AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains
AFI's 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest movie heroes and villains (50 of each) chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The presentation program was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.[1]
| 1998 | 100 Movies |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 100 Stars |
| 2000 | 100 Laughs |
| 2001 | 100 Thrills |
| 2002 | 100 Passions |
| 2003 | 100 Heroes & Villains |
| 2004 | 100 Songs |
| 2005 | 100 Movie Quotes |
| 2005 | 25 Scores |
| 2006 | 100 Cheers |
| 2006 | 25 Musicals |
| 2007 | 100 Movies (Updated) |
| 2008 | AFI's 10 Top 10 |
The list
The characters
- Batman, It's a Wonderful Life, Schindler's List, and The Silence of the Lambs are the only films to have characters appear on both lists (the Alien is from Alien and Ripley is listed for the sequel, Aliens, Darth Vader is listed for The Empire Strikes Back and not Star Wars, the Terminator is listed under The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and James Bond is listed for Dr. No and not Goldfinger).
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is the only film to have two characters appear in the same list, Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi as heroes.
- Four characters from four separate Stanley Kubrick films appear; three on the villains list (Alex DeLarge, HAL 9000, and Jack Torrance) and one on the heroes list (Spartacus).
- The Terminator is the only character to be listed as both a villain (The Terminator) and a hero (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). (Note that, in the series, these are two different robots using the same name, built after an identical model.)
- Only nine heroines appear (counting Lassie from Lassie Come Home) and thirteen female villains (including the Alien from Alien).
- Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist is the youngest character on the list, being only 12 years of age.
The actors
- Gary Cooper is the only actor to appear three times on the list; in all three instances he appears on the heroes list. No actress appears more than twice.
- 10 actors have appeared twice on the same list; James Cagney, Robert Mitchum, and Jack Nicholson on the villains list, and Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, Peter O'Toole, Robert Redford, and James Stewart on the heroes list. Two actresses also appear twice on the same list, both as villains: Bette Davis and Faye Dunaway.
- Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the only actors to each appear on both lists; both appear once (Schwarzenegger appears on both lists portraying The Terminator, the only character on both lists, while Pacino appears portraying two different characters). No actress appears on both lists.
- Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas are the only family members to appear in the list. Each appears on the opposite side from the other; Michael Douglas at #24 on the villains list portraying Gordon Gekko, and Kirk Douglas at #22 on the heroes list portraying Spartacus.
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
One hero, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, is based on a real-life New York City detective named Eddie Egan and the villain Norman Bates from Psycho was based on real life killer Ed Gein.
External links
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains
- List of the 400 nominated screen characters
- List of the 50 winning heroes and 50 winning villains
- IMDb - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains