, and his robotic sidekick, R2-D2. As he cackled and tossed aside Luke's belongings until he found something he liked, he completely brought the audience in and sold the fact that he was indeed, a fully realized and really well performed character. Once Luke loses his patience with Yoda's shenanigans it is finally revealed that he is truly the Jedi Master that he was seeking in the first place.

In this day and age, where special effects are predominantly CGI, the Yoda of "Empire" and "Jedi" still looms large with regards to true to life representations. Yeah, he's only a mere puppet. But he is one of the true hallmarks of pre-CGI special effects. His facial expressions are subtle. Nuanced. Truly landmark work with regards to what was capable at that point in time. Hell, when Lucas trotted out "Episode I" the puppet that was used was just that, a puppet. And everyone knew it and saw it as such . In contrast, the Yoda of "Empire" was a living, breathing entity.

A lot of this has to be attributed to Frank Oz, who not only voiced Yoda as a slightly gruffer version of "Grover", but served as the main puppeteer. All his work with the Muppets paid off big time to us, the viewing audience.

Yeah, He kicked major ass via CGI in the prequels. But for my money? Yoda in the original trilogy is a masterwork.

If Yoda hadn't have worked in "Empire", the entire franchise would have sunk beneath his weight. Hell, Lucas himself stated so…

We wound up with four more movies. You do the math.

#46 – Tony Montana

As Played By – Al Pacino
Where Have You Seen Them - Scarface
Classic Dialogue - You wanna fuck with me? Okay. You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!
Well Known Trait - VIOLENCE!
Write-Up By 411's - Scott Rutherford
Tony Montana…it's hard to talk about this character. He wasn't a classic villian as such and he certainly wasn't a hero. He lived in the gang filled underworld of Miami where anything went and Montana usually went far. He was a violent psychopath that would kill any of us if given half a reason too. He has became an icon to fledgling Latino gangsters and an often sampled quote source for gansta rap. He breaks barriers and crosses divides.

The Montana character comes to us courtesy of the groundbreaking Brian De Palma film that came to redefine the term mobester movie. While some have drawn parallels to his character from The Godfather movies, Michael Coreleone, this is a different beast. Montana has no conscious. He thirst for violence supersedes common sense and in the gangland setting of Miami De Palma unleashed a film of unseen violence and realism.

Pacino himself should be considered a brave man for taking on the role. Having come to fame during the 70's as dramatic actor of the highest order he completed a re-invented himself as the Cuban assassin who tries to kill his way threw the Miami underworld. Displaying unrivaled charisma and attitude, Pacino fairly leaps off the screen and it's not that hard to understand why so many people took him on as a hero.

People often say the lower class should look to positive role models but in a world where violence is an all too regular occurrence seeing a man like themselves become the king of his own world even for a short time, gives them something they aspire to be, because Tony Montana is someone they're more used to seeing the Will Smith.

Even today, the level of respect Montana the character earns is startling. From gansta rappers to actual gansters, Montana is the real deal.

#45 – Forrest Gump

As Played By – Tom Hanks
Where Have You Seen Them - Forrest Gump
Classic Dialogue - Life is like a box of chocolates….
Well Known Trait - For stumbling through life having the most incredible adventures.
Write-Up By 411's - Scott Rutherford
When looking at cinema in the 90's it's really hard to go past this amazing Tom Hanks creation as perhaps the single most recongisable movie icon of that decade. Because of the fact and the way the media and entertainment industry loves to over saturate a market there is an unfortunate connotation to Forrest Gump now. What was truly a fascinating look at a simple man was turned into a parody before the final credit rolled at the premier.

Forrest Gump is such a fantastical movie character and the overall premise of the movie is what makes it so great. A simple man with a low IO, Forrest stumbles through life not really knowing what he's doing but succeeding all the way through chance, good luck, sheer force of will and homespun advice from his mother. While Gump the character started life in a book it most certain came to life when inhabited by one of the greatest actors of all time Tom Hanks.

While some people cringe at some of the mowkish moments in the film, these are needed to balance out the moments when things get serious. Let's face it, the scenes of Forrest creating unintentional funny moments wouldn't work if you didn't see the heartbreak of him holding his best friend dying in the Vietnam War. His witty asides wouldn't work if we didn't understand the pathos of him just running, for years, to clear his head and put the past behind him. Though, who couldn't connect with a man who just want to be with the girl he loves and why he was heartbroken when she left.

While the more cynical age may have taken some of the gloss of what was special about the film and Gump as a character, you can't deny just how great he is and just how Gump-mad the world went. It's no great surprise when you think about it. Some simple-minded guy helps invent Elvis, becomes a war hero, a champion ping pong player, a multi-millionaire shrimp boater, he invests in Apple computers before the world even hears of them, saves men from certain death during the war, invents the phrase Shit Happens, the smiley face and generally lucks out on life's experiences including meeting a couple presidents and a Beatle.

Don't even get me started on the catchphrases!

