Screen Characters Based on Celebrities

I've just seen the incredible film of Keith Richards driving a Ferrari around Paris in BBC Four's Lost Weekend – terrifying and stunning in equal measure and with a great, seemingly impossible ending.

Anyway, it occurred to me that there are actually at least two film characters based on Richards – maybe the most familiar being Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow – but further back, Alice Playten's Blix the goblin in Legend.

Can you think of any more – especially celebrities that have inspired more than one screen character?

I remember the villain in Rocketeer was based on Errol Flynn.

Well that's interesting because apparently Timothy Dalton based Prince Barin on Errol Flynn as well .

I know Jabba The Hutt was based on Sydney Greenstreet.


Greenstreet was in Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, plus others obviously, and was always cast as a fat, rich villain type.

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I'm reliably informed that in the Doctor Who story Four to Doomsday, Stratford Johns is 'doing Sydney Greenstreet' while dressed up as a big alien frog .

Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder? Maybe he's just an amalgamation of every Hollywood agent.

Good call! I think he was immitating Harvey Weinstein, but Im not sure. too lazy to google

A really good one is Alec Guinness taking off Alastair Sim in The Ladykillers.

aka, William Randolph Hearst.

You've just reminded me that Godzilla v Mechagodzilla was one of my favourites .

Ranier Wolfcastle based on Arnold Schwartzenegger

Dr. Nick Riviera
Anyone's guess, but I would throw in Dr. Phil, and any quack you can imagine

Walter in The Big Lebowski was heavily influenced by John Milius.

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Lawyer Clarence Darrow inspired defense lawyers in at least two films based on real life cases he worked on, but in both his character's name was changed:

Compulsion (1959): Orson Welles played "Jonathan Wilk" the defense attorney (the trial was based on the famous Leopold and Loeb case).
Inherit the Wind (1960): Spencer Tracy played "Henry Drummond" the defense attorney (the trial was based on the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial").

Since both these films were based on real events, they contain several characters based on real life individuals.

Margaret Thatcher was the basis for the villain Helen A in Doctor Who's The Happiness Patrol, played by Sheila Hancock. John Thaw apparently read that script and couldn't believe they would be able to film it in the time – I think three or four days. It's also significant for Bassett's' complaining about the Kandy Man's resemblance to their logo .

I know Bogart's portrayal of Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forrest (1936) is heavily based on John Dillinger's mannerisms.




And Bruce Willis refusing to shave his beard in What Just Happened (2008) is a riff on the tantrum Alec Baldwin threw when he refused to shave his beard for The Edge (1997).

The Man Who Came to Dinner is based on a real life incident.

Check out IMDb to see which character is based on who (or is it whom?).

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And Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March) was based on William Jennings Bryan, correct?

Correct!