10 Famous Characters Based On Real People
Published in Entertainment at March 29th, 2017 at 9:27 AM
You might surprised to know that a lot of characters in the media you believed were entirely fictional actually had a real life basis. In fact, many a real person from in recent years have been huge inspirations on fictional character in one way or another; be it in terms of appearance, or their entire life storey and persona. Just as an outlaw knight in days of old may have inspired the legends of Robin Hood, real life people to this continue to have an influence on writers and character designers. Here are 10 fictitious characters from the pop culture of the last century whose inspiration in someway comes from a very real personality.
Betty Boop
You probably recognise Betty Boop from somewhere , even if you don't immediately know who she is. Created by Max Fleischer back in the late 1920s and debuting in 1930, she was a cartoon character in the 'Talkartoon' series and appeared in many comic strips thereafter (not to mention an awful lot of merchandise). Boop is sort of a caricature of the Jazz Age American Flapper, she's got that large baby like face and a childishness people aren't is cute or sexy. She has become an icon of that age and popular the world over, though these days she often finds her way onto clothing and accessories bought by girls who like to think they're being vintage while being a bit of a rebel. Betty Boop is however more than just a caricature of the Jazz Age, she is a caricature of an actual person.
Just about everythying about Betty Booby was taken from the real life Helen Kane. Kane was a popular actress and singer in the late 1920s, and petty much invented the whole 'I'm a sexy baby' thing. She not only looked and sounded exactly like Betty Boop, but her catchphrase was 'boop-oop-a-doop'. She actually sued the creator Max Fleischer in 1936 but lost. An injustice really when you thing about it, but life is unfair like that sometimes. Maybe if the theft of character would be less obvious if Betty Boop had not been briefly named 'Nan McGrew', a named lifted straight from one from of Helen Kane's movies where she played the titular 'Dangerous Nan McGrew'.
Liane Cartman
Cartman's mom in the South Park series is based loosely on the creator Trey Parker's ex-girlfriend in college. This almost sounds like some sort of creative revenge play against his ex. That said, Trey has said that she was a mild mannered mom type, who would dress like she was visiting Sunday service; this isn't really an assault on her character when you think about it, its almost positive. Trey's elaboration that when they'd get in the bedroom, she suddenly became an outraged sex addict, and her momsy image was dropped, doesn't harm her all that much either (if anything, it praises her animal prowess). Its just in the characterisation of Cartman's mother where it gets bitter and brutal.
Given how Liane Cartman behaves a lot of the time in the series though, you can see how her character is one big long passive aggressive F-you to his ex; it not entirely subtle either (German scheisse videos....). Liane Adamo, was Trey's fiancee when she is alleged to have committed a number of infidelities, so its perhaps no wonder Trey has Liane Cartman portrayed as the rampantly promiscuous type. Episode titles like 'Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut' and 'Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut' really drum home Trey's point (just in case you were still under the impression that he was being subtle with this character).
Norman Bates
Norman Bates, the handsome knife wielding momma's boy in Psycho. Pleasant and amiable, it was not immediately obvious what was going on his life, and what becomes of those who interfere with his life. If some reason, you don't already know the Psycho twist, then stop reading this section now and skip ahead (but really, you should have. Its Psycho. Its a bloody classic. Go watch it if you haven't). So, Norman caught his doting mother in the act with her new fling one night and went all psycho, killing them both. Having all kinds of issues, he developed a split personality and adopted his mother's personality. He also dug up her corpse and kept in the house with him, all while trying to run a motel business. Norman Bates, he kills people, dresses as is mother and digs up dead bodies. You'd hope there is no one like this in real life, but truth is often stranger than fiction.