Gump rules and you know it. Tom Hanks created a true movie icon that will live long past us and into another age. We're lucky to have seen it and be there when we all went a little Gump crazy.

#44 – Tommy DeVito

As Played By – Joe Pesci
Where Have You Seen Them - Goodfellas
Classic Dialogue - Sure, mom, I settle down with a nice girl every night, then I'm free the next morning.
Well Known Trait - Psychopathic Mafia man who'll kill you in the blink of an eye.
Write-Up By 411's - George H. Sirois
There is the friend who is the life of the party, always telling the best stories and always breaking everyone around him up. There is the unpredictable friend, the one where you feel that you have to walk on eggshells to make sure that you don't piss him off in the slightest. And sometimes there is the friend with the violent streak in him that makes you wonder how you got involved with that person in the first place. All three of those elements find their way into Tommy DeVito, one of the main characters in the Martin Scorsese mob epic Goodfellas.

As portrayed by Joe Pesci – in the role that would win him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1991 – Tommy is one of those characters that you can't help but love and hate at the same time. When we first meet him, he's an ordinary kid trying to get involved in the Mafia. He is helping Henry Hill out with a few jobs given to them and he is the first one to alert the rest of the crew that Henry got caught by the police.

It is when he later see him as an adult when his personality really shines through. He is telling these crazy stories that end with a variance of "go fuck your mother" and everyone is in hysterics. But as soon as Henry opens his mouth and tells him how funny he is, the mood in the room quickly shifts as Tommy demands to know what Henry meant. "What do you mean, I'm funny? I'm like a clown? I'm here to amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you?" Fortunately for Henry, he was able to see through Tommy's ribbing and good laughs were had by everyone all over again.

Others unfortunately don't share Henry's sparing. A young bartender named Spider gets shot in the foot because of Tommy clowning around, and if he didn't mouth off to Tommy afterwards and tell him to go fuck himself, he wouldn't have been shot in the chest six times afterwards.

Tommy's anger reaches the most grotesque level at a bar, after he confronts an old made man named Billy Batts who knew Tommy from the old days. As soon as Billy started getting on his case and called him "Spitshine Tommy" like he did from back then, Tommy went into a rage that we hadn't seen from him before. After the bar shut down, Tommy beat Billy to a bloody pulp with his pistol. Later on, he would stab Billy to death with a kitchen knife he borrowed from his mother!

Yes, he borrowed a knife from his mother and used it to kill a man!

No matter how violent or crazed he could get, Tommy was loyal to his crew all the way to the end. He seemed like a maniac, completely out of control, but the bottom line was that he knew exactly what he was doing the entire time he was in the business. If you were in trouble and you were in good standings with Jimmy Conway and Paulie Cicero, he would be there for you in a snap. Just, for God's sakes, don't tell him to go get his fuckin' shinebox or else he'll turn on you in another snap.

#43 – The Doctor

As Played By – William hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Joe Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant too name but a few….
Where Have You Seen Them - Doctor Who
Classic Dialogue - I never answer questions until I'm properly introduced.
Well Known Trait - Phones booth as transport
Write-Up By 411's - Owain J. Brimfield
On the surface, the Doctor is the quintessential thinking-man's science fiction hero - an ageless immortal bounding around in a time machine with a bevy of attractive companions, always arriving on some exotic world just in time to save the day from an alien menace, armed with nothing more than an affinity for science and an unsurpassed knowledge of the inner workings of the universe. He exhibits a huge compassion in particular for the human race, frequently finding himself drawn to Earth and its inhabitants, and across his many lifespans (he can regenerate his body, y'see) becomes increasingly at ease with the many aliens and lifeforms he encounters. Quite a life for the tempestuous soul - the Doctor is a beguiling mix of the romantic and the fatalistic, an interplanetary nomad with a profound zest for life.

However, beneath all this lies a complex, resolute yet vulnerable character. He's capable of the most callous and cold-hearted of acts (witness his role in the destruction of Skaro, or his punishment of the Family of Blood) while still remaining empathetic, and is possessed of a strong (albeit sometimes alien)
concept of justice. But it's the unfathomable loneliness at the core of his being that proves his most defining trait. Consider his circumstances: an outcast on his own homeworld of Gallifrey, the Doctor has travelled through time and space for over 900 years, growing close to many friends only to leave them behind in the depths of time, forced to witness the destruction of millions of beings, and enduring the genocide of his own species until eventually becoming the last living one of his kind. The eternal emptiness that haunts him is so overpowering that it's hard to watch him in his most fragile moments - the empathy for humanity he exhibits, it seems, runs both ways. And therein lies the rub: he may be an immortal alien with two hearts and a time machine, but the kicker is that the Doctor is more human than any of us.

#42 – Jules Winnfeild

As Played By – Samual L. Jackson
Where Have You Seen Them - Pulp Fiction
Classic Dialogue - And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger …..
Well Known Trait - Finding religion at the oddest time
Write-Up By 411's - Scott Rutherford
When people think of cool they usually think of Samual L. Jackson. When they think of Jacksons coolest role yet you can't go past his performance as a mobsters hired muscle who suddenly undergoes a life changing shift of perception about who he is and what he does. Of course, the fact that that this is the coolest Pulp Fiction character makes perfect sense.

Whenever Jules is on screen you are drawn to him. No mean feat when he shares the screen with superstar John Travolta for most of the time. What really excites about Samual's performance his the coiled menace that he brings across. Seriously, how tense was the moment when he drank that guys soda? You needed a heavy duty knife, a few cans of paint thinner and a blow tourch to cut through it all. Yet Jackson did nothing at all. He just stood there calm as you'd like yet the aura of badass just surrounded him.

Things just get better when he ramped up the rhetoric. When he bring the hammer down and starts reciting Ezekiel you just know whoever he says that too is in some seriously deep shit. Winnfield is everything in want in a hitman, pure terror with a handgun. But the best bits about Jules Winnfield and Jackson's oerformance are yet to come.

After accidently blowing the head off someone in the backseat of his car, Jules and fellow hitman Vincent are suddenly forced to hide out in the burbs. The following scenes of badass Jules Winnfield trying to placate his everyday joe buddy out of fear his wife coming home and exploding are great. Even better is when Jules and Vincent are cleaning the brains our gore out of the car and Jules flips because he's on brain detail.

However, the shinning moment on the story of Jules Winnfield is the final scene, sitting across the table with a petty thief played by Tim Roth, it's just all talk and out of that comes Jacksons strength as an actor. His face is so full of character, the eyes so intense and his voice, deep and authorative delivers each line of dialogue as if its gospel. At that moment you know you are looking at a actor creating something special and Jules Winnfield was something special…..motherfucker!

#41 – Ralph Kramden

As Played By – Jackie Gleeson
Where Have You Seen Them - The Honeymooners
Classic Dialogue - One of these days, one of these days... POW! RIGHT IN THE KISSER!
Well Known Trait - Thinking he was the king of his castle when his wife was the true boss
Write-Up By 411's - Bryan Kristopowitz
This is the character that Jackie Gleason will be remembered for forever.

Without Ralph Kramden, there would be no Fred Flintstone, Homer Simpson, or Peter Griffin, among others.

Ralph Kramden can best be described as a "working stiff." He works day in and day out as a bus driver for the Gotham Bus Company and then, at the end of the day, goes home to his sparse apartment where his wife Alice is usually waiting for him to arrive. While he loves his wife, more often than not Ralph is itching to do something with his best friend Ed Norton, who lives in the apartment just above his. He opens the window and yells for Norton to come down. When Norton arrives, that's when Ralph tells his best friend about his newest, latest scheme to get rich quick. Because that's what Ralph really wants to do: get rich and quick.

Why does Ralph want to get rich quick, beyond the obvious reasons (who wouldn't want to be rich?)? Ralph is what you could call habitually insecure. He always wants to provide "better" than he's got for himself and for Alice. Regardless of what the new scheme is, his detailed reasons for doing it are always the same: to get Alice nice, new things. He's afraid she's going to leave him. If you ever see an episode of the "original 39" Honeymooners, when Ralph goes up to Ed's apartment and sees all of the stuff (a television, a better phone, furniture beyond just a kitchen table and chairs) he's jealous. Never mind that Ed's stuff is all "bought on time," meaning he's got rent payments coming out of his butt on everything, Ralph sees all that Ed's got and wonders why can't I have this, too?

Alice often complains about what they don't have, too, but she always complains in reference to the fact that Ralph spends all of his time, works so hard figuring out how not to work but in the end has nothing to show for it. Does Alice want new stuff? Does she want furniture, a rug, a freaking ice box that's one unit and not a hodge podge of working refrigerator pieces that somehow barely works? Yes. Is she willing to go through all of the stuff that her husband Ralph goes through? No, because, as she's seen time and time again, it never works out. All Ralph really has to do is work hard and, if he keeps at it, things will get better. Promotions at work. Better routes. And then, better things will happen.

Ralph never understands that. Well, he sort of gets it at the end of each episode when he realizes the folly of his ways and thanks Alice for sticking around with him. "Baby, you're the greatest." And then the big kiss.

And then in the next episode Ralph is right back at it.

That's why we love him. It isn't so much that we like to watch him fail (we have to get used to his failure and accept it since it happens again and again and again) it's that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Ralph still keeps trying. He's a buffoon, a dummy at times, but he's still kind of oblivious to what happened the last time: failure.

"Alice: Ralph, what do you need ten dollars for? What crazy scheme have you got in mind now?

Ralph: It ain't no crazy scheme. I need the money to rent a costume for the party tomorrow night.

Alice: Rent a costume? I thought you were going to do what you did last year - wear a torn undershirt, talk out of the side of your mouth and go as Marlon Brando."

And yet the man is always working at it.