List of Stock Characters
| ' | Character Name | Description | Examples |
| A | |||
| Absent-minded professor | An absent-minded scientific genius | Professor Calculus, Julius Kelp, Emmett Brown | |
| Action hero | A film hero protagonist with unrealistic physical resistance and fighting capabilities | John McClane; Rambo | |
| Alien invaders | Extraterrestrials who mount an invasion against Earth | War of the Worlds, Body Snatchers, Independence Day | |
| Anti-hero | A cowardly, antisocial or honorless protagonist | Tony Montana, Faust, Falstaff | |
| Archimime | A jester in Ancient Rome who imitated manners, gestures and speech of living and deceased famous people. | ||
| B | |||
| Bad boy (archetype) | A roguish macho | Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men), Johnny Strabler | |
| Battle-axe (woman) | A domineering, brash and brazen woman | Carrie Nation, Xena | |
| Bimbo | A dumb, pretty girl | Legally Blonde, Karen Smith (Mean Girls) | |
| Black brute | An inherently violent black man | Jules Winnfield, John Shaft; Gus in Birth of a Nation; Blaxploitation movies} | |
| Blackface | A black person played by a white person | Tropic Thunder, Birth of a Nation | |
| Black knight | Evil fighter antagonist | Modred, Nazgûl, Darth Vader | |
| Blonde stereotype | A pretty, but stupid blonde | Blonde and Blonder | |
| Boy next door | Average and nice guy | ||
| Breeches role | A role in which an actress appears in male clothing | Shakespeare in Love | |
| Bug-eyed monster | Staple evil alien; known familiarly in science fiction fandom as BEMs | Formics | |
| Byronic hero | A proud, moody and cynical man, yet capable of deep and strong affection | Childe Harold, Eugene Onegin | |
| C | |||
| Cat lady | Old woman overly concerned with her cats | Arabella Figg, Crazy Cat Lady | |
| Conanesque | character who lives adventures as Conan the Barbarian | Claw the Unconquered, Thongor of Lemuria | |
| Contender (stock character) | A competitive underdog | Rocky Balboa, Terry Maloy | |
| Crone | Malicious old woman, often occult or witch-like | Elli, Baba Yaga | |
| D | |||
| Damsel in distress | A noble Lady in need of rescue, traditionally from dragons | Princess Peach, Princess Buttercup, Princess and dragon;Daphne Blake | |
| Dark Lady (character) | A dark, malicious or doomed woman | Lady Macbeth | |
| Holmesian detective | A private or police detective who solves crimes by using logical deduction | Sherlock Holmes, Columbo, Hercule Poirot; Dick Tracy | |
| Hardboiled detective | A gruff, tough and streetwise, but generally honest detective | Sam Spade, John Hartigan, Philip Marlowe, Eddie Valiant | |
| E | |||
| Elderly martial arts master | A wise, powerful man teaching his powerful craft to a young student. Often needs to be avenged | Keisuke Miyagi, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Pai Mei, Splinter | |
| Esper | A telepathic human | Lincoln Powell in The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester Akira | |
| Essex girl | A promiscuous and stupid female (originally from Essex) | Amy Childs (The Only Way is Essex) | |
| Everyman | An ordinary individual | Everyman (play) | |
| Evil clown | An evil and chaotic clown | Pennywise, The Joker | |
| F | |||
| Fall guy | A scapegoat | ||
| Farmer's daughter | A desirable and naive young woman. She is also described as being an "open-air type" and "public-spirited". | ||
| Femme fatale | A beautiful, but mischievous and traitorous woman | Ruth Wonderly, Xenia Onatopp, Poison Ivy | |
| Final girl | A "last girl standing" in a horror film | Laurie Strode, Sally Hardesty, Lila Crane | |
| Fop | A foolish man overly concerned with his appearance and clothes | ||
| G | |||
| Gentle giant | A physically imposing but kind-hearted character. | Rubeus Hagrid, Bean (Ender's Game), John Coffey, Fezzik; | |
| Gentleman thief | A sophisticated and well-mannered thief | A.J. Raffles, Simon Templar, Arsène Lupin | |
| Geek | A generally not athletic fan of super heroes, science fiction and fantasy, especially of Video Games, Comic Books, Films and Roleplaying Games. | Roy Trenneman, Sheldon Cooper, Steve Smith | |