Meet Ed Gein (not that'd you ever want to or could, he's dead), he is credited as the real life inspiration for for Norman Bates by the character's creator Robert Bloch. Not at all as handsome as Antony Perkins who portrayed Norman Bates, but perhaps horrifically more brutal. Known as 'The Butcher of Plainfield', Ed Gein is famous for two violent murders, some serious body snatching and some creepy crafting. He murdered Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner in Plainfield Wisconsin, and tavern owner Mary Hogan way back in the 1950s (Hogan in 1954, and Worden in 1957). He also raided local graveyards during the night and exhumed many of the freshly buried bodies. From the corpses of the two he killed and the bodies he stole from graves, he would craft grisly paraphernalia for himself. Let's not talk about it all in depth, its all pretty nasty and enough to make your skin shriek (even if you're not squeamish). A few examples of his nasty creation include; masks made from the faces of women, chairs upholstered with human skin, and bowls made from skulls. This with us? Its probably no surprise that Ed Gein is also the inspired Leatherface and Buffalo Bill (from Silence of the Lambs) as well as Norman Bates.
Edna Mode
'No Capes!' Edna Mode, she was the costume designer in The Incredibles. The talented fashionista was all about making sure superheros have both fabulous and practical outfits. She was intended to somewhat of a fashion orientated version of Q from the James Bond series and was voiced by the movie's director, Brad Bird, after his idea of how she should sound and behave took on a life of its own. Given that Hollywood is prone to a lot of self referential praise (look no further than the Oscars), many point out that Edna Mode bares a striking similarity to Hollywood costume designer Edith Head.
While Brad Bird has denied the inspiration, its hard to deny the similarities. Eccentric personalities like Edna Mode rarely come from nowhere, especially when the eccentric Edith Head had left her mark on Hollywood. She was prolific in the industry throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. She was nominated for 35 Oscars for her work in costume design and won 8. She became famous for declaring 'I hate modesty' and helped Hollywood keep its glitz going through the years she worked their. She designed for the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, and is credited on classic movies of the era like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Vertigo, and White Christmas.
Aladdin
You may well be aware that the story of Aladdin is loosely based on an old Arabian folk tale so you might thing it odd that Aladdin is here on this list if his origins are rooted in legend. Well, when Disney wanted to make a movie of it, they may have had a story for Aladdin, but they needed a handsome face for their titular character. This becomes more noticeable on closer inspection, but it was revealed in a making of documentary that for Aladdin's appearance, they went for Tom Cruise.
Initially, Aladdin was going to be as young as 13, but as the development went on, he appropriately got aged up to 18. The character designers then looked to teen idols for inspiration. To begin with, they based his appearance off that of Michael J. Fox's in Back to the Future. Perhaps because it was now the mid 90s when the movie was being produced, they moved away from Fox's appearance and turned instead to that of Tom Cruise for inspiration. It makes sense, Cruise's career was on an up at this time, with Mission Impossible being release the same year as Aladdin. If they wanted Aladdin to woo a princess, he obviously needed to have a damn handsome face with which to do so.
Jabba the Hut
'Ma boo-kee, keelee ka-lya dooka. Wadja da boolya ra Moy, cheekoh pahn na green nahp meet’noh toh pohnkee dohkoh lah.' Yes, Jabba the Hutt, the Star Wars Space gangster and a crime boss of the Hutt Council, is based on a real life person. You might think that impossible, he's a fleshy slug thing! This alien ain't human. Well, you'd be wrong; ol' Jabba was has some very human inspiration behind him. It is first worth noting however, that Jabba, was originally a human character. Back before Jabba was added into A New Hope with CGI, by an interfering George Lucas, that scene originally included a human Jabba played by Northern Irish actor Declan Mullholland. Heavyset and rotund (and dressed like a minor Game of Thrones character), Mullholland fit the role of imposing crime boss rather well, but for whatever reason, the scene was cut and Jabba wasn't properly presented to us until Return of the Jedi when he returned as the slug thing we know and love (or despise?) today. However, there was one very human actor back from the film noir era who set the standard for the archetypal film crime boss; Sydney Greenstreet.
Syndey Greenstreet was the actor who helped define who the movie crime boss should look, act and behave. His acting debut in The Maltese Falcon as Kasper Gutman earned him an Oscar nomination and he is also well known for his role in the classic film, Casablanca. His character in The Maltese Falcon, Kasper Gutman, was a coldblooded smuggler and criminal known by the nickname 'The Fat Man'. His role in Casablanca was as Signor Ferrari, another infamous criminal figure, famed for all kinds of criminal dealings, including slavery. These two of Greenstreet's most famous characters probably sound an awful lot like Jabba in human form, so the inspiration actually seems kind of obvious once you know about it. In fact, when it came to designing a new Jabba for the characters actual debut in Return of the Jedi, George Lucas is quoted as having told his design team that Jabba should look 'alien and grotesque ... just like Sydney Greenstreet'. At one point in the design purpose, Lucas had instructed the design team to give Jabba a fez as a direct reference to Greenstreet's character in Casablanca. Imagine that. Jabba the Hutt wearing a fez! Apparently Lucas wanted to indicate Jabba's 'Moroccanness', because as we all know, Lucas is not adverse to making characters who are racial stereotypes in alien form.
Rocky Balboa
Rocky Balboa, the tenacious underdog boxer who rises up, takes his time and takes his chances, to become the World's greatest. It was the role the arguably kickstarted Sylvester Stallone's acting career. From underdog with a one off chance to take on the greatest to the man who's fists have enough power to destroy the USSR, the story of Rocky is an endearing and entertaining one. It may come as a surprise that the Rocky character takes inspiration from a real life boxer (although, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise given the nature of this article), who was also an underdog who rose up and took his chances. Stallone tells it himself that the Rocky character was born after watching the little known boxer, Chuck Wepner, take on Muhammad Ali, The World's Greatest.
Chuck Wepner was a club boxer and he was not well known, but he made a name for himself when it was announced back in 1975 that he would challenge Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title. Ali being the great boxer and headstrong character that he was was a helluva' challenge for Wepner, but the crowd were quick to see him as the underdog and started rooting for him. Wepner lasted 15 rounds with The World's Greatest, and even knocked him down in the 9th round. Ali came back from that angry however and knocked Wepner down late in the 15th round and won by technical knockout. Wepner may not have have won, but his underdog courage and tenacity won him support of the spectators. Watching on TV that night was Sly Stallone, who feeling pretty bummed out about his career situation, was watching the fight to cheer himself up. He too got behind Wepner and his 'triumph of the the human spirit', and that night, Rocky was born. Stallone has later denied a lot of this, and there was a lawsuit over the rights to Wepner's life story, but Wepner's influence on Rocky remained. Take for example the scene in Rocky III where Rocky fights an exhibition match against the heavyweight wrestling champ Thunderlips (played wonderfully by Hulk Hogan). This scene reminiscent of something that happened later on in Wepner's career, when he fought against Andre the Giant in a similar exhibition match (who threw him from the ring, just as Thunderlips did to Rocky).
Shrek
Shrek is loved, but Shrek is real life. The stinky green ogre from Dreamworks' fairy-tale send up and middle finger to Disney actually has a human basis. You might think it impossible that there is anyone could influence Shrek; unless of course you happen to know a grumpy reclusive neighbour with bad hygiene but a kind heart. That said, there is a lot of evidence that Shrek's facial features and build come from French wrestler, Maurice Tillet. It is perhaps mostly circumstantial evidence, but the resemblance is actually uncanny.
Known as 'The French Angel', Maurice Tillet was top of the bill heavyweight wrestler in the 1940s. Born to French parents in the Russian Urals, he was known as 'The Angel' as a child because of his angelic face. He moved back to France to avoid the Russian Revolution and in a twist of cruel irony, he was diagnosed with 'acromegaly' at age 20 having noticed some strange swellings in his legs. This caused his face to become swollen and less than angelic. Usually caused by a benign tumour on the pituitary gland, acromegaly causes an overgrowth and thickening of the bones. Having been unable to become a lawyer due his condition, Tillet joined the Navy as an engineer and was eventually convinced to become a professional wrestler. He was unstoppable in the ring and keeping his nickname, became known as 'The French Angel'. It wasn't until his failing health forced him to retire that he lost a match. While looking up swamps for inspiration, the Shrek research team is noted to have visited the museum that hosted a death mask of Maurice Tillet. While it was never officially confirmed that Tillet's visage was used to model Shrek's, this museum visit and the fact that the character design drastically changed from the original concept art around the time of the visit. You might think this a tad unfair of Tillet's legacy, but as a wrestler, he played up the whole monstrous image thing as part of his act and would likely be proud of inspiring the noble orge
Severus Snape
A bit gloomy, and appearing to be a bit of a bully, Severus Snape is the teacher at Hogwarts that gave Harry Potter the most trouble (well, apart from all those that were in league with Voldemort or were werewolves or whatever...), and is especially well remembered because of the late Alan Rickman's expert portrayal of the character. JK Rowling used plenty of her own real life experiences to flesh out characters in the Harry Potter books (Hagrid is based of biker she met in a pub who loved is gardening for example), and the inspiration for the dour but lovable Snape comes from her time at school.
Although Rowling has denied it in the past, the glaringly obvious inpiration for Severus Snape is a man named John Nettleship. Who is this Mr. Nettleship exactly? Well, he was Rowling's chemistry teacher back when she was in school. Her mother also worked as his assistant in his department. Nettleship described himself as 'a short-tempered chemistry teacher with long hair...(and a) gloomy, malodorous laboratory' when he was questioned on the matter. So yes, Mr. Nettlership self-confesses to having all the characteristics of his former pupil's character Snape. Regarding being the inspiration for Snape, Nettleship is also quoted as having said, 'I was horrified when I first found out. I knew I was a strict teacher but I didn't think I was that bad.' Rowling did later confess to having made Snape 'loosely based on a teacher I myself (Rowling) had.' Nettleship later went om to write about of JK Rowling's life in her hometown of Chepstow in England before he sadly passed away of cancer in 2011.
Nacho Libre
Nacho Libre, the movie about a Mexican monk who becomes a wrestler, has real life inspiration? Yes. Yes it does actually. Truth is often stranger than fiction. Nacho Libre is a feelgood comedy about an orphan called Ignacio (played by Jack Black) who dreams of becoming a luchadore (the famed typed of masked Mexican wrestler). Raised in an monastery and the orphaned son of a priest, Ignacio lives a restricted and religious life, and wrestling is prevented by his monastic peers. Disregarding the rules on wrestling, he secretly takes up the life of a masked wrestler by the name of Nacho, and uses the money he earns to provide for his fellow orphans at the monastery. The story is both feelgood and far-fetched. But believe it or not, Ignacio's character is loosely based on that of the real life Revered Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez.
'Fray Tormenta' (Friar Storm), or Revered Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez, was the real life inspiration for Nacho Libre, a Mexican priest who supported an orphanage for 23 years with money made as a lucha libre wrestler. Benítez grew up a fan of wrestling, and was inspired to pursue lucha libre by two Mexican films (El Señor Tormenta and Tormenta En El Ring) which both featured wresting priests who supported orphanages. So what we have going on here is an odd case of art imitating life imitating art. After a battles with drug addiction and alcoholism, Benítez joined an order of priests and underwent a lot of theological training. He eventually became a secular priest and founded an orphanage, but in need of money to support the orphanage, he turned to his childhood dreams and became a wrestling priest under the name 'Fray Tormenta'. He kept his life a priest secret from the wresting world a long time to make sure he was taken seriously. His story of course went onto inspire Nacho Libre, as well as influencing many of characters in fiction, like King from the Tekken series of games.
