# Who are the upper-class heroes in modern (fiction) film and print? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580 "2015-09-26T16:39:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/1 "2015-09-26T16:39:36Z")
Are there any? Set in the more-or-less real modern world, that is. Not fantasy worlds. The past decade or two it seems that its the in thing to portray the upper class as villains or terminally stupid. Or both. There are a number of tropes there. No episode of Sharpe was complete without a lengthy diatribe against the upper classes, for instance and Harry Potter had the Malfoys. Works set in the past but written in the present are fine; those written and set in the past are not. I’ll leave the cut-off date to your discretion. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/2 "2015-09-26T16:49:42Z")
Bruce Wayne. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/3 "2015-09-26T17:28:32Z")
Tony Stark Daddy Warbucks, to the extent that Orphan Annie has been updated in some incarnations Charles Francis Xavier (Professor X) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/4 "2015-09-26T17:36:22Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > Bruce Wayne. Speaking of omnicompetent guys who inherited the family’s stately manor complete with faithful butler, the most recent James Bond movie seems to have put a nail in the coffin of Vesper Lynd’s guesses about everybody’s favorite Royal Navy Commander: she _figured_ he went to Oxford or Cambridge without coming from money, but, c’mon. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/5 "2015-09-26T17:40:45Z")
Andy Dufresne in _The Shawshank Redemption_ is one of the few bankers in films who is a hero. Prince Akeem Joffer in _Coming to America_ ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/6 "2015-09-26T17:49:38Z")
Harry Potter might have had a perfectly middle class upbringing but he was _loaded_. Black Panther, who’s getting his own movie. Wakanda is a fictional nation but it’s worth mentioning. I assume Wonder Woman and Aquaman are too outre to count for this one. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/7 "2015-09-26T18:13:08Z")
Oliver Queen/Green Arrow? He’s no longer CEO of Queen Industries, but appears to be quite wealthy still. Speaking of which, Ray Palmer is a wealthy good guy and tech genius. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/8 "2015-09-26T18:19:22Z")
Sir Percival Blakeney, aka The Scarlet Pimpernel. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Do Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg count? Both have been portrayed as New Tech Gods. …and flawed ones, at that 😉 ETA: yeah, not very modern, but there ya go. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/9 "2015-09-26T18:48:41Z")
The GREEN HORNET movie came out fairly recently, and revolved around a rich playboy inheriting the rest of the family fortune – prompting our hero to figure _you know, as a newspaper publisher with a bulletproof car, I think I can make this city a better place._ ---
**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:** [September 26, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/10 "2015-09-26T19:17:32Z")
Not heroes, really, but not bad guys either. And Jed didn’t start out rich. Jed Clampett Thurston Howell III ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/11 "2015-09-26T19:20:25Z")
Adrian Veidt. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/12 "2015-09-26T19:20:28Z")
Lara Croft, Countess of Abbingdon ---
**Author:** ![jehan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jehan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jehan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/13 "2015-09-26T19:28:02Z")
The Crawley family? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/14 "2015-09-26T19:29:01Z")
Richard Castle. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/15 "2015-09-26T19:31:33Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Lara Croft, Countess of Abbingdon This is the best answer so far that isn’t a comic book or similar. (Yes, I know it’s a video game character but she doesn’t have a Batmobile or an Iron Man suit.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/16 "2015-09-26T19:31:47Z")
Nick and Nora Charles. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/17 "2015-09-26T19:38:15Z")
On ELEMENTARY, they keep noting that Holmes has a rich dad who easily foots the bill for his no-need-to-hold-down-a-job-so-I’ll-solve-crimes lifestyle in modern NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/18 "2015-09-26T19:40:34Z")
Do doctor and lawyer shows count, btw? ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/19 "2015-09-26T20:11:09Z")
Also Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro), depending on your definition of modern. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580/20 "2015-09-26T20:23:35Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Adrian Veidt. Hero, huh? Though he gets double points in a way because not only was he born rich, but then he gave it all up and made it all back through his own hard work. For more comic book heroes - Warren Worthington (Angel), Emma Frost and the Braddock (Capt Britain, Psylocke, etc) are all wealthy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-upper-class-heroes-in-modern-fiction-film-and-print/732580.md?page=2)