Herbie Popnecker
Kim Jong-un
Xi Jinping
Ultimate Nick Fury probably doesn’t count, since was explicitly designed to look like Sam Jackson.
The Stainless Steel Rat (2000AD)
James Coburn
By the same token, John Constantine was explicitly intended to look like Sting’s character in Quadrophenia.
I didn’t know that! I looked at the Wikipedia page for more info, and there’s a quote by Alan Moore saying he created the character because the artists wanted to make a character who looked like Sting. That’s a really neat bit of trivia.
But I can state categorically that the character only existed because Steve and John wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. Having been given that challenge, how could I fit Sting into Swamp Thing?
The original Captain Marvel and … Fred McMurray.
Do animated characters in general count? This was my first thought:
Personally, I don’t see the resemblance, but many people say that Gil Kane’s version of the silver age Green Lantern was based on Paul Newman. Gil Kane himself said that Sinestro was based on David Niven.
In the 1940s, when Bob Kane was the lead artist on Batman, Bruce Wayne bore a strong resemblance to Bob Kane.
Mary Marvel was based on Judy Garland, Uncle Dudley was based on W.C. Fields, and Mister Tawney the Talking Tiger was based on Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion
The Hellfire Club:
Sebastian Shaw was based on Robert Shaw.
Harry Leland was based on Orson Welles.
Donald Pierce was based on Donald Sutherland.
Alfred Pennyworth, Batman’s butler, was originally overweight and clean-shaven. In the 1941 matinee serial, he was played by William Austin, who was thin and mustachioed. The comic book had a storyline in which Alfred went to a health spa, lost weight, and grew a mustache. Ever since, the comics have drawn him to resemble Austin.
The Joker was based in Conrad Veidt’s character in The Man Who Laughs.
Writers modeled the Joker’s personality on Richard Widmark’s character in Kiss of Death.
Kraven the Hunter was based on Leslie Banks in The Most Dangerous Game.
Wolverine was based on Paul d’Amato’s character in Slapshot
Sabretooth is rumored to be based on another character in Slapshot, who, in turn was based on real-life hockey player Bill Goldthorpe.
Mastermind in the Hellfire Club sequence was based on Peter Wyngarde. I suppose there is an in-universe explanation for that, since he was using his powers of illusion to disguise his real appearance.
Professor Calculus from Tintin was based on the Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard:
Does Harvey Pekar count?
Mary Jane Watson was supposedly based on Ann Margaret.
Tyroc (of the Legion of Super-Heroes) was based on Fred (The Hammer) Williamson.
Funky Flashman and Stan Lee, late 1960s
Funky Flashman and Stan Lee, early 1970s
Flashman’s sidekick, Houseroy, and Roy Thomas
I think the OP means a fictional character that looks like a real person, and Pekar wasn’t fictional.
Yeah sorry about that. I meant to be tongue in cheek.
That can be seen here:
I have long thought Sinestro bore a strong resemblance to Zachery Scott.
Gene Colan based Marvel Comics’ version of Dracula on Jack Palance.
Palance would play Dracula in a TV movie a year after the comic debuted.
Morbius the Living Vampire was supposedly based on Jack Palance, but his eyes and nose are so stylized, I don’t think you can say that with any certainty.
Darkseid is said to have been based on Jack Palance, but with Jack Kirby’s artwork, who can say for certain?
When Black Manta first appeared in the 1960s, he was a pretty generic villain, and nobody knew what he looked like under the mask. In the 1970s, he became a militant black nationalist, and when he took off the helmet, he looked sort of like Stokely Carmichael. (This was the best picture I could find of helmetless Manta. Sorry.)
Steve Ditko said that he based Dr. Strange on Vincent Price
https://www.blackgate.com/2018/07/07/rip-steve-ditko-co-creator-of-dr-strange-and-spider-man/
Thor’s companions, the Warriors Three:
Fandral the Dashing was obviously based on Errol Flynn.
Volstagg the Valiant was not based on any one person, but on the character of Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Hogun the Grim was based on various Charles Bronson characters, although the comic book artists usually drew him far more handsome than Bronson ever looked.