AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 50 greatest American movie heroes and villains chosen by American Film Institute in June of 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years... series. There was an accompanying CBS special that discussed the list presented by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In several cases the characters on the lists are seen in two or more films. The primary or original (if possible) film that character(s) was in is listed, or that film that was given particular attention during the program.
Trivia
- The actors who portrayed the #1 choices in both the "Hero" and "Villain" lists, Gregory Peck and Sir Anthony Hopkins respectively, won the Best Actor Academy Award for their roles.
- Humphrey Bogart, Harrison Ford, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and James Stewart are the only other actors to have portrayed multiple heroes. Cooper is the only actor to portray more than two characters in either of the lists.
- James Cagney, Bette Davis, Robert De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino are the only actors to have portrayed more than one villain.
- Pacino and Schwarzenegger are the only actors to have portrayed both a 'Hero' and 'Villain'
- The Terminator character is the only one to appear as a 'Hero' and a 'Villain.'
- Batman, It's A Wonderful Life, Star Wars, Schindler's List, and The Silence Of The Lambs are the only films to provide characters to both lists.
- 'Man' from Bambi is the only character on either list to never actually appear on-screen (unless one considers Satan from The Exorcist when referring to the possessed Regan MacNeil).
- T.E. Lawrence is the highest ranking non-fictional 'Hero,' while Amon Göth is the highest ranking non-fictional 'Villain.'
- Ironically, though not a single top ten villain is seen using a firearm on-screen, 8 of the top 10 heroes are (Rocky Balboa and George Bailey, numbers 7 and 9 respectively, did not).
- 3 of the heroes and 6 of the villains are not human.