The Narrator
I went searching for some help on this topic and found The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters of All Time and thought I’d post the link before reading it.
Anybody know of a more “reliable” list somewhere?
Hey, do we get to count Prince Charming double for Cinderella and Snow White plus arguable bonus points for Sleeping Beauty? That dude gets around.
Seems to cover a lot of the above bases: King Arthur loses out to Robin Hood, both fall short of James Bond, all of them are Sean Connery; strongmen like Hercules and Beowulf make the list, but are outclassed by brainy Odysseus; Sherlock makes the Top Five, but isn’t in Batman’s league; and so on for Tarzan and Dracula and et cetera.
I’m curious how SDMB (at least those of us playing in this thread) would slice up that 100. I know I only have maybe 20 of that list that I would even rank in my own favorites, and I’d be including Dexter and House and the like. Omar would be close to Sherlock for me!
Should we start a new thread for that purpose or just post our own Top Ten from that list here to see where it might go?
Anyway, I 'm going to think seriously about which ten from that 100 I would include in the Most Popular List.
Anybody else?
To save others the hassle of reducing those pages to one list, here are the
The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters of All Time in one stack:
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Dr. Sam Beckett
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Lois Lane
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Hellboy
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Patrick Bateman
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V
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Raistlin Majere
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Aeryn Sun
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Guybrush Threepwood
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Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski
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Kermit the Frog
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Barney Stinson
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Hermione Granger
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Dr. Doom
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Ayanami Rei
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Squall Leonhart
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Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
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Boba Fett
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Jayne Cobb
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The Flash
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Dorothy Gale
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Alice
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Magneto
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Calvin
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Ash Williams
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Death
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Omar Little
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River Tam
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Samwise Gamgee
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Hercules
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John Carter
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Deadpool
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Dexter Morgan
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Eric Cartman
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Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy
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Tarzan
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Catwoman
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Holden Caulfield
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Yuna Braska
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Aquaman
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Doctor Strange
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Yoda
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Optimus Prime
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Huckleberry Finn
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Ellen Ripley
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Mickey Mouse
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Bilbo Baggins
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Tom Sawyer
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Dr. Gregory House
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Green Lantern
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Galactus
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Ebenezer Scrooge
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Veronica Mars
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Bugs Bunny
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G’Kar
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Captain Ahab
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Solid Snake
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Dream
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Conan
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Cloud Strife
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John Crichton
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Jean-Luc Picard
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Beowulf
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Fitzwilliam Darcy
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Iron Man
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Cthulhu
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Mario
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Severus Snape
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Gandalf
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Atticus Finch
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Laura Roslin
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Joker
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Aragorn
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Odysseus
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Elizabeth Bennet
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Scarlett O’Hara
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King Arthur
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Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
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Merlin
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Robin Hood
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Wolverine
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Malcolm Reynolds
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Frodo Baggins
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Homer Simpson
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Frankenstein’s Monster
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Hamlet
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Han Solo
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Luke Skywalker
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James T. Kirk
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James Bond
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Dracula
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Indiana Jones
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Mr. Spock
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Harry Potter
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Spider-Man
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Darth Vader
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Sherlock Holmes
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The Doctor
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Buffy Summers
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Superman
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Batman
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Do what you will with it. 
He was a real person. He was a Chinese folk hero comparable to say Wyatt Earp. In fact both lived to the 1920s.
I’m not 100% sure it’s true but I believe more movies have been made of him than any other historical figure, with Jack the Ripper coming in second.
If he counts as a fictional character rather than a historical one, the Devil has more IMDB credits than Santa Claus and King Arthur put together: Faust this, Daniel Webster that, and on through from Peter Cook to George Burns to Tim Curry and et cetera.
Maynard G. Krebbs
Eddie Haskell
I see that Superman is #2 on that list. I once read that he is the fictional character with the longest run of continuous publication.
Pretty sure both the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician have him beat.
Who put this list together?!? Not only are there a number of names I don’t even recognize, there are some I do know whose presence baffles me! :dubious: 
Whoever it was was obviously a Firefly fan.
The answer to “who put this list together?” must be at Fandomania » About.
I just did a search on “Most popular fictional characters” and it was among the hits that came back at Yahoo! And since it seemed to have a wide assortment of names I went ahead and posted a link to it before I had even read the list. It was rewarding to me in that Sherlock Holmes is among the Top Ten as well as about 25 others I might have included on my own list if I had started from scratch.
As I said when I posted the list, “Do what you will with it.” And that does include ignoring it.
Ronald McDonald is more recognizable than Jesus Christ
Take THAT John Lennon!
As we’ve ruled in other similar threads, calling God or Jesus is effectively trolling – it’s an effort to start a religious debate that’s not appropriate for Cafe Society. If you want to have that conversation, start a new thread in GD.
No warnings issued.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
Could you mean…
…SATAN?!?
Just for laughs here’s my selection of a Top Ten from that 100 list:
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Huckleberry Finn
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Tom Sawyer
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Robin Hood
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Tarzan
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Atticus Finch
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James Bond
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Dexter Morgan
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Dr. Gregory House
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Omar Little
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Sherlock Holmes
For clarity, Holmes is my #1, and Finn is #10. The numbers are from that 100 list.
I’d never heard of Mandrake, but, looking him up, I see you’re correct (on both counts). I didn’t realize The Phantom had been in uninterrupted publication (though I knew he was older than Superman).
I don’t remember where I read the Superman statement.
Bumping to add that there’s a comic character who’s had a longer continuous run in print than Superman or the Phantom or even Mandrake: a square-jawed gunman with a yellow overcoat, a wrist communicator, and a reputation for having killed more men in the line of duty than any other law-enforcement officer in the United States.