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 :-)

[–] whynotwriteme (7295) 4 years ago

James Coburn as Britt, the knife-thrower, in The Magnificent Seven, (1960)

[–] RichardBlaine (303) 2 years ago

This is a great discussion that deserves a bump. (This site could stand a few more great discussions.)

I'm going to go with Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca. (Whatever his name was.)

[–] FilmBuff (6781) 2 years ago

He's Rick, and yes he's cool. Bogart was equally cool as Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. I'd argue that what we strive for when trying to be cool, i.e. the very definition of the term, stems in part from Bogart's onscreen persona. Cary Grant is another whose demeanor on film helped define cool. Like Bogart, you could pick nearly any of his roles, but I'll pair Grant as John Robie in "To Catch a Thief" with Bogart's Sam Spade as my two entries for this thread.

[–] chilidoggg (13295) 2 years ago

The dude in Boogie Nights who was the producer who said "I'm a simple man - I like lollipops in my mouth and butter in my ass." Another line was, when some chick had overdosed at the pool party, he tells the guy "Maybe you ought to get some better shit!" or something. He was also in The Talented Mr. Ripley and I think Hard 8.

[–] Jennie_Portrait (804) 2 years ago

Was it Phillip Seymour Hoffman?

[–] chilidoggg (13295) 2 years ago

no the older dude, I think he was bankrolling Burt Reynolds

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Robert Forster as Max Cherry in Jackie Brown (1997)

Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris in Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Jim Caviezel as Pvt. Witt in
The Thin Red Line (1998)

John Cusack as Martin Blank in
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

George Clooney as Danny Ocean in
Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Ryan Gosling as The Driver in
Drive (2011)

Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in
Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019)

Michael Caine as Colonel Kurt Steiner in The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias Gordon in Platoon (1986)

Tom Berenger as Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in Platoon (1986)

Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall / Joey Cusack in A History of Violence (2005)

Ed Harris as Major Erwin König in
Enemy At The Gates (2001)

Jeremy Irons as Simon Gruber in
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

Steve McQueen as Captain Virgil Hilts 'The Cooler King’ in The Great Escape (1963)

Charles Bronson as Harmonica in
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Lee van Cleef as Angel Eyes in
The Good The Bad and The Ugly (1966)

Clint Eastwood as The Man with no Name in Spaghetti Westerns Trilogy (1964-1966)

[–] Redsfan001 (6040) 2 years ago

Movie Vault : Coolest Characters Ever...

Sean Connery as Marko Ramius

The Hunt for Red October (90)

https://youtu.be/AWPBr4L1eyE