The 50 Greatest Movie Heroes

Maximus Decimus Meridius is a successful general who is forced to become a gladiator after refusing to follow the self-proclaimed emperor Commodus, who killed his own father and then Maximus’s family.

Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer suffering from AIDS, successfully sues a major Philadelphia law firm for unfair dismissal, with the help of an African-American lawyer who has also suffered discrimination. Tom Hanks won an Oscar for the lead role in one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS.

In the first “Terminator” film, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a cyborg assassin sent back in time to kill the woman whose son will lead the resistance against domination by artificial intelligence. In “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” he’s a good guy, sent by the resistance to protect mother and son from an even more advanced Terminator.

“Silkwood” is a biopic about Karen Silkwood, a nuclear whistle-blower and labor activist who died in a car crash while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the plutonium plant where she worked.

Michael Keaton plays Bruce Wayne/Batman in the first installment of the Warner Bros. “Batman” series, and battles various baddies in Gotham City.

Tyrone Power plays Don Diego Vega, a privileged young man who becomes the masked vigilante swordsman Zorro, and battles corrupt officials and other villains in Spanish California.

Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle is both the hero and antihero of “The French Connection,” a crusading cop who breaks the rules while trying to bring down a gang of drug smugglers. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this classic film’s release.

This biblical epic is the story of Moses, who leads the enslaved Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt, receives the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai, spends 40 years in the wilderness, and finally arrives with his people at the Promised Land — but cannot enter it himself.

“Boys Town” is a biopic about Father Edward J. Flanagan, played by Spencer Tracy, who founded a home and educational complex for underprivileged youth in Nebraska.

“Goodbye, Mr. Chips” is the story of Mr. Chipping, who recalls his six-decade career as a teacher and headmaster at a boarding school.

“Serpico” is based on the real-life story of Frank Serpico, a plainclothes officer who exposed corruption in the New York City Police Department.

“Lassie Come Home” is the story of a collie who is sold by her poverty-stricken family but escapes from her new owner and begins a long trek from England to her rightful home in Scotland.

An iconic character created by Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp is a good-hearted, childlike vagrant who has various adventures. “City Lights” is a 1931 silent film in which he falls in love with a blind girl and befriends an alcoholic millionaire.

In the original “Star Wars” film (later retitled to fit chronologically into the lengthy “Star Wars” series of films), Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi Master and mentor to Luke Skywalker, whom he guides through the Force in the fight against the Galactic Empire.

Rooster Cogburn is an ageing, cantankerous, one-eyed lawman who is hired by a young girl to track down the man who killed her father.

“Sergeant York” is the story of Alvin York, a World War I hero who originally claimed conscientious objector status because of his religious beliefs but went on to win the Medal of Honor for his exploits on the battlefield.

Loosely based on the 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel “Tarzan of the Apes,” “Tarzan the Ape Man” was the first of 12 films in which Johnny Weissmuller played the jungle-dwelling friend to apes and elephants.

Marge Gunderson, played by Frances McDormand, is a pregnant police chief on the trail of a couple of killers in North Dakota in this black comedy crime drama.

Humphrey Bogart plays private detective Philip Marlowe opposite his real-life love interest Lauren Bacall in this ironic crime film. “The big sleep” is a metaphor for death.

This film is a dramatization of the true story of Erin Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, a legal clerk and environmental activist who takes on a giant energy company for contaminating drinking water.

In this film Paul Newman plays Lucas “Luke” Jackson, a decorated World War II veteran, who defies a prison warden and his staff after being sentenced to two years on a chain gang for a fairly minor crime.

George C. Scott plays World War II General George Patton, a hard-charging leader who can control an army but not his own temper, in this biopic. “Patton” won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In this classic legal drama, Henry Fonda plays a juror who helps sway a jury that is inclined to convict a youth of murder, which would mean a death sentence for the young man.

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford play Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose investigation of the Watergate scandal helped bring down the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Christopher Reeve plays Clark Kent/Superman in the 1978 movie. Born on the planet Krypton and raised on Earth, he uses his super powers to protect and save others.

Lou Gehrig played 17 seasons in major league baseball for the New York Yankees before being forced to retire and eventually dying from the disease to which he gave his name.

“Thelma & Louise” is a buddy movie, a road movie, and a crime movie about two women, played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, on the run, beginning in Arkansas and ending at the Grand Canyon.

Terry Malloy is a former boxer and dock worker forced to confront union corruption and violence on the waterfront in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Spartacus was a gladiator who led a slave revolt against the Roman Empire. He was played by Kirk Douglas in this memorable “swords and sandals” epic.

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and anti-colonial activist who successfully used nonviolent resistance in the struggle against British rule in India. This documentary about his life and struggles is based on archival footage of Gandhi himself.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, are charismatic train robbers on the run from a posse in the Wild West. The desperadoes make their way to Bolivia in the hope that things will be better for them there.

Virgil Tibbs, played by Sidney Poitier, is an African-American police detective who comes into conflict with a racist police chief in a small Southern town in this adaptation of a John Ball novel. Poitier also played the role in two sequels.

Robin Hood was the legendary heroic outlaw who led the Merry Men in their struggle against the evil King John and his henchmen, including the Sheriff of Nottingham. Errol Flynn’s portrayal of Robin is considered iconic.

Harry Callahan, nicknamed Dirty Harry, is an antihero cop who dispenses rough justice to assorted villains and lowlifes in San Francisco.

Shane, played by Alan Ladd, is a gunfighter looking for a quiet life who has to take on a ruthless cattle baron and his henchmen who are preying on settlers in the Wyoming Territory.

Norma Rae Webster, played by Sally Field, is a textile mill worker who becomes a union activist and battles exploitation and corporate greed.

Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford — the hero of the original “Star Wars” film and some of its sequels — joins the Rebel Alliance in the fight against the evil Galactic Empire.

Oskar Schindler was an enigmatic and charismatic German businessman who saved many Jews from the Holocaust by giving them employment in his factory in Nazi-occupied Poland under false pretences.

Tom Joad, the hero of John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” was played by Henry Fonda in the film version. He’s one of the “Okies” who took to the road in search of a better life during the Dust Bowl era.

Jefferson Smith, played by James Stewart, is a newly appointed United States Senator who goes to Washington and fights against a corrupt political system.

T.E. Lawrence, played by Peter O’Toole, was a charismatic British army officer and leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

George Bailey, played by James Stewart, is a banker who considers suiсide, but is redeemed by a guardian angel who shows him what would have happened to his town if he had never been born.

Ellen Ripley, often known simply as Ripley, is the protagonist in the “Alien” science fiction film franchise. It was a groundbreaking role for Sigourney Weaver — and for women in general — as a kiсk-аss heroine in a genre traditionally dominated by men.

Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone, is an underdog boxer who prevails against assorted opponents in this film and various sequels.

In “The Silence of the Lambs,” Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, is a trainee at the FBI Academy who is sent to enlist the aid of Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant but evil cannibalistic doctor in a maximum security prison, in the hunt for a serial killer.

Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, is the newly married marshal of Hadleyville in the New Mexico Territory. He takes on a gang of villains alone, without any help from the townspeople.

Played by Humphrey Bogart, Rick Blaine is the cynical, world-weary protagonist of this film classic, who falls in love with Ilse, played by Ingrid Bergman.

Created by English author Ian Fleming, James Bond is a fictional British spy with a license to kill. He was first played by Sean Connery in the 1962 film “Dr. No” and most recently portrayed by Daniel Craig in “No Time To Die.”

Indiana Jones is an archaeology professor, treasurer hunter, and adventurer, and the hero of the 1981 hit film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and three sequels — so far.

Atticus Finch is a the hero of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” — a lawyer who represents an African-American man wrongly accused of rаpe in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama.