75 Best *Original* Film Characters

This is one of those niggling ideas I kept have bounce around my head until I finally made a list:

What are the best *original* movie characters?

Not based on a play, novel, comic, short story, TV show, action figure, video game, or historical figure: Written entirely for the big screen. What you end up with is a fascinating, peculiar, list. Many of the best characters in cinema, of course, come from adaptations (Tracy Lord, portrayed by Hepburn, in The Philadelphia Story). Some greatest performers are left out entirely (not a *single* Meryl Streep performance applies!). It’s a bit of a mishmash, really, hampered even further by the fact that many iconic original characters I’ve never personally seen – so I didn’t feel comfortable adding them. This is why, for so long, I shied away from making this list. But the idea wouldn’t let me go, so here it is.

That said, based on my findings and personal film journey, here’s who I came up with. Note: No film features more than once (otherwise we’d have, like, 10 Star Wars characters), and, unless I’m mistaken, I avoided repeats by performers, as well, for greater diversity.

 

Alma – Persona

Alma – The Phantom Thread

Amelie – Amelie

Annie – Bridesmaids

Annie Hall – Annie Hall

Antoine – The 400 Blows

Apu – Pather Panchali

Beatrix Kiddo – Kill Bill

Blondie – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Charles Foster Kane – Citizen Kane

Chris Washington – Get Out

Clementine – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Darth Vader – Star Wars

Deloris – Sister Act

Django – Django Unchained

Doc Brown – Back to the Future

Don Lockwood – Singin’ in the Rain

Edna Mote – The Incredibles

Elle – Hiroshima mon Amour

Evelyn Quan Wang – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Ferris Bueller – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Florence – Cleo from 5 to 7

Furiosa – Mad Max: Fury Road

Gelsomina – La Strada

Giselle – Enchanted

Guido – 8 ½

Hans Beckert – M

Harry Lime – The Third Man

Howard Beale – Network

Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Jay and Silent Bob – Clerks

Jeanne Dielman – Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Jim – Rebel Without a Cause

John Keating – Dead Poets Society

Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction

King Kong – King Kong

Lady Bird – Lady Bird

Lilo – Lilo and Stitch

Linnea – Nashville

Marge Gunderson – Fargo

Maria – Metropolis

Marianne – Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Mathilde – Leon: The Professional

Max Bialystok – The Producers

Miguel – Coco

Mrs. Robinson – The Graduate

Neo – The Matrix

Noah Cross – Chinatown

Norma Desmond – Sunset Boulevard

Otto West – A Fish Called Wanda

Penny Lane – Almost Famous

Phil Connors – Groundhog Day

Phillip Vandamm – North by Northwest

Prince Akeem – Coming to America

Princess Ann – Roman Holiday

Regina George – Mean Girls

Rick – Casablanca

Ripley – Alien

Rocky Balboa – Rocky

Rufus T. Firefly – Duck Soup

Sanjuro – Yojimbo

Sen – Spirited Away

Shaun – Shaun of the Dead

Sherrif Bart – Blazing Saddles

Terry Malloy – On the Waterfront

The Dude – The Big Lebowski

The Girl – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

The Terminator – The Terminator

The Tramp – City Lights

Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver

Truman Burbank – The Truman Show

Watanabe – Ikiru

Willaim Somerset – Seven

Winifred – Hocus Pocus

Woody – Toy Story