Mine would either have to be Spike or Angel from Buffy.Funny thing is when Spike said she like Earth he was fighting agaist Angel who was at one time a hero.Although if you watch this last season of either Buffy or Angel you’ll notice Angel getting a littler closer to darkness ( closer than you can be being a vampire with a soul).Also if you watched Buffy Spike was becoming well …good ( as good as you can be as a vampire).Another thing to take into consideration Angel’s purpose is a little self serving.He is working for his own redemption.
My personal favorite would have to be Harry Flashman, from George McDonald Fraser’s books. Then again, maybe I’m just too much of a history buff.
Francis Crawford from Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles.
Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack), in “Grosse Pointe Blank”.
By this definition, my vote goes to Arnold Rimmer in ‘Red Dwarf’. Arrogance, cowardice, contempt for his fellow man … but kinda loveable in a bizarre way!
Can’t remember which episode is was, but I think it was Lister that said “he’s a smeg head, but he’s our smeg head!”.
[hijack]
I first discovered Andrew Vachss books after reading the New York Magazine profile on him when his second novel was coming out. I’ve been a major fan ever since. I have to sy, though, the I like Cross from the short stories more than Burke. He seems even less “connected” and even more of an anti-hero.
Zebra please see the definition of Anti-Hero i pulled from webster.
Now, name something Batman does that is not heroic… He beats up bad guys. He doesn’t kill. He has an honor-code (especially in your tragic version)… I’ll give you that, Batman is a Tragic-Hero, just not an Anti-Hero.
Robin Hood steals from the random rich passers by and nobility; he doesn’t target specific ‘bad guys’. Hell, he tried to plunder Friar Tuck, a monk. John wasn’t a usurper, he was placed there by the King and the power got to his greedy l’il head (I’m not saying he wasn’t a bad guy).
I’m glad you agree on The man with no name though 
Ooh! I just thought of another good one… from a very little known movie with Jason Preistly called Coldblooded. I think his character name was Cosmo. Hitman goodguy. Kinda like Stallone in Assassins, only more deadpan. Slow movie, but really good.
Lucas Davenport, the police detective from the Prey series of novels. He’s like Dirty Harry, only not as forgiving. The best example I can think of is he wouldn’t let his girlfriend call an ambulance for their wounded daughter until the gunman who’d attacked them had bled to death. He didn’t want to risk that the guy might live.
Henry Chinaski
Had to think about that one…
for about two seconds.
I second (Sir) Harry Flashman.
Absolutely fits the definition, is screamingly funny, and also says something about the way history actually happened and is reported.
Cassidy, from Preacher. Spider Jerusalem, from Transmetropolitan. King Mob and crew from The Invisibiles. Steeljack from Astro City. The aforementioned John Constantine, from Hellblazer. Adrian Veidt, from Watchmen.
comic: Grimjack
Lit: Count of Monte Cristo? Does that work? His motive was revenge. Not the noblist of intentions.
Real life: Sid Vicious. Drug abusing punk who kills his girlfriend; glorified after his death. Hell they made a modern romance out of his “loving” relationship with Nancy Spungen(sp?).
Maybe I missed the mark, I don’t know.
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Comic book: Rorshach or Miller’s Dark Knight, Sim’s Lord Julius
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Movie: Victoria Metcalf
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Television or Cartoon: Mr. T
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Literature: Raskolnikov
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Real Life: United States of America
But he occasionally has to stop himself from doing so.
(These are from the animated TV series, but I’m sure the comics also have examples of the non-specific ones)
He’s at least once threatened major violence on a man in front of his son.
He caused major psychological harm on The Ventriloquist in his attempt to stop Scarface.
He’s caused gangs to turn in on eachother (Scarface’s gang, Joker and Harley, more examples will probably come to mind) - and the Batman villains aren’t quite as concerned with not killing eachother as Bats is with not killing them.
He puts a child in mortal danger regularly (Robin).
He’s inflicted The Scarecrow’s fear own toxin on him.
I’ll probably think of more examples later.
Bats is a few eggs short of a dozen, and his laughable ‘code’ (‘don’t kill, but don’t bother stopping them from killing eachother’) doesn’t change that he’s a dangerous psycho one bad hair day away from breaking some poor innocent’s neck.
Robin Hood, on the other hand, was (in the traditional tellings) taking the only route available to him to support King Richard and help the oppressed poor of Nottingham - stealing from the rich (and in the Robin Hood mythos, Rich == Evil and Corrupt) and giving it to the poor (poor == Oppressed and Good)
sheriff Lucas Buck
Keyser Soze
Narrator in Fight Club
Venom, Who’s as anti-hero as they get. (I’m still waiting for the day he eat’s Spidey’s brains)
why hasn’t anyone mentioned
hamlet?
all of the othe competition pales before him.
but i’ve got to give props to alex from clockwork orange and holden caulfield from c in the r
I enthusiatically vote for Sir Harry Flashman and Alex fromA Clockwork Orange, and also nominate Black Adder. He’s utterly vile, yet we root for him. I also would suggest Tom Ripley from the series of novels by Patricia Highsmith.
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Other then a short lived comic series he was never a hero. Granted in his own mind he was willing to protect innocents. But in one comic he murdered a cop for no good reason. He’s simply insane.
Marc
Leon from The Professional.