MovieChat Forums > Cool Hand Luke (1967) Discussion > Let's talk Coolest Film Characters Ever....

Let's talk Coolest Film Characters Ever...with a caveat

posted 13 years ago by kanuffelrik
85 replies | jump to latest

The caveat is they must be at least 20 years old. Why 20 years? I don't know, I'm just thinking of cool characters that have stood the test of time, instead of "The Joker", "Iron Man" etc. If you must choose more recent characters, so be it, but I'm going for classic film characters.

Here is my starting list off the top of my head, feel free to add your own:

Cool Hand Luke - Obviously, since were on the Cool Hand Luke board. "Sometimes nothin' is a pretty Cool Hand." He is really cool, and I love how the other guys (especially George Kennedy) go from wanting to pummel him to wanting to be him.

Blondie (The Good The Bad and the Ugly) - I think Eli Wallach owns this movie, but Eastwood is really cool.

Harry Lime (The Third Man) - The way he makes his entrance and the cuckoo clock speech etc. make you understand why everyone likes him, despite his shady behavior. He's cool!

Quint (Jaws) - I just always thought he was cool, the bandana, the boat, the verbal abusing of Brody and the verbal sparring with Hooper...even when he gets eaten he's cool :-)

Chuck Tatum (Ace in the Hole) - A lesser known character, but I think Kirk Douglas is great in this movie. Kind of a sleazy guy, but cool, especially at the beginning when he's trying to get a job at the town paper. Check out the Memorable Quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/quotes or the first 5 minutes of the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSB54h-rvfU and see what you think. You can't go wrong with Billy Wilder...

...which leads me to Walter Neff (Double Indemnity) - Fred MacMurray (yes, Fred MacMurray) is really cool in this classic noir. "Good-bye baby."

JJ Sefton (Stalag 17) - Hmmm another Billy Wilder movie. William Holden is really cool as the guy who they think is a rat cause of all the perks he's got.

I'm sure there's much more, but that's what comes to mind off the top of my head. And as for recent characters, I really like the villian in Oldboy. A messed up twisted guy, but always cool, even in a floppy hat :-)

[–] kanuffelrik 13 years ago

PS - I meant the films must be at least 20 years old, not the characters :-)

[–] hansenmv2002 10 years ago

Agree with the above --- Bogart in his great movies - Spade, Rick, Dobbs, Charlie

John: ...yeah, yeah, yeah. Russell: ...no, no, no
John: Ill drive Russel Ramis: OK.

[–] Ace19444 13 years ago

I gotta agree with you on The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood in Good Bad and Ugly and 2 films prior), and also Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West.

Priest from Superfly is probably the coolest drug dealer ever created, Tony Montana comes close though.

Choco from Cannibal Holocaust is awesome. He's only in it for the first half, but he's gotta be the most badass guide ever.

Mr. Blond ALMOST hits the 20 year mark, a year shy though.

[–] Michaelnlori 13 years ago

For me the personification of cool is Sean Connery as James Bond in GOLDFINGER.

[–] Ace19444 13 years ago

...How the hell did we forget James Bond? Good catch

[–] silly_putty 13 years ago

Jim Stark from Rebel without a Cause! i know it's almost cliched to think of james dean when thinking of cool movie characters...but the guy just exuded 'cool.'

[–] LightningLad 13 years ago

A bit overexposed with relatively little screentime, but Boba Fett had the guts to lip off Vader, without simply being an enemy. Of course Han Solo and Indy are both cool characters. Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon was like the birth of the cool for films. Snake Plissken. Sinatra in the Manchurian Candidate as Ben Marco - an example of disturbed but cool, kind of a subcategory of characters I suppose.

A recent movie would be Tom Hardy in Inception, that's some old school cool.

-----
Reason is a pursuit, not a conclusion.

