# Famous Fictional Characters who had Real Life Inspirations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 28, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613 "2010-12-28T16:34:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Just1Lurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c0e974/32.png) [@Just1Lurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just1Lurk)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/41 "2010-12-29T03:59:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Ah, misunderstood. My bad. No problemo. BTW, the west coast production of TMWCTD is mentioned in Harpo Speaks! Harpo talks about Woollcott’s performance but doesn’t say he acted in it himself. And when the production moved from LA to San Francisco he refers to the cast as “they” and “them” not “we” or “us”. I’m beginning to doubt this ever happened. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/42 "2010-12-29T04:45:14Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs are all loosely based on [Ed Gein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein). For that matter wasn’t Hannibal Lecter at least partly inspired by the case of [Albert Fish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish)? (Who almost makes lecter look like a lightweight!) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/43 "2010-12-29T04:47:28Z")
Uncle Duke-Hunter S. Thompson ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/44 "2010-12-29T05:49:32Z")
The title character of Saul Bellow’s “Humboldt’s Gift” was a thinly disguised version of poet Delmore Schwartz. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/45 "2010-12-29T06:00:29Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I was going to mention the entire crew on _Galaxy Quest_, but I guess this pretty much covers the same ground. The man calls himself The Velure Fog, Shatner all the way. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/46 "2010-12-29T07:07:07Z")
Johnny Depp based the character of Captain Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards (and Pepe Le Pew). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/47 "2010-12-29T11:21:21Z")
[Dr Strangelove](http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/StrangeloveStrangelove2.jpg) had opinions like Herman Kahn and looked like [Henry Kissinger](http://americanhistoryquotes.com/images/Henry_Kissinger_small.JPG). Buck Turdgitson was a Curtis Bombs Away LeMay. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/48 "2010-12-29T13:36:06Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I wonder if Stoker ever based any characters on his acquaintance and his wife’s former lover Oscar Wilde. Oscar was a superstar in the 1890s until his fall (when he became a Fallen Superstar- still just as high a Q factor) so I’m sure it was a temptation. I’m not familiar with his works other than Dracula- anyone know if there’s an “aesthetic” character in them? I made a quick run-through of Wikipedia & couldn’t see any obvious links. My “research” revealed that Stoker knew the Wilde family before Oscar moved to England permanently–which may have been prompted by Stoker’s marriage to Florence, whom Oscar had been courting. Stoker had known Oscar since student days–probably before the full flowering of Oscar The Aesthete. They mended their friendship & Stoker visited Oscar after his release from prison–when so many of his friends had deserted him. Stoker is a character in Mark Frost’s _List of 7_; the “hero” is Arthur Conan Doyle. Since these are real characters _used_ fictionally, they might not fit the definition of the OP. But the Doyle of the novel aids the eccentrically brilliant agent Jack Sparks in the foiling of an arcane & evil plot. And then finds Jack Sparks the inspiration for the detective stories that made him wealthy… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/49 "2010-12-29T14:11:54Z")
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’s Pharaob is an homage to Elivs. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/50 "2010-12-29T14:19:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’s Pharaob is an homage to Elivs. I think Potiphar is meant to be based on Noel Coward, although the casting may make this more, or less obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/51 "2010-12-29T14:36:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Some Dickensian scholars believe that Ebeneezer Scrooge may have been partly inspired by real life English misers [Daniel Dancer](http://www.trivia-library.com/c/biography-of-english-miser-daniel-dancer.htm) and [John Elwes](http://www.trivia-library.com/c/biography-of-british-parliament-miser-john-elwes.htm), two 18th century figures who were long dead but still well known in pop culture (both inspired things like Toby jugs and tavern names) at the time Dickens wrote _Christmas Carol_ in the early 1840s. . There’s also evidence that Scrooge was modelled after an Edinburgh businessman and that Dickens [misread his tombstone](http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Scroggie-Scrooge-was-not-so.6665447.jp) while on a visit to the city. And Dr. Strangelove may have been modelled on Kissinger but the general public wouldn’t have realised that; the film was made in 1964, several years before Kissinger became National Security Advisor after years of being behind the scenes in various thinktanks, etc. I’m dubious Sellers would have known of him, let alone parodied him. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/52 "2010-12-29T14:38:37Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > [Dr Strangelove](http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/StrangeloveStrangelove2.jpg) had opinions like Herman Kahn and looked like [Henry Kissinger](http://americanhistoryquotes.com/images/Henry_Kissinger_small.JPG). I was always under the impression that Strangelove was based on Wernher von Braun, for rather obvious reasons. The character is obviously an amalgam of several influences. On _Dracula_: there isn’t really an “Oscar Wilde” character in the book. One historian has posited that Quincey Morris is based on Buffalo Bill Cody, who Stoker knew personally. However, the real Buffalo Bill was a midwesterner, and his speech was nothing like the Texan argot used by Morris in the book. Other critics have speculated that the personalities of actor Henry Irving (Stoker’s longtime employer) and explorer Richard Burton were models for the Count, though concrete attributions are tenuous. The clearest “real life” inspiration for a _Dracula_ character is Hungarian ethnographer Arminius Vambery, who Stoker also knew personally. Van Helsing clearly states that most of his knowledge of vampire lore comes from consultations with his friend “Arminius”, who communicates with the main characters via telegram and post throughout the novel. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/53 "2010-12-29T14:46:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [d’Artagnan,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27artagnan) hero of Dumas’ _The Three Musketeers,_ was based loosely on the real-life [d’Artagnan.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Batz-Castelmore_d%27Artagnan) All four of the musketeers were based on real-life people, although the fictional characters often have little in common with the real people, other than the names. [Athos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athos_(fictional_character)) is based on [Armand, Seigneur de Sillègue, d’Athos, et d’Autevielle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_de_Sill%C3%A8gue_d%27Athos_d%27Autevielle) [Aramis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramis) is based on [Henri, Seigneur d’Aramitz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_d%27Aramitz) [Porthos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthos) is based on [Isaac de Porthau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_de_Porthau) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/54 "2010-12-29T14:55:22Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Uncle Duke-Hunter S. Thompson And BD started out as a parody of [del]Harvard[/del] Yale quarterback Brian Dowling. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/55 "2010-12-29T14:59:03Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I think that Rainier Wolfcastle was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I could be wrong, but I honestly believe there are some similarities there. And the Quimblys are obviously based on that Massachusetts political family the Kennedys. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/56 "2010-12-29T15:01:55Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think Potiphar is meant to be based on Noel Coward, although the casting may make this more, or less obvious. Mebbe so, but I don’t know that I could see that even if Coward were playing Potiphar. > [@astorian](#): > > The title character of Saul Bellow’s “Humboldt’s Gift” was a thinly disguised version of poet Delmore Schwartz. Similarly, I think the title character of “Herzog” was a thinly disguised Bellow. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/57 "2010-12-29T15:22:33Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > [Dr Strangelove](http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Drama/Drama/StrangeloveStrangelove2.jpg) had opinions like Herman Kahn and looked like [Henry Kissinger](http://americanhistoryquotes.com/images/Henry_Kissinger_small.JPG). > > Buck Turdgitson was a Curtis Bombs Away LeMay. In the film _Strategic Air Command_ (with lugubrious plot but beautiful aerial photography), the head of SAC was named “General Hawks.” ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/58 "2010-12-29T15:58:05Z")
But who was the inspiration for Charlie Chaplin’s character in The Great Dictator? /Godwinizes thread ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/59 "2010-12-29T16:40:41Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > For that matter wasn’t Hannibal Lecter at least partly inspired by the case of [Albert Fish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish)? (Who almost makes lecter look like a lightweight!) When Harris went back and gave Lecter a past (a move that benefitted Harris financially but nobody else at all) he also borrowed from [Andrei Chikatilo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo), a Ukrainian who was a child during WW2 when cannibalism occurred due to starvation; Chikatilo’s brother was allegedly killed and eaten. Harris made Lecter a Lithuanian nobleman whose sister was killed and eaten during the war. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613/60 "2010-12-29T16:50:26Z")
Peter Lorre’s character in “M” was inspired by Peter Kürten. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-fictional-characters-who-had-real-life-inspirations/565613.md?page=4)