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Forrest Gump voted the 'greatest film character of all time’
The Telegraph ^ | 03/24/2011 | Paul Thompson

Posted on 03/24/2011 9:09:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Out of more than half a million films made by Hollywood the character portrayed by Tom Hanks ranked top in the biggest ever poll of moviegoers.

The 1994 film was a box office hit and critically acclaimed with Hanks’ performance earning him the Oscar for Best Actor.

Audiences adored Gump as they followed his life from a child to adulthood as he took part in many of the pivotal events of the 1960s and 1970s.

The film, which took more than £500m at the box office, was based on the 1986 novel written by American author Winston Groom.

The film was also known for many of Gump’s phrases, such as “My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

While Gump was the runaway winner, British secret agent James Bond was named as the second greatest film character.

007 has endured for almost 50 years after being created by author Ian Fleming.

Daniel Craig is the latest film Bond following in the footsteps of Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

Scarlett O’Hara was rated as the third most memorable character.

The performance by British star Vivien Leigh as the feisty southern belle in the epic “Gone with the Wind” made her the only female character in the top five.

Anthony Hopkins performance as Hannibal Lecter helped the cannibalistic serial killer rate fourth in the poll.

Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, was named as the fifth most popular character.

More than 500,000 people took part in the survey carried out by ABC TV and People magazine.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: filmcharacter; forrestgump
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To: shield

Or Tommy Lee Jone’s character.


141 posted on 03/24/2011 10:45:15 AM PDT by wordsofearnest (Evan Bayh gave Indiana a twofer.)
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To: catman67

Just because Dennis Hopper deserves some mention.

142 posted on 03/24/2011 10:46:04 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Mouton

You must be about 80. Not to be rude but those are seriously old movies. I have not viewed one of them. I saw a part or two of Gone with the Wind but how boring was that movie. The sets are so fake.


143 posted on 03/24/2011 10:47:25 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: myrabach

Space Balls is another favorite... I know just about all the lines by now. Fond memories of sitting in front of the tv with my son who knew all the lines as well, and rolling on the floor laughing together. Now how many movies can recall those kinds of memories! Certainly not Forrest Gump.

Another Mel Brooks, Young Frankenstein, Marty Feldman “Hump? What hump?” the lines are a scream!


144 posted on 03/24/2011 10:48:27 AM PDT by myrabach
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To: camle
best movie? ben hur.

Great choice! I have Ben Hur at a close second to Doctor Zhivago.

My top 5 movie characters:
Dirty Harry
James Bond
Matthew Quigley
Indiana Jones
Rambo

145 posted on 03/24/2011 10:48:54 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: myrabach
Space Balls is another favorite... I know just about all the lines by now

Greatest cameo appearance, ever.


146 posted on 03/24/2011 10:49:43 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Migraine

Dr Zhivago is also my favorite, I can’t decide who was the better character, Zhivago or Pasha (Strelnikov).


147 posted on 03/24/2011 10:50:57 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: napscoordinator

Look at it this way sonny, I saw those movies and those since and stand by my selections about characters. BTW, Gekko was a character from two movies, one from 85 and one from 2010, so you must be a todler to consider them all old.


148 posted on 03/24/2011 10:52:36 AM PDT by Mouton (Government expands to fill any voids in freedom.)
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To: Retired Greyhound
Best TV character of all time: there are many. Archie Bunker is one

Ralph Kramden is in the same vein, and unimaginably good at it.

I also enjoyed Columbo...

And then there was John Madden, being himself...

149 posted on 03/24/2011 10:53:45 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: allmendream

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/

Alvin C. York had been approached by producer Jesse Lasky several times, beginning in 1919, to allow a movie to be made of his life, but had refused, believing that “This uniform ain’t for sale.” Lasky convinced York that, with war threatening in Europe, it was his patriotic duty to allow the film to proceed. York finally agreed - but only on three conditions. First, York’s share of the profits would be contributed to a Bible School York wanted constructed. Second, no cigarette smoking actress could be chosen to play his wife. Third, that only Gary Cooper, could recreate his life on screen. Cooper at first turned down the role, but when York himself contacted the star with a personal plea, Cooper agreed to do the picture.


Alvin: Well I’m as much agin’ killin’ as ever, sir. But it was this way, Colonel. When I started out, I felt just like you said, but when I hear them machine guns a-goin’, and all them fellas are droppin’ around me... I figured them guns was killin’ hundreds, maybe thousands, and there weren’t nothin’ anybody could do, but to stop them guns. And that’s what I done.

Maj. Buxton: Do you mean to tell me that you did it to save lives?

Alvin: Yes sir, that was why.

Maj. Buxton: [amazed] Well, York, what you’ve just told me is the most extraordinary thing of all!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyF9KKUeds8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f68TdgErXkE


150 posted on 03/24/2011 10:55:54 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Pay heed to your principled position and you won't have to worry about your political position.)
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To: allmendream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmRRhxo0RHc&feature=related


151 posted on 03/24/2011 11:00:28 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (Pay heed to your principled position and you won't have to worry about your political position.)
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To: myrabach
Another Mel Brooks, Young Frankenstein, Marty Feldman “Hump? What hump?” the lines are a scream!

"Igor, help me with the bags."

"Soitenly. You take the blonde, I'll take the one in the turban."

152 posted on 03/24/2011 11:02:40 AM PDT by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: Sacajaweau

I hate that stupid movie. I would rather stick nails in my eyes than listen to that stupid Tom Hanks act like a retard.


153 posted on 03/24/2011 11:04:45 AM PDT by angcat (DEAR GOD PLEASE SAVE US!)
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To: commish

He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker.

That goes w/o saying.

He’s going to be very popular.


154 posted on 03/24/2011 11:07:56 AM PDT by wordsofearnest (Evan Bayh gave Indiana a twofer.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Honorable Mention?


155 posted on 03/24/2011 11:09:51 AM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: SeekAndFind

Watched the Patriot last night with my 14 year old daughter....that is an exceptional movie!


156 posted on 03/24/2011 11:12:20 AM PDT by oust the louse (Mr. Obama is a left-wing ideologue who believes in the greatness of Fedzilla.)
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To: dfwgator

My favorite character in Zhivago is by far Gen. Yevgraf (the narrator, Alec Guiness). You can hear in his inflections that he, looking back, was not all that enamored with the methods and brutal outcomes of Communism.
He was on fire, at first, like Pasha Antipov (Strelnikov), who flipped out and wanted mommy when it all came crashing down around him.
Then, reality set in for Yevgraf. He seems to have valued Russian-ism much more highly than Soviet-ism in the end. In that sense, he was a patriot, which is admirable. And he seemed to value family and individual artistic achievement more than the sterile collectivism in the end; and in that sense, he was not only a patriot but a downright civilized one. And he was telling the story because it needed to be told, for all the right reasons.
One thing I love about this film, aside from the fact that David Lean shows himself to have been Rembrandt with a 70mm camera, is the fact that for every situation I see on the world scene today, I can quote you a cogent line from the movie.
I’m glad to know there are at least two other Zhivago devotees on here (beaversmom is another).


157 posted on 03/24/2011 11:13:09 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: Mr. Bird
I don’t think characters originating in books should count; much more difficult to develop a character through a screenplay (i.e. made for the movies).

In my opinion the movie The Exorcist laid the ground work for the TV character Columbo. Having read the book first, I thought Lee J. Cobb was miscast as the bumbling detective in the movie. He didn't bumble at all but instead played it straight.

Later, the TV series Columbo came out and Peter Faulk perfectly played the character outlined as the detective in the book.

158 posted on 03/24/2011 11:19:47 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government!)
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To: Retired Greyhound
Archie Bunker is one

Archie of course mostly played it for laughs, but there was one scene in All In the Family, where you realized that Carol O'Connor was one hell of an actor, it was the Christmas episode with the draft dodger, one of the most powerful scenes in television history IMHO. You can just feel the anger pouring out of him.

159 posted on 03/24/2011 11:22:10 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind
I'll bet this poll was taken in................

GREENBOW!! ALABAMA!! ; )
160 posted on 03/24/2011 11:32:47 AM PDT by marine86297 (I'll never forgive Clinton for Somalia, my blood is on his hands)
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