Sherlock Holmes 
Now where’s that Sherlock smilie??
Ayla (amazed she’s not here yet!)
Humbert Humbert
Dracula
Kay Scapetta
Alex Cross
Atticus Finch
Merlin
King Arthur
Morgana
Vampire Lestat
Ignatius J. Reilly
Jack Ryan (several Clancy novels)
Tom Sawyer
Jean Valjean, Les Miserables
Inspector Javert, Les Miserables
John Blackthorne, Shogun
Toranaga, Shogun
“Doc,” Cannery Row
Winston Smith, 1984
Lady Macbeth
Tom Joad, The Grapes of Wrath
I can’t believe nobody else likes Rex Stout mysteries, but I’ll throw them in first, since every old mystery fan loves them:
Nero Wolfe
Archie Goodwin
Rest of list:
Kurz - Heart of Darkness
Dagny Taggert - Atlas Shrugged
Demian - Demian (the Hesse novel)
Huck Finn
Gatsby
…and if Discworld and Heinlein novels are getting nods, I’ll toss in my favorite Wheel of Time character, Padan Fain. Really though, the fantasy/sci-fi list should be separate, because I’m sure an internet message board of all places could come up with 100 of those in a day.
“Really though, the fantasy/sci-fi list should be separate, because I’m sure an internet message board of all places could come up with 100 of those in a day.”
Hmmm…I’ll think about that…hell, let’s throw in novels too while we’re at it.
Did I say I loved stuff like this? 
Well, that fictionalized historical figure line gets awfully fuzzy. Where does that leave, say, King Arthur, who may or may not have been a real person?
Or Dracula, who was based on an historical figure?
Considering the amount of fictionalization in Ivanhoe, I’d say that if Dracula’s eligible, the Black Knight oughtta be.
Also, I guess I’m gonna have to lobby for the Scarlet Pimpernel, too. This character is the template for every “masked avenger” character that has come since, from Zorro to the Lone Ranger to Batman.
I’d lobby for Sancho Panza as the template for the sidekick, but it looks like he’s already got the votes.
"Well, that fictionalized historical figure line gets awfully fuzzy. Where does that leave, say, King Arthur, who may or may not have been a real person? "
He was based on a Celtic chief named Arturous, I think…but based on is a lot different than the actual real life figure.
“Or Dracula, who was based on an historical figure?”
I think Dracula and Vlad the Impaler could easily be considered two different characters. EHehehe
"Considering the amount of fictionalization in Ivanhoe, I’d say that if Dracula’s eligible, the Black Knight oughtta be. "
He is. HEEH
“I’d lobby for Sancho Panza as the template for the sidekick, but it looks like he’s already got the votes.”
Yup.
If anyone is wondering, here’s what I have so far. If I’ve made any booboos, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! Let me know, kthnx!
Oh, BTW, when Jools said “most of the characters have already been mentioned”, I counted that as a second for all the characters listed above that post because that’s what it looked like to me. If this is a problem, then I’ll start all over again or something…
Anyway:
1.Sherlock Holmes–6
2Captain Ahab–4
3Robinson Curosoe–4
4James Bond–6
5Huckleberry Finn-7
6Superman–7
7Atticus Finch–8
8Gandalf-6
9Holden Caulfield–5
10Dracula–7
11Zaphod Beeblebrox -3
12Winston Smith–5
13Ford Perfect–3
14Arthur Dent–3
15Bilbo Baggins–7
16Dr. Frankenstein–5
17Ebenezer Scrooge --4
18Tom Sawer–5
19Tarzan–7
20Hamlet-5
21Othello-5
22Hannibal Lector–4
23Harry Potter–3
24Captain Nemo–4
25Marius–3
26. Jean Valjean --4
27. Don Quixote --5
28. Frankenstein’s Monster–5
29 Hercule Poirot 3
30. Jane Marple–3
31. Frodo–4
32. Gollum–4
33. Flagg-3
34. Achillies–4
35Lazarus Long–3
36. Elizabeth Bennet–3
37. Jay Gatsby–4
38. Lancelot–5
39. King Arthur–6
40. Hawkeye–3
41. Iago–5
42. Sheriff Pangborn-3
43. Satan-3
44. Robin Hood-5
45. Guenevere-3
46. Batman-4
47. Macbeth–3
48. King Lear–3
49. Oliver Twist–4
50. Oedipus–3
51. Romeo-3
52-Juliet–3
53. Sancho–3
54. Phillip Marlowe-3
55. Ichabod Crane–3
56. Quasimodo–3
57. Scarlett O’Hara --3
58. Grendel-3
59. Merlin–3
60. Lady Macbeth–3
And am I the only one who finds it odd that Quasimodo gets on the list and yet my beloved priest Claude Frollo, doesn’t? I mean, I LIKE Quasimodo and all, but Frollo was so much deeper and he WAS the central character DESPITE the title…
I can’t believe, here of all places, no one seconded Paul Atreides.
Okay. I’ll do it. Paul Atredies=seconded
I’ll also add:
Leto Atredies
Scytale
Tylwyth Waff
Darwi Odrade
I really should make a seperate list for sci-fi/ fantasy…eheeheh
Ulysses (The Odyssey)
Hector (The Iliad)
Achilles (The Iliad)
Scheherezade (1001 Nights)
Faust (Goethe’s Faust)
Satan (Paradise Lost)
Peck’s Bad Boy
Don Quixote
Ebeneezer Scrooge
David Copperfield
Madame DeFarge (Tale of 2 Cities)
Julliete (DeSade’s Julliete)
Justine (DeSade’s Justine)
Eugenie Onegin (Pushkin)
Albertine (Proust’s In Search of Lost Time)
Marcel (In Search of Lost Time)
Babbit
Caddy (Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury)
Leopold Bloom (Ulysses)
Molly Bloom (Ulysses)
Molloy (Beckett)
Br’er Rabbit
Willy Wonka
Tyrone Slothrop (Gravity’s Rainbow)
K. (Kafka’s The Trial and The Castle)
Bartleby The Scrivener
Billy Budd (Melville)
Captain Ahab
Raskolnikov (Crime & Punishment)
The Brothers Karamazov
Madame Bovary
O (Reage’s The Story of O)
Humbert Humbert (Lolita)
Man, that’s weird. Grendel makes the list, but Beowulf doesn’t???
(Also, I can’t believe no one has seconded Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men.)
I’ll cast more votes for:
Humbert Humbert
Babbit
Madame DeFarge
Ulysses
Scheherezade
Aladdin
Don Juan
Anna Karenina
Puck
Falstaff
"Man, that’s weird. Grendel makes the list, but Beowulf doesn’t??? "
You know, I was thinking that too!
Odysseus, the Man of Many Turns Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Achilles
Aeneas
Rama
Beowolf
Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson
Doc Savage
The Wife of Bath
King Lear
Portia
Shylock
Lord Morpheus, the Sandman
Adam Dalgliesh
Paul Muad’dib Atreides
Conan the Barbarian
Magwitch
Rasilokonov
Jane Eyre
Heathcliff & Catherine
Elizabeth Bennett
Huckleberry Finn
All right, here’s some off the top of my head. Repeats are intended as additional votes, of course. (I think you should automatically count them as such, by the way.)
Alice In Wonderland
You make the call as to historical or not. There was a real Alice, of course, but her real-life adventures had nothing to do with her underground/lookingglass adventures.
Aeneas
Faithful Achates
Scout Finch
I’d like to make the case here (but I won’t) that Scout is at least as important a character as Atticus.
Frodo
Holden Caulfield
Hamlet
Othello
Lear
Lady Macbeth
Jane Eyre
The Wife of Bath
King Arthur
Emma Bovary
Phedre/Phaedra
Blanche DuBois
A few wild cards:
Alex Portnoy
Dr. Elwin Ransom
Scarlett O’Hara
Rhett Butler
Hercule Poirot
Mother Courage
Dorian Gray
Tom Joad
Winston Smith
From Tolkien:
Samwise Gamgee
Galadriel
Gollum
From Shakespeare:
Ariel
Prospero
Hamlet
Lear’s Fool
Cordelia
Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Puck
From legend/mythology/folklore:
Arthur
Gawain
Lancelot
Gweneviere
Merlin
Odysseus/Ulyses
Aeneas
Penelope
Hector
Achilles
Helen
Orpheus
Paul Bunyan
Pecos Bill
From comics/comic books:
Superman
Batman
Spider-Man
Wolverine
The Shadow
The Phantom
Prince Valiant
Charlie Brown
Snoopy
Linus Van Pelt
Lucy Van Pelt
Calvin
Hobbes
Opus the Penguin
Pogo
Dilbert
Ziggy
Garfield
From various SF sources:
Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Jules Verne)
Phinneas Fogg (Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne)
HAL (2001, Arthur C. Clarke)
R. Daneel Olivaw (The Caves of Steel and others, Isaac Asimov)
Hari Seldon (Foundation and others, Isaac Asimov)
Lazarus Long (Methuselah’s Children and others, Robert A. Heinlein)
Friday (Friday, Robert A. Heinlein)
Paul Atreides (Dune, Frank Herbert)
Ender Wiggins (Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card)
Various other works:
Sherlock Holmes
Frankenstein
Frankenstein’s Monster
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
Natty Bumpo (Last of the Mohicans and others, James Fennimore Cooper)
Chingachgook (ibid)
Samwise
Iago
St. Yossarian (read the Principia Discordia)
Milo Mindbender
Dr. Gonzo/Raoul Duke/Uncle Duke
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (from the manga, not the Odyessy)
Tetsuo, Kaneda (if Superman and Batman got in this…)
I second Tatsuo and Kaneda.
Samwise Gamgee (LOTR)
Gandalf
Treebeard
Jay Gatsby (Great Gatsby)
Inigo Montoya & Fezzik (The Princess Bride)
Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
Charles Wallace (a Wrinkle in Time)
Vivian
Morgaine
Taleisin (Mists of Avalon)
Puck
Bottom (A Midsummer Nights Dream)
Scarlett O’Hara
Mammy (Gone With the Wind)
Eliza Dolittle
Henry Higgens (Pygmalion)
The Cheshire Cat
Jaberwock (Alice in Wonderland)
Thanks, MakoDawn! 
I concur, and welcome to the boards!
(BTW, my IRL name is Dawn, too.)