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:
“Of what is real I say,
Is it the old, the roseate parent or
The bride come jingling, kissed and cupped, or else
The spirit and all ensigns of the self?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)