50 Tommy DeVito – If this character can have a wiener like Joe Pesci walk away looking like a tough guy, then you know that this character is pretty convincing.
49 Gollum – The creepy creature from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He was true to the books.
48 Harry Potter – The nerdy little kid was the trendiest thing going, for several years. His popularity was helped by the fact that he aged in real time. Over the course of seven or eight years of books and movies, he aged seven or eight years. Kids grew up with him. And his stories evolved too, morphing from children’s tales to something decidedly grimmer.
47 Tony Montana – Scarface. Enough said. Well okay, one more thing.
46 Gordon Gekko – Everyone’s favorite money-hungry Wall Street player…
45 Inigo Montoya – One of my favorite scenes of all time. I love watching Princess Bride with my kids to this day…
44 Jason Voorhees – Single-handedly made the chainsaw-slash-hockey-mask an integral part of Halloween and horror flicks. Put Friday the 13th on the map in popular culture.
43 Doc Holiday -I loved this movie (Tombstone). This was my favorite character in it. And this was my favorite scene:
42 Captain Jean-Luc Picard – A fine choice to take the Star Trek mantle from Captain Kirk.
41 Chewbacca – Everybody knows Chewie. And those few who may not, would be under the age of 10…and soon they’ll be introduced to him in Star Wars, The Force Awakens. “Punch it, Chewie!”
40 Morpheus – Just seeing Lawrence Fishburne with a shaved head in a leather trenchcoat and shades brings to mind The Matrix.
39 John McClane – The tough guy from all the Die Hard movies put Bruce Willis on the map as an action hero.
38 Boba Fett – Cool uniform. Cool name. Cool movie presence. By saying pretty much nothing during the Star Wars trilogy other than a couple of lines, Boba Fett became a legend. To the point where they went deeper into his backstory in the prequels, as well as many, many appearances in the Star Wars Expanded Universe books.
37 Austin Powers – A pretty funny set of movies. Not the funniest, but still funny. But that aside, the character is recognizable and heavily imitated.
36 The Joker – A brilliant character played masterfully by Jack Nicholson and then even better by Heath Ledger. Those two served to push this villain over the top.
35 Ferris Bueller – I was 12 when this movie came out. I can’t say for sure, but I think the peak popularity of Ferris was for ages 12 through 20.
34 Billy the Kid – I was a big fan of the Young Guns franchise and Billy the Kid was central to that.
33 Eric Draven – The Crow. Brandon Lee’s real-life death was tragic. He would have been a huge star, in my opinion. Draven was an amazing, memorable character.
32 Tony Stark (Iron Man) – This is one case where the movie did even better than the comic. Stark is hilarious, Iron Man is bad ass.
31 Spoc – Truly one of the most well known movie characters in history. I hardly need to justify this spot. Live long and prosper.
30 Robin Hood – With all the reboots happening these days, I’m surprised one wasn’t done for Robin Hood. Wait, there was? Oh right. Forgettable. I remember the 90s version with Kevin Costner. Completely forgot the 2010 version. Regardless, Robin Hood is legendary in books, movies, cartoons and everywhere else.
29 Ace Ventura – Jim Carrey at his finest. These movies spawned a set of quotes that university students would quote for years…
28 Gandalf – The wizard who started it all. And I’m not just talking the LOTR trilogy. I mean – all high fantasy. Since Lord of the Rings is generally regarded as the father of all high fantasy novels, and Gandalf started it all…then by extension he really did start it all.
27 E.T. – At this point, if you find out someone you know hasn’t seen E.T., you respond with “WHAT?” and insist that they watch it. Immediately. Why is that?
26 Jules Winnfield – Samuel L. Jackson is cool. The characters he plays are cool. And this one from Pulp Fiction is the coolest.
25 Captain America – Like Iron Man, Captain America is another comic book character brought to life in the movies even better. I like the Iron Man character better, but there is no denying that Captain America is more famous.
24 John Rambo – In the 80s there was nobody more bad ass than Rambo. As a little boy, if you were playing a kick-ass hero with a gun, you were pretending you were Rambo. Period.
23 Tyler Durden – In terms of pure “cool factor”, does any character rank above him?
22 Keyser Soze – I don’t know if it’s the character itself, or the surprising twist in Usual Suspects that revealed who he is. Probably both…
21 Freddy Krueger – The “Nightmare” himself…
20 Frank Drebin – Timeless. These movies still make me laugh more than most movies that come out today…
19 Rocky Balboa – Boxing may be a dead sport (and good riddance), but Rocky movies (and now “Creed”) will live on. I wonder if these eventually morph into a MMA series?
18 Raymond Babbitt – Hilarious, clever, unique movie. And Ray was quoted in my circle of friends daily. Hourly. Yeah. Definitely.
17 Obi-Wan Kenobi – I’m probably biased with this one having read about 50 books with him in it over the last three years, as well as seeing over 100 shows (The Clone Wars). But he is a key part of four of the Star Wars movies to date.
16 Captain Kirk – Star Trek built a franchise around he and Mr. Spoc.
15 Jason Bourne – To me he’s the most compelling action star that is not a superhero. Not as famous as 007, but that’s a reflection of history and tenure as opposed to storyline and talent.
14 Luke Skywalker – Needs no introduction. The only living Jedi, when last the movies left off (though the books say otherwise).
13 Don Vito Corleone – Such a great character that he would be in the Top 10 had he not died in the first Godfather movie.
12 The Terminator – Conan may have gotten Arnold Schwarzenegger started, but The Terminator put him on the map.
11 Spider-Man – I didn’t mind any of the movies. I didn’t love them, but didn’t hate them. The anger towards the movie franchise seems overblown. At any rate, Spidey has worldwide recognition and any movie released with him in it will make well into the nine digits.
10 Batman – At this point in the list, we’re well into the legends. Without knowing this stat for sure, I’d guess that Batman was the most popular Halloween costume this year?
9 Yoda – So ingrained in our culture that the word “yoda” is now in many dictionaries.
8 Michael Corleone – The Godfather himself
7 Indiana Jones – Forty years ago, someone floating the idea of an adventure movie starring a cool archaeologist would have been laughed out of the room.
6 Superman – Such a great and popular character that DC keeps flubbing the movies and yet they still keep trying…and people keep watching them.
5 Neo – I could watch the Matrix over and over.
4 Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker – Speaker of the most famous line in movie history:
3 James Bond (007) – The famous spy has spawned 24 movies and I’ve seen them all. The father of the cool car and the cool gadgets.
2 Wolverine (Logan) – The coolest comicbook character is the coolest movie character. And the toughest. Really well done, how they brought him to life.
1 Han Solo – No.1 on a lot of these lists, the scruffy-looking smuggler from the Star Wars franchise is tops on mine.
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