Empire Names the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 1, 2008

A few months ago, Empire magazine revealed their list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time… as voted by their readers.  We reported on it here and as expected, there were some slight disagreements.  Well Empire and their readers have struck again… this time with their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters.

It reads like an orgy invite list to a fanboy’s wet dream, but that’s to be expected.  There are obvious similarities to the Greatest Movies list, but some of these characters are still a surprise.  Tyler Durden at number one?  Captain Jack Sparrow in the top ten?  Gollum?  Hans Gruber?  Crazy.  On the other hand, it’s nice to see The Dude, Amelie, and Quint make the top fifty.

The top fifty are listed below:

1. Tyler Durden – Fight Club
2. Darth Vader – the Star Wars hexology
3. The Joker – The Dark Knight
4. Han Solo – the Star Wars hexology
5. Hannibal Lecter – the Hannibal Lecter series
6. Indiana Jones – the Indiana Jones trilogy (yeah, I said trilogy)
7. The Dude – The Big Lebowski
8. Captain Jack Sparrow – the Pirates of the Caribean series
9. Ellen Ripley – the Alien series
10. Vito Corleone – The Godfather
11. James Bond – the James Bond series
12. John McClane – the Die Hard series
13. Gollum – the Lord of the Rings trilogy
14. The Terminator – the Terminator series
15. Ferris Bueller – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
16. Neo – the Matrix trilogy
17. Hans Gruber – Die Hard
18. Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver
19. Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction
20. Forrest Gump
21. Michael Corleone – the Godfather trilogy
22. Ellis “Red” Redding – The Shawshank Redemption
23. Harry Callahan – the Dirty Harry series
24. Ash – the Evil Dead trilogy
25. Yoda – the Star Wars hexology
26. Ron Burgundy – Anchorman
27. Tony Montana – Scarface
28. Gandalf – the Lord of the Rings trilogy
29. Daniel Plainview – There Will Be Blood
30. Jigsaw – the Saw series
31. Aragorn – the Lord of the Rings trilogy
32. Jason Bourne – the Bourne trilogy
33. Tequila – Hardboiled
34. Rocky Balboa
35. Maximus Decimus Meridius – Gladiator
36. Harry Potter
37. Edward Scissorhands
38. Donnie Darko
39. Marty McFly – Back To The Future
40. Patrick Bateman – American Psycho
41. Mary Poppins
42. Alex DeLarge – A Clockwork Orange
43. The Man With No Name – spaghetti western trilogy
44. Peter Venkman – Ghostbusters
45. Amelie Poulain – Amelie
46. Anton Chigurh – No Country For Old Men
47. Blade
48. Tony Stark – Iron Man
49. Walter Sobchak – The Big Lebowski
50. Quint – Jaws

What do you think?  Who would you add?  Who would you remove?


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  • Brent Peconi
    I read this yesterday, at my desk, while eating lunch.

    Ginger ale came out of my nose I laughed so hard.

    This is obviously up for argument, and thats probally what they wanted. Only someone that is not in tune with film would set some of these characters on this list.

    I dont see characters by some greats Paul Newman/Jack Nicholson/Jack Lemmon/Kevin Spacey... yet I see others I just look at in disbelief.
  • Arou101
    How in the fuck does Peter Venkman get beat out by Jigsaw?
  • Scanain
    Captain Hilts - Steve McQueen from Great Escape or his Papignon (spl?)

    No Dustin Hoffman ? Even nurse Ratchet is better than half the characters in that list.

    resounding MEH from me.
  • mts
    why are most of these characters from movies that were made in the past decade?
  • So is it only Godfather 1 Vito or the combined character from 1 and 2. because if it's just one i'd make the argument Micheal should be higher.
  • Josh Oakley
    I love the movie "Donnie Darko", and Jake does a fantastic job, but I really don't think his character is, I don't know, memorable enough(?) to be that high or at all. And putting Tyler at the top, considering the rest of their top 10, seems like just a way to get people to talk about it & stir up disagreement. Luckily, that won't... dammit.
  • Hard to agree with half of that list. A few of my favorite characters from that list would be The Dude, Travis Bickle, and Daniel Plainview.

    What was the criteria for being one of the greatest? Probably similar to the popularity contests that makeup the greatest films of all time lists.
  • Arou101
    Probably because this is written by some kid just out of college, and hasn't watched much out of this last decade.

    ^That's just pure speculation.
  • I am conspicuously not on this list. This agression will not stand.
  • tractorbeam
    alex de large should NOT be this far down..
    that being said..
    not meaning to state the obvious but you can't go right with this kind of list. then again, their point isn't to actually fabricate on some fixed, reliable criteria (idealy speaking) a valid classification. no, it's just to get people agreeing or disagreeing.everyone should post (wherever they have the opportunity) their own list.empire would be at such a loss then
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