Favorite film characters

[Jeb]

Jason Bourne
played by: Matt Damon

Indiana Jones
played by: Harrison Ford

Tyler Durden
played by: Brad Pitt

Travis Bickle
played by: Robert De Niro

Michael Corleone
played by: Al Pacino

John McClane
played by: Bruce Willis

Norman Bates
played by: Anthony Perkins

Charles Foster Kane
played by: Orson Welles

Forrest Gump
played by: Tom Hanks

James Bond
played by: various

Neo
played by: Keanu Reeves

The Terminator
played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Tony Montana
played by: Al Pacino

Jack Torrance
played by: Jack Nicholson

The Bride
played by: Uma Thurman

Rocky Balboa
played by: Sylvester Stallone

Name yours.

[cagedwisdom]

While I agree on most of your favorites I'd like to mention Tony Montana from your list as a standout. He is fantastic.

To add a few:

Malcolm Reynolds (from Serenity)
played by: Nathan Fillion
(in my eyes the perfect hero, I can't get enough of captain tight-pants)

Oh Dae-su (from Oldboy)
played by: Min-sik Choi
(unlike The Bride in Kill Bill (don't really care for the films, and at least not the character), this guy is vengeance done right)

Ivan (from Adam's Apples)
played by: Mads Mikkelsen
(one of the most absurdly hilarious characters ever)

Special Agent Dale Cooper (from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)
played by: Kyle Maclachlan
(yes I know he only has a tiny role in the film as opposed to the TV series but he still deserves a mention)

The Joker (from Batman/The Dark Knight)
played by: Jack Nicholson/Heath Ledger
(an obvious mention but come on, he's pretty much the ultimate villain)

Rick Blaine (from Casablanca)
played by: Humphrey Bogart

Vito Corleone (from The Godfather)
played by: Marlon Brando
(I personally favor him over Michael)

Paul Edgecomb (from The Green Mile)
played by: Tom Hanks

There are many more characters I love pretty much unconditionally, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Good thread, by the way.

(I added the films the characters were from because the name "Ivan" doesn't really hold any weight without knowing what film he's from, and I couldn't find a last name on him. Put the rest of the films in for consistency. )

[paulofilmo]

Billy Kwan - The Year of Living Dangerously
Johnny - Naked
Alex - A Clockwork Orange
Robert Eroica Dupea - Five Easy Pieces
Furious Styles - Boyz n the Hood
Tristan - Legends of The Fall
Roger - Roger Dodger
The Tramp - The Circus/Gold Rush
The Boy (Toshio, or something) - Only Yesterday
Addison DeWitt - All About Eve (and pretty much every other George Sanders character)
Harold and Maude
Leeloo - The Fifth Element
The Shrink - Good Will Hunting
Blondie - GBU
Henry Van Cleve - Heaven Can Wait
The Princess/Death - Orphee
Ripley
Mr. Rochester - Jane Eyre
Joe Black - Meet Joe Black
Cyrano de Bergerac
Camilla - The Golden Coach
Denis Dimbleby Bagley - How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Withnail
Lady with Red Dress Memory - After Life
John J. Macreedy - Bad Day at Black Rock
Ester - The Silence
George and Martha - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Phil - All or Nothing
Most of the cast - My Darling Clementine
Tamsin - My Summer of Love
Léon
Father/Ivan - The Return
Any character from any Shane Meadows movie
Bill and Ted
Debraj Sahai - Black
Ivan - Ivan's Childhood
Leonard - Memento
Pocahontas - The New World
Olivier - The Son
J.J. Hunsecker - Sweet Smell of Success
Joe Oramas and Finbar - The Station Agent
Joker - TDK
The kids in - Whisper of the Heart
Schmidt - About Schmidt
Patrick Bateman - American Psycho
Irene Jansen - Dark Passage
Keane
Rupert Pupkin/Masha - King of Comedy
Everyone in Kung Fu Hustle
Peter Carter - A Matter of Life and Death
Joe Buck - Midnight Cowboy
Gordon and Selina - Patch of Blue
David Sumner - Straw Dogs
H.I. and Ed - Raising Arizona
They're not characters, but as good as. Everyone in - American Movie
Ana - Spirit of the Beehive
Ameilie
Bourne
Clarice/Lecter - Silence of the Lambs
Mrs. Appleyard - Picnic at Hanging Rock
Richard B. Riddick - Pitch Black
Dorota - A Generation
Martin Q. Blank - Grosse Pointe Blank
Nick Naylor - Thank You for Smoking
Grandmother - The Way Home
John Horatio Malkovich - Being John Malkovich
Old dude with the fiddle - Bride of Frankenstein
Billy Brown - Buffalo '66
Okwe - Dirty Pretty Things
Alma Brown - Hud
Carol Beldon - Mrs. Miniver

[MmzHrrdb]

Travis Bickle is, if not my favorite character ever, certainly in the top five. He's so complex; disturbed, frightening, violent, yet his problems are the same that many of us have had. In the words of Roger Ebert: "Many of us have felt as lonely as Travis. Most of us are better at dealing with it." He's a truly tragic character, and De Niro's performance is, of course, off-the-charts amazing.

Preacher Harry Powell from The Night of the Hunter is one of my favorite villains for sure. He's such an interesting mixture of horror-movie villainy and snake-oil-salesman charm. There's this sort of sexual evil to his character that makes him that much more menacing. The movie utilizes his presence (and lack thereof) brilliantly.

Jef Costello from Le Samourai is the ultimate example of an actor embodying a character. I can hardly remember a word Jef speaks in that movie, but he's portrayed so well through visuals and actions that it doesn't matter. It essentially operates as a silent film.

[Pickpocket]

Fred C. Dobbs
Joel from Eternal Sunshine
Daniel Plainview
Celine from Before Sunset/Sunrise
Nobody from Dead Man
Frank "TJ" Mackey
Antoine Doinel

[Bojangles]

Dignan

[Jeb]

Dirty Harry

"You feeling lucky punk?"

[Grit]

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherf**ker."

Also, the Man with No Name and Col. Douglas Mortimer from For A Few Dollars More.

[MmzHrrdb]

Antoine Doinel

Word.

Besides some of the best ones that have already been mentioned, like Travis Bickle, Jack Torrance, or Norman Bates...

Allen Baron as Frankie Bono in Blast of Silence. He's sort of pre-Bickle, though not taken to such extremes. Isolated, and somewhat disturbed, and he becomes more vulnerable as the film goes on.

Tatsuya Nakadai as Ryunosuke Tsukue in The Sword of Doom. Just pure evil, possibly schizophrenic, and by the end has descended into complete insanity.

HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, voiced by Douglas Rain. He displays the most humanistic traits out of all the characters in the film. Raises a thoughtful question about whether a machine can gain consciousness.

Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. Insane, powerful, brilliant.

Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai. Childish, but very sympathetic and occasionally showing a moment of wisdom. Just really fun to watch. Mifune steals every scene.

Al Pacino as Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon. A very nuanced performance, and the embodiment of anti-establishment in the 70's. One of the best anti-heroes ever.

[MmzHrrdb]

May - portrayed by Angela Bettis in "May" (Lucky McKee, 2002)
Anthony - portrayed by Toby Kebbel in "Dead Man's Shoes" (Shane Meadows, 2004)
Maggie Fitzgerald - portrayed by Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby" (Clint Eastwood, 2004)
Frank'n'Furter - portrayed by Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (Jim Sharman, 1975)
Andy Dufresne - portrayed by Tim Robbins in "The Shawshank Redemption" (Frank Darabont, 1994)
Red - portrayed by Morgan Freeman in "The Shawshank Redemption" (Frank Darabont, 1994)
Leatherface - portrayed by Gunnar Hansen in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Carrie - portrayed by Sissy Spacek in "Carrie" (Brain De Palma, 1976)
Freddy Krueger - portrayed by Robert Englund in the first two "A Nightmare on Elm Street" films (Wes Craven, 1984)
Leprechaun - portrayed by Warwick Davis in the "Leprechaun" series (Mark Jones, 1993)
Ed Wood - portrayed by Johnny Depp in "Ed Wood" (Tim Burton, 1994)
Cindy - portrayed by Anna Faris in the "Scary Movie" series (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000)
Samantha Caine - portrayed by Geena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight" (Renny Harlin, 1996)
Regan - portrayed by Linda Blair in "The Exorcist" (William Friedkin, 1973)
Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride - portrayed by Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
Travis Bickle - portrayed by Robert De Niro in "Taxi Driver" (Martin Scorcese, 1976)
Gilbert - portrayed by Michael Redgrave in "The Lady Vanishes" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)
Iris - portayed by Margaret Lockwood in "The Lady Vanishes" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)
Neil McCormick - portrayed by Joseph Gordon Levitt in "Mysterious Skin" (Gregg Araki, 2004)
Ash - portrayed by Bruce Campbell in the "Evil Dead" series (Sam Raimi, 1981, 1987)
Selena - portrayed by Naomie Harris in "28 Days Later" (Danny Boyle, 2002)
Jim - portrayed by Cillian Murphy in "28 Days Later" (Danny Boyle, 2002)
Chucky - portrayed by Brad Dourif in the "Child's Play" series (Tom Holland, 1988)

I'm probably missing out a few.