Rahul Sharma (Editor)

AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
1998
  
100 Movies

2000
  
100 Laughs

2002
  
100 Passions

1999
  
100 Stars

2001
  
100 Thrills

2003
  
100 Heroes & Villains

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the one-hundred greatest screen characters (fifty each in the hero and villain categories) as chosen by the American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years... series. The list was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The presentation programme was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.

Contents

The characters

  • The Silence of the Lambs and It's a Wonderful Life are the only films to place a character in the top ten of both lists. In addition, Batman, and Schindler's List are the only other films to have characters appear on both lists.
  • Four franchises have both a hero and villain listed for separate films: the Alien is from Alien while Ellen Ripley is listed for the sequel, Aliens; Darth Vader is listed for The Empire Strikes Back while Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi are cited for A New Hope; the Terminator is listed as a villain for The Terminator and as a hero for Terminator 2: Judgment Day; and James Bond is listed for Dr. No while Auric Goldfinger of Goldfinger was the only Bond villain cited.
  • The Terminator is the only character to be listed as both a villain (The Terminator) and a hero (Terminator 2: Judgment Day).  Within the films, these are different but physically identical characters, both played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Four characters from four different Stanley Kubrick films appear: three villains (Alex DeLarge, HAL 9000, and Jack Torrance) and one hero (Spartacus).
  • On each list, there appears only a single character of African descent: Virgil Tibbs as a hero for In the Heat of the Night and Alonzo Harris as a villain for Training Day.
  • Only eight human heroines and fifteen villainesses are listed. The heroine Lassie is female, though she was portrayed by a male dog in all television shows and movies featuring the character.
  • Twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist is the youngest human character on the list.  However, the evil dæmon that possessed her throughout the film, Pazuzu, is implied to be centuries, if not millennia, old.
  • Lassie, the Terminator, and Superman are the only non-human heroes.  The shark from Jaws, the Terminator, HAL 9000, the Martians, and the Alien are the only non-human villains.
  • In Bambi, "Man" specifically refers to the man who killed Bambi's mother. He is also the only character on either list not to appear on screen in any way.
  • Only three characters from animated films appear, all as villains: Queen Grimhilde, "Man", and Cruella de Vil.  All are in Walt Disney Animation Studios films.

    • 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.
  • Twelve actors appear twice on the same list: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, and Jack Nicholson on the villains list; and Humphrey Bogart, Faye Dunaway, Henry Fonda, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and James Stewart on the heroes list.
  • Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the only actors to appear on both lists. Schwarzenegger appears on both lists portraying different Terminators, while Pacino appears as characters from unrelated films.
  • Out of all the actors who appear on the list, twenty-one of them—Kathy Bates, Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Russell Crowe, Robert Donat, Michael Douglas, Sally Field, Louise Fletcher, Jodie Foster, Gene Hackman, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Frances McDormand, Gregory Peck, Julia Roberts, George C. Scott, Kevin Spacey, Spencer Tracy, Denzel Washington, and John Wayne—received Academy Awards for their performances. Gary Cooper won twice, once for Will Kane and once for Alvin York (he also received a third nomination, for the role of Lou Gehrig).  Of the remaining actors, Judith Anderson, Anne Baxter, Warren Beatty, Linda Blair, Humphrey Bogart, Glenn Close, Bette Davis, Geena Davis, Faye Dunaway, Ralph Fiennes, Henry Fonda, Alec Guinness, Angela Lansbury, Charles Laughton, Paul Muni, Liam Neeson, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole, Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Sylvester Stallone, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Meryl Streep, and Sigourney Weaver were also nominated, but did not win.

    • References

    AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA