10 Best HBO Characters Ever

Home Box Office - better known as HBO - represents the crème de la crème of television production, having played host to some of the most universally acclaimed shows of all time, including The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones.

As such, it's no surprise that the influential network has featured some of the greatest television characters ever conceived, stretching across a vast range of personality types and genres. These names constitute some of the most famous characters to ever appear onscreen, and usually possess a vast cabinet of television awards to their credit, in recognition of the quality of their respective actor or actress' performance.

In many cases - where these characters are lauded as the best thing about a show that's already buckling under the weight of the positive critical response it has garnered - it's hard to envision a scenario where these shows enjoyed the same level of success without them.

Considering the wealth of great options to choose from, we're spoiled for choice on this list, but let's go ahead and choose just ten of HBO's most memorable, layered, and iconic characters in the history of the network...

"THIRTEEN!"

The ferocious war cry representing his beloved 13th Legion has become synonymous with Ray Stevenson's most memorable career credit, in a role that he was quite literally born to play.

Stevenson plays the lovably coarse and loud-mouthed legionary Titus Pullo in Rome, a brash, towering beast of a man, prone to shockingly visceral acts of violence. Had viewers ever conceived the notion of a man biting someone's tongue out and spitting the bloody remains into his victim's agonized face before Pullo came along? Probably not.

Pullo’s unflinching brutality is perfectly complemented by his oft-comical nature. He's good at chopping off body parts, but the legