Iconic Characters Part 2

10 April 2009

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Our countdown of cinema's most iconic characters continues today as we look at those that have come in at fifteen to eleven.

And on the chart today is an alien killer, a former creature formerly known as Smeagol and a Hitchcock killer.

15. Norman Bates
Played by Anthony Perkins

Norman Bates was created by writer Robert Bloch as the villain of his novel Psycho. Based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein, Bates suffered severe emotional abuse as a child as the hands of his mother.

The two lived alone, after the death of his father, where she preached that women and sex were evil.
After his mother took a lover Bates killed them both through jealousy and preserved his mother's corpse.

Bates developed a dissociative identity disorder taking on his mother's personality as a way of repressing the fact that he had killed her.

Anthony Perkins took on the role of Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror movie Psycho.

14. Gollum
Played by Andy Serkis

Gollum was introduced in J.R.R Tolkein's novel The Hobbit before going on to appear in his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Originally known as Smeagol the character of Gollum has his life extended beyond his natural limit due to possessing the One Ring. After losing the ring to Bilbo Baggins he has pursued the ring for seventy six years.

He befriends Frodo on his journey to destroy the ring so he can one again possess it.

But it was to be the character of Gollum that was to be the biggest challenge when the books were adapted for the big screen. Using a mixture of computer animation and motion capture, which involved actor Andy Serkis in a suit that recorded all of his movement, the character was born.

This way of bringing Gollum to life has been able to bring characters like The Hulk and Sonny in Will Smith's I, Robot to the big screen.

13. John McClane
Played by Bruce Willis

John McClane was one of the biggest action icons of the late eighties and early nineties as the maverick cop who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

John McClane works as detective lieutenant with the New York City Police Department, during the course of his career he found himself at the Takagi Corporation’s Christmas party when Hans Gruber, a relentless businessman, uses guns, explosives to storm the building in order to steal ,millions of dollars in bearer bonds from the company.

In 1990 McClane was once again caught up in events when a group of terrorists take over air control leaving him with the task of stopping the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash.

Die Hard with a Vengeance sees McClane pit his wits against Simon Gruber with New York City at stake.

At the heart of the Die Hard movies it McClane's everyman quality he fights because he believes it's what anyone would do it's also his job and what his badge stands for.

In 2007 McClane returned after a twelve year absence when he accidentally gets caught up in cyber terrorism after being told to pick up Matthew Farrell where the pair are almost assassinated.

12. Don Vito Corleone
Played by Marlon Brando

Despite taking on the role of Don Vito Corleone late on in his career Marlon Brando's performance in The Godfather is considered one of the greatest of his career, so much so he won an Oscar for it.

The Godfather tells an epic tale of Mafia life in America during the 1940s and 1950s. Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the family patriarch balancing a love of his family with an ambitious criminal instinct.

He is depicted as an ambitious Italian immigrant who moves to Hell's Kitchen and builds a Mafia empire, yet retains (and strictly adheres to) his own personal code of honour.

11. Ellen Ripley

Played by Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver’s role of Ellen Ripley in four movies of the Alien franchise broke many gender stereotypes in the science fiction genre by featuring a strong heroine.

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