# Who are some "fictional" characters who really existed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701 "2005-05-27T02:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/81 "2005-05-31T19:41:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Cite? :dubious: You’re right, I can’t offer any proof of Coleridge’s existence. It must have been a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/82 "2005-05-31T21:49:18Z")
There really was a [“Man in the Iron Mask.”](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaninmask.html) ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/83 "2005-05-31T22:51:57Z")
Since Kilroy was mentioned, here’s the Staff Report on the subject: [What’s the origin of “Kilroy was here”?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mkilroy.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/84 "2005-05-31T23:17:55Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > You’re right, I can’t offer any proof of Coleridge’s existence. It must have been a dream. The problem was when you mentioned the movie Xanadu with Olivia Newton-John which despite all attempts to prove otherwise is a real film and a real person 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/85 "2005-05-31T23:53:24Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > You’re right, I can’t offer any proof of Coleridge’s existence. It must have been a dream. Well, lay off the opium, then. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/86 "2005-06-01T21:15:56Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > … and while it refers to a number and not an “imaginary person,” I’ve heard that the numerical odds of being picked up by a passing spacecraft after being ejected from another one before you asphyxiate do, in fact (or at least, did), correspond to the phone number of an Islington flat. :dubious: The odds of getting picked up by a passing spacecraft after being ejected from another one, based on current scientific knowledge, are precisely zero. I’ve always wondered if **Curtis Lowe** was a real person. Does anybody know? ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/87 "2005-06-01T21:23:08Z")
How about Wong Fei Hung (sp?)? He was a real person. He was a martial artist and doctor that did some anti-government um…stuff. Hong Kong film industry made over 100 movies about him, so I’m told. Iron Monkey is probably the most recent best one (although it’s about his father mostly). I believe his children were somewhat involved in the film promotions. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/88 "2005-06-01T22:05:02Z")
The character “Hunter S. Thompson” appearing in the many books by the author Hunter S. Thompson was actually a real person; journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who incidentally authored the books in which the character Hunter S. Thompson appeared and went by the same name. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/89 "2005-06-01T22:26:44Z")
Somebody already mentioned **Imhotep** , the real physician and architect who designed the first Pyramid. He later became mythicized into a god of medicine, being identified as Aesclapius by the Greeks. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/90 "2005-06-01T23:24:39Z")
[Edmund Morris and Ronald Reagan](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394555082/qid=1117668564/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-3621864-3670235?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) are 2 fictional characters that really existed, or so I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/91 "2005-06-02T03:56:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Mrs. O’Leary** owned a cow in Chicago, and it was in her barn that the famous fire started, although all the legends about how it did so are unsubstantiated. As I write this I am sitting at work about 6 blocks west of where the O’Leary barn was. While Mrs. O’Leary did indeed exist and she did have a cow, it seems clear that she didn’t have anything to do with starting the fire. [Cite.](http://www.answers.com/topic/great-chicago-fire) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/92 "2005-06-02T04:35:08Z")
The character Dill, in _To Kill a Mockingbird_, was Harper Lee’s childhood pal **Truman Capote**. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/93 "2005-06-02T11:10:05Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > How about the ‘Hanging Judge’ Jeffries. Bearing in mind that Jeffreys’ most famous appearance in fiction is in _Lorna Doone_, it’s perhaps worth mentioning that it is sometimes claimed that the Doones were a real family. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/94 "2005-06-02T16:12:45Z")
Instead of a famous ‘mythical’ person, how about a place ? Nutbush is real, you murricans will know that, perhaps international dopers may not. Nutbush may not last much longer though, judging from various photos on a few websites, its still in decline, and there isn’t all that much further to go. [http://nutbush.machnitzki.com/](http://nutbush.machnitzki.com/) ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/95 "2005-06-07T13:50:02Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > :dubious: The odds of getting picked up by a passing spacecraft after being ejected from another one, based on current scientific knowledge, are precisely zero. **Cisco** , what would you say if I told you that I’m actually from a small planet in the vicinity of the star Betelgeuse, and not from Guildford after all? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701/96 "2005-06-07T13:51:38Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > **Cisco** , what would you say if I told you that I’m actually from a small planet in the vicinity of the star Betelgeuse, and not from Guildford after all? 😉 We would offer a kind-hearted & entirely sympathetic suggestion of Thorazine & Prozac. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-fictional-characters-who-really-existed/305701.md?page=4)