Art Carney’s father had OCD and would drive his family nuts by taking forever to sign his name to a bill. It had to be exactly this way and no other way at exactly this angle, etc etc., and so what takes most people two seconds would take him several minutes. Years later when Carney created his characterization of Ed Norton on The Honeymooners, Norton would go through similar rigamorles when signing his name or doing other routine things, driving Ralph berserk, because he based the character largely on his own father’s quirks and annoying habits.
Mike Myers based part of Dr. Evil’s accent and his habit of sticking his pinky to the corner of his mouth on his former SNL boss Lorne Michaels.
Anthony Hopkins based Hannibal Lecter’s voice on the hypnotic tones stage actor Douglas Rains used when voicing HAL 9000 in 2001 and added Lecter’s very seldom blinking on a teacher he once had with that habit, which he always found intimidating.
What are some other cases of real people contributing major characteristics or traits to famous movie performances?
Well, speaking of Mike Meyers, I believe he based the Coffee Talk Lady (Linda Richman? “I’m getting all verklempt…”) partially on his mother-in-law. Er, ex-mother-in-law…
I discovered an odd coincidence just today. The real-life veterinarian who inspired the character of Siegfried Farnon in the James Herriot’s books, and the films and TV series adapted from them, was named Donald Sinclair.
Which was also the name of the Torquay hotelier who inspired Basil Fawlty.
Since Jim Backus was playing James Dean’s father in Rebel Without A Cause, and since Jim Backus was the voice of Mr. Magoo, Dean chose to say his line in the swimming pool at the mansion “…drown them like puppies” in a near-perfect Mr. Magoo voice.
I think the OP is asking for performance mannerisms, not characters. If the latter, then the most obvious answer would be William Randolph Hearst, who inspired Charles Foster Kane.
A friend of mine who lives in LA reported to me that Winona Ryder’s character in Reality Bites was an eerie impersonation of a friend of his, an interior designer who had met with Ryder a few times. Haircut, clothes, mannerisms, the lot.
I don’t know if I’d call it a “performance”, it’s more of an idiosyncracy – but on “Everybody Loves Raymond”, you know how when Robert is eating cereal, he always touches the spoon to his chin before putting it in his mouth? I heard they got that from Raymond’s real-life brother.
