Elliot Ness
[Moderating]
Otto and Chez Guevara, both of you knock it off now. We don’t need that here.
As for everyone else, there’s no need to takes sides on the issue. Let’s drop it and get back to the topic in the OP.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Dracula
Erzsbeth Bathory
Jack the Ripper (I know, nobody knows who he was, but most people are familiar with his portrayal in fiction)
Nicolas Flamel (thanks to Hary Potter)
King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam, known to westerners mainly from “The King and I” and “Anna and the King”.
Well, are we talking about gay Hitler or regular Hitler?
'Cause if it’s regular Hitler, then I think of that Twilight Zone episode where the guy turns into Hitler and freaks out. “Save me, Eva Braun!”
Or hippie Hitler?
Somewhat back on track - the Sheriff of Nottingham.
There probably was a ‘true’ historic person at some stage
And the character was possibly based on Phillip Mark a ‘real’ person,
( The Sheriff of Nottingham by Richard Kluger )
Or perhaps some unfortunate nameless tax collector (sorry, no cite - just a dim memory of past research)
But what we know are the various fictional characters from the Robin Hood incarnations.
Robin Hood himself, is apparently (from what I remember) far less likely to be an actual person.
And Prince John, too, more noted for these stories than his own reign.
Speaking of that, and of Nazis, how about Maria von Trapp, and the von Trapp family in general? The real Maria von Trapp said of The Sound of Music that it was a beauitful story, but not hers.
But, he’s got a grave and everything! He’s got to be real! 
Tom Mix, to the extent that he’s remembered at all these days.
I would say this is especially true with Butch and Sundance. I suspect they weren’t even known to many people before the big movie. Is this true?
Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, was a living legend before he even moved to Arizona, I think, but he is probably remembered today as a movie character.
What do you mean, exactly? Was he famously portrayed in later movies? Or that people just remember him as the guy with a huge hat?
I know! And a well, and several trees, even! You just don’t know who to trust sometimes!
I probablt wouldn’t have heard of The Man in the Iron Mask (actually a cloth mask, I understand) if not for the Dumas novel and its adaptations, but I read about The Elephant Man in several places and knew his story years before Bernard Pomerance’s play or David Lynch’s movie (or the more recent incarnations, like the graphic novel and movie From Hell)
Johnny Appleseed.