[–] chuckbarlow65 13 years ago

Steve MqUeen in Bullit
Burt Reynolds in Smoky and the Bandit
Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry

[–] DocCasualty 13 years ago

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) - Casablanca

Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) - Gone With The Wind

"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye." 2001: A Space Odyssey

[–] wicked-lester 13 years ago

Jack Burton - Big Trouble in Little China

Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker from The Sting

My honourable mention for not quite old enough - Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday

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[–] mich_tim 13 years ago

o k clint eastwood in any movie.
Timothy Spaal also.
Dennis Hopper esp Blue Velvet!
Dean Stockwell-any movie.esp blue velvet.
James Best (Attack of the Killer Srews)
-maybe best known as the Sheriff on 'Dukes'-
John Garfield,David Niven ,James Coburn,
Steve Mc Queen, Charles Bronson,Yul Brenner,
William Holden Bill Shatner,Ernest Borgnine,
Lee Marvin,Tim Holt,Humphey Bogart,of course
dont forget THE COOLEST OF THE COOL Cary Grant!!
Oh then theres CURLY Nyuk Nyuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[–] wtl471629 12 years ago

Clint Eastwood was great in For a Few Dollars More but I thought Lee Van Cleff was the one whole stole the show like Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

[–] Randy-144 13 years ago

John Shaft. The original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, not Samuel L. Jackson -- even if the remake were more than 20 years old.

From the theme song, composed and sung by Isaac Hayes:
Who's the black private dick, that's a sex machine to all the chicks? SHAFT! Ya damn right!
Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man? SHAFT! Can you dig it?
Who's the cat that won't cop out, when there's danger all about? SHAFT! Right On!
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother... SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft. THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] EamesTheForger 13 years ago

Steve McQueen in Bullitt
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now
Harrison Ford in Blade Runner

Inception - A film by Christopher Nolan

[–] author004 13 years ago

Rick (Bogart) from Casablanca.

Losers always whine about doing their best; winners go home and "eff" the prom queen

[–] hafabee 13 years ago

Great thread with some very smooth picks! Not too many left that come to mind but I've got four more to add that haven't appeared so far;

J.J. Gittes from Chinatown, Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jake and Elwood Blues from The Blues Brothers.

[–] themax-2 13 years ago

Harrison Ford as Deckard in Blade Runner is a great example!

Robert Redford as Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I've just finished watching it, and Redford's coolness factor is off the charts.

[–] arkansasengineer 13 years ago

More to consider:

T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) in Lawrence of Arabia
Shane (Alan Ladd) in Shane
Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) in The Adventures of Robin Hood
John Mallory (James Coburn) in Duck, You Sucker
Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) in Death Wish
Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) in Ben-Hur
Private Kelly (Clint Eastwood) in Kelly’s Heroes
Mad Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) in the Mad Max series
Luther Heggs (Don Knotts) in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken…….well, maybe not

[–] WintermutE_777 13 years ago

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) - Blade Runner
Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) - Cool Hand Luke
Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) - Breathless
Tony Montana (Al Pacino) - Scarface
Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ajax (James Remar) - The Warriors
Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) - Goodfellas
Jef Costello (Alain Delon) - Le Samourai
John McClane (Bruce Willis) - Die Hard
J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) - Chinatown
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) - Dirty Harry
Yuddy (Leslie Cheung) - Days of Being Wild
Kuwabatake Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) - Yojimbo
Blondie (Clint Eastwood) - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) - Pale Flower

I watch gangster flicks and root for the bad guy.

[–] WEAKASSBUZZ 13 years ago

not 20 years yet but i think Jules Winnfield (Sam Jackson) from Pulp Fiction needs yo be mentioned here.

[–] smeech8000 12 years ago

Or rather, Winston Wolf ;)

And I'd say Henry Hill is not nearly as cool as Jimmy Conway (DeNiro) in GoodFellas, but in the end they both show inexcusable weakness that kicks them off the list: Conway's fear of being implicated, Hill's turning informant.