Real People
In some cases on the list, real people (portrayed by actors) or characters based on real people appear.
- Heroes: Alvin York, Erin Brockovich, George S. Patton, Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein, Lou Gehrig, Spartacus, Mahatma Gandhi, Butch Cassidy & Sundance, Oskar Schindler, T. E. Lawrence, Father Edward J. Flanagan, Frank Serpico and Karen Silkwood.
- Villains: William Bligh, Amon Göth, Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow, and Joan Crawford.
Two heroes, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Norma Rae Webster, were based on real-life people. Doyle was based on a New York City detective named Eddie Egan and Webster on southern mill worker Crystal Lee Jordan. The villain Norman Bates from Psycho was loosely based on real-life killer Ed Gein. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird is loosely based on Harper Lee's (the author of the book on which the film is based) real-life father. The villainous J.J. Hunsecker from Sweet Smell of Success was modeled on columnist Walter Winchell.
Read more about this topic: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes And Villains
Famous quotes containing the words real and/or people:
“A people’s literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can.”
—Edith Hamilton (1867–1963)
“In the capsule biography by which most of the people knew one another, I was understood to be an Air Force pilot whose family was wealthy and lived in the East, and I even added the detail that I had a broken marriage and drank to get over it.... I sometimes believed what I said and tried to take the cure in the very real sun of Desert D’Or with its cactus, its mountain, and the bright green foliage of its love and its money.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)