That Movie Character has no name! Name them!

Cafe Society
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A companion to the thread about changing character’s nanes for the movies. ( https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=874643 ) Sometimes there IS no name, and the movie has to supply one.

H.G. Wells did this a couple of times. His protagonist for War of the Worlds wasn’t named. When people dramatized it, then needed a handle.

For the 1938 Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast by Orson Welles, Howard Koch came up with Professor Richard Pierson, voiced by Orson Welles.

For the 1953 George Pal film, Gene Barry plated Dr. Clayton Forrester. Joel Hodgson took note for his series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

For Steven Spielberg’s 2005 bfilm, Tom Cruise played Ray Ferrier.The direct-to-video adaptation from The Asylum the same year gave us Dr. George Herbert, which they got by reversing the order of H.G. Wells’ two given names.

Wells similarly didn’t name his protagonist in The Time Machine, and adapters have struggled to name him.

For CBS radio dramas in 1948 and 1950 they named him ** Dudley**.

For Alien Voices in 1994 they gave only his first name, John

For the George Pal 1960 film, Rod Taylor played him, named H. George Wells, which seems like they weren’t even trying.

A 1978 Sunn Classic TV film named him Dr. Neil Perry**, played by John Beck.

The 2002 film scripted by Simon Wells (H.G.'s grandson) had Guy Pearce playing Professor Alexander Hartdegen, which sounds as if they’re trying to make up for the 1960 film’s poor effort.

Any others?

2

Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City is narrated in the second person by someone who never names himself. For the 1988 film, Michael J. Fox played Jamie Conway, which is obviously inspired by the author’s name

Fight Club is an interesting case. The narrator isn’t named in Chuck Pahlaniuk’s book, and he isn’t really named in the movie, either.

The same is true, I’m told, of Daphne duMaurier’s Rebecca and the Alfred Hitchcock film made of it, though I’ve never read or seen either.

3

In the musical version of War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne, the artilleryman was never named; so I suggest Art Illeryman. :wink:

4

I think the character’s name is actually Tyler Durden, but to say that would, as Number 2 in the Prisoner says, “be telling”.

The Man With No Name is named Sue. That would explain a lot.

5

That distinguished German tycoon and his mistress in the Stuttgart art-museum scene in The Avengers were Horst Leventhal and Sigrid Bermann.

Because I said so, dammit.

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nmn

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TV Time: The Addams Family cartoons debuted in The New Yorker magazine in 1938, but the characters were not given first names until the TV series in 1964.

8

And then there’s the Star Wars phenomenon where every walk-on character who has a line is given a name, even if there’s no way for the audience to ever learn it other than reading the credits. Like, Matt Doran didn’t play “death stick dealer” in Episode II; he played Elan Sel’sabagno.

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The Husband of the Bride of Frankenstein.

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On the flip side of that, I love what Zucker, Zucker, and Abrams did with their movies – identify the actors in the closing credits by the line they said, rather than calling them “Policeman #2” or giving some name that’s never used in the film.

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That’s not what they did for Airplane!: Airplane! (1980) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb

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I didn’t say they did it in all their movies.

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They don’t need a line to get a name. They need an action figure.

15

“Tyler Durden” is the name of the Narrator’s alternate persona. The Narrator is never named in the movie or the novel. In the book’s graphic novel sequel the Narrator’s real name is given as “Sebastian.”

16

Blondie, aka the Man with No Name.

Several Disney Princes had no name in their initial film, but in later sequels or comics they came up with one. Once in awhile there were contradictions.

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Willrow_Hood, aka “Ice Cream Guy”, didn’t have either.

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He has one now.

19

Some have speculated that Charles Bronson’s unnamed character in Once Upon a Time in the West is an older version of tMwNN.

20

Also interesting in terms of this thread, since he’s often referred to as Joe in discussions of the film, thanks to the recurring, “I am Joe’s __________” line from the film.