| Girl next door | An average girl with a wholesome conduct | Winnie Cooper | |
| Grande dame | French for "great lady". A flamboyant woman, prone to extravagant and eccentric fashion. Usually a stereotype of an elderly high society socialite. | Constance in Gosford Park, Princess Dragomiroff in Murder on the Orient Express; Clara Cluck in the Disney cartoons; | |
| H | |||
| Hag | A wizened old woman, often a malicious witch | Hansel and Gretel, Baba Yaga | |
| Harlequin | A clown or professional fool | Till Eulenspiegel | |
| Hawksian woman | A tough-talking woman, originally in a film by Howard Hawks | To Have and Have Not (film) | |
| Hero | A powerful and morally integer protagonist, often on a quest | Luke Skywalker, John Carter of Mars, Neo (The Matrix) | |
| Herr Pastor | An authoritarian pastor in an Ethnic German congregation | ||
| Hooker with a heart of gold | A prostitute with heart and intrinsic morality | Nancy (Oliver Twist), Fantine, Inara Serra | |
| Hotshot | A reckless character known for taking risks. Also referred to as a "Badass". | Martin Riggs, Pete Mitchell (Top Gun) | |
| I | |||
| Ingenue (stock character) | a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome | Ophelia, Cosette | |
| J | |||
| Jewish lawyer stereotype | A Jewish lawyer that is clever, greedy, exploitative and dishonest | Maurice Levy (The Wire) | |
| Jewish mother stereotype | A nagging, overprotective, controlling, smothering, and overbearing mother or wife | Kyle's Mom | |
| Jock (athlete) | A male athlete, often muscular, but not very smart | Tommy Ross, Luke Ward | |
| Jester | A prankster or fool, originally one employed by a king (court jester) | Puck | |
| Jewish-American princess stereotype | Materialistic and selfish Jewish girl with a pampered or wealthy background | Fran Fine, Princess Vespa in Spaceballs | |
| K | |||
| Killbot | Usually large, menacing machines created to perpetrate murder | Terminator | |
| Knight-errant | A noble Knight on a Quest | Galahad, Sir Gawain | |
| L | |||
| Legacy Hero | A hero who inherits or adopts the name and attributes of an already or previously existing hero | The Phantom, Green Lantern, Robin (comics) | |
| Lipstick lesbian | Lesbian and bisexual women who exhibit extremely feminine gender attributes | ||
| Little Green Men | Little humanoid extraterrestrials with green skin and antennae on their heads; known familiarly in science fiction fandom as LGM | The Great Gazoo; Martians in Martians, Go Home. | |
| Loathly lady | A woman who appears to be hideous, often cursed | The Wife of Bath's Tale | |
| Lone Vigilante | Loner who becomes a vigilante for Justice | Charles Bronson's Death Wish Movies; Dirty Harry; The Outlaw Josey Wales | |
| Lovers (stock characters) | Main characters who deeply and truly fall romantically in love, despite the blocking effect of other characters. Often moonstruck, star-crossed lovers that are strongly fraternizing with the enemy. | Romeo & Juliet Tony and Maria (West Side Story) Buttercup & Westley in The Princess Bride |
|
| M | |||
| Mad scientist | An insane or highly eccentric scientist, often villainous or amoral. | Dr. Frankenstein Dr. Moreau Emmett Brown Girl Genius |
|
| Magical Negro | A black man with special insight or mystical powers coming to the aid of the white protagonist | The Defiant Ones, Bagger Vance | |
| Mammy archetype | A rotund, homely, and matronly black woman | Aunt Jemima | |
| Manic Pixie Dream Girl | Usually static characters who have eccentric personality quirks and are unabashedly girlish | Garden State | |
| Marianismo | A female Latin American folk character celebrating feminine virtues like purity and moral strength | ||
| Martian | Dwellers on Mars. Often prone to invade earth. | Barsoom, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks. | |
| Mary Sue | A one-dimensional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, often considered a stand-in for the author | Wesley Crusher, Bella Swan | |
| Miles Gloriosus | A boastful soldier from the comic theatre of ancient Rome | ||
| Monster | A generic feral antagonist | Godzilla, Frankenstein's Monster, King Kong | |
| Mother's boy | A man who is excessively attached to his mother | Private Frank Pike | |
| N | |||
| Nerd | A socially-impaired, obsessive, or overly-intellectual person. Often interested in doing well in school (academically and in terms of behavior) as well as reading books. | Martin Prince, Maurice Moss, Lisa Simpson. | |
| Nice Jewish boy stereotype | A studious, gentle and sensitive Jewish boy. | Joel Glicker | |
| Noble savage | An idealized indigene or otherwise wild outsider with noble characteristics. | Tarzan, Winnetou, Chingachgook | |
| O | |||
| Outlaw (stock character) | A romanticized, often charismatic or social bandit. | Robin Hood, Billy the Kid | |
| P | |||
| Paladin | A holy knight, a paragon of virtue and goodness. | Knights of the Round Table | |
| Pantomime dame | A pantomime portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. | Widow Twankey | |
| Petrushka | A Russian kind of jester. | ||
| Princesse lointaine | A romantic love interest and beloved sweetheart and girlfriend for a Knight-errant. | Dulcinea. | |
| Professor (stock character) | A common generic name for fictional characters who fill the role of doctors, scientists, or mad scientists. | The Professor (Gilligan's Island) | |
| R | |||
| Rake (character) | A man habituated to immoral conduct. | Francis Charteris (rake), Lord Byron, Gully Foyle (The Stars My Destination). | |
| Redshirt (character) | An expendable character who dies soon after being introduced; this refers to characters from the original Star Trek television series, often from the security of engineering departments of the starship, who wore the red variation of the Starfleet uniform and whose purpose in the narrative was to serve as cannon fodder | Star Trek. | |
| Reluctant hero | A person who doesn't seek adventure or the opportunity to do good, and often doubts his or her abilities to rise to heroism. However, circumstances inevitably result in the character's becoming a true hero. | Bilbo Baggins, Han Solo from the Star Wars series, Neo from The Matrix. | |
| S | |||
| School diva | A well-liked or worshipped female student, who sees herself as an alpha female. | Blair Waldorf from the Gossip Girl TV and novel series. Regina George | |
| Secret identity | An alias a character may take so that he or she may act in secrecy. | Superman's alias Clark Kent, Spider-Man's alias Peter Parker, and Batman's alias Bruce Wayne. | |
| Senex iratus | A father figure and comic archetype who belongs to the alazon or impostor group in theater, manifesting himself through his rages and threats, his obsessions and his gullibility. | Pantalone in Commedia dell'arte; Frank Costanza (Seinfeld) | |
| Shoulder angel | A small angel representing conscience, in contrast to the shoulder devil representing temptation | ||
| Shrew (archetype) | A woman given to violent, scolding, particularly nagging treatment | Kate (The Taming of the Shrew) Lois (Malcolm in the Middle) | |
| Sidekick | A plucky but generally subordinate close companion of the protagonist | Robin, Dr. Watson, Sancho Panza | |
| Sinnekins | Pairs of devilish characters who exert their perfidious influence on the main character | Flotsam and Jetsam (The Little Mermaid), Hotep and Huy (The Prince of Egypt) | |
| Soubrette | A character who is vain and girlish, mischievous, lighthearted, coquettish and gossipy | ||
| Southern belle | A young woman of the American Old South's upper class | Blanche Dubois, Scarlett O'Hara | |
| Space Nazis | Nazi-like antagonists in science fiction works | Imperium (Warhammer 40,000) | |
| Space pirate | Pirates in outer space who travel by spacecraft | Captain Harlock | |
| Spear carrier | A minor character who appears in several scenes, but mostly in the background | ||
| Spinster | An older, childless woman who has never been married | Miss Havisham | |
| Spoiled child | A child who exhibits behavioral problems from overindulgence by his or her parents | Veruca Salt, Veronica Lodge | |
| Straw man (literature) | A symbol for people regarded as lacking needed qualities | ||
| Superhero | An unrealistically powerful hero dedicated to protecting the public | Superman, Spider-Man, Batman | |
| Übermensch | An (often only seemingly) ideal human being or a reference to the DC Comics character Superman | Superman, Captain America | |
| Supersoldier | A soldier who operates beyond human limits or abilities | Captain America; Cletus Grahame in Tactics of Mistake and other Dorsai soldiers in the science fiction novels by Gordon R. Dickson; Sergeant Todd in the movie Soldier. | |
| Supervillain | Antithesis to the Superhero | Lex Luthor, The Joker, and The Green Goblin. | |
| Swamp monster | Humanoid creatures similar to fish or resembling living piles of swamp mire | Man-Thing. | |
| Swashbuckler | A joyful, noisy and boastful swordsmen | Captain Jack Sparrow, Swashbuckler (list). | |
| T | |||
| Tarzanesque protagonist or Tarzanide | A character raised in the wilds, often by animals, akin to Tarzan created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. | Jo-Jo, Congo King, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Zago, Navee (Sillage) | |
| Tomboy | A girl with boyish and/or manly behavior. | Juno Macguff | |
| Tortured artist | A character who is in constant torment due to frustrations with art and other people. | Brian Topp | |
| Town bully | A bully oppressing meeker residents of a town. | Biff Tannen, Nelson Muntz. | |
| Town drunk | A male in a small town who is drunk more often than sober. | Barney Gumble, Haymitch Abernathy | |
| Tragic hero | A hero with a major flaw that leads to his or her eventual death and downfall. | Sigurd, Boromir | |
| Tragic mulatto | A mulatto who is sad or suicidal because he or she fails to fit in with white or black people | Judy Kovacs in the episode Are You Now or Have You Ever Been in the television series Angel. | |
| Travesti (theatre) | Portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex | ||
| Tycoon | A person who wields considerable power through economic means, often, but not always, acting at the expense of the less fortunate | Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons". | |
| U | |||
| Undead Villian | Villain that is killed off in one story-but still comes back alive in next story | Professor Moriarty In two Sherlock Holmes Movies}; Mumbles, B.B. Eyes, Pruneface {Dick Tracy soap opera crime fighting comic strip-one particular dead villian Flattop keeps coming back as reincarnations of various members of his family} | |
| V | |||
| Valley girl | Affluent white women or teenagers characterized by speaking Valspeak and a vapid materialism | Gretchen Wieners | |
| Vice (character) | An allegorical evil part in medieval morality plays. | ||
| Villain | An evil character in a story | Snidely Whiplash, Fu Manchu | |
| W | |||
| Whisky priest | A priest or ordained minister who shows clear signs of moral weakness, while at the same time teaching a higher standard | Father Callahan | |
| White hunter | White big-game hunters in Africa | Allan Quatermain | |
| Wise fool | A fool with an attribute of wisdom | Shakespearean fool, such as in King Lear; Stańczyk | |
| Wise old man | An elderly character who provides wisdom to the protagonist. | Albus Dumbledore, Yoda, Gandalf | |
| Y | |||
| Yokel | An unsophisticated country person | Rose Nylund, Cletus Spuckler | |
| Youxia | A Chinese type of the Knight-errant | Li Mu-Bai, Fong Sai-yuk | |
| Z | |||
| Zombie | Animated corpses prone to eating humans and thus spreading their condition. Often caused by Voodoo practices or viral agents. | Dawn of the Dead, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later |
Read more about this topic: Tarzanesque
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, stock and/or characters:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“No one of the characters in my novels has originated, so far as I know, in real life. If anything, the contrary was the case: persons playing a part in my life—the first twenty years of it—had about them something semi-fictitious.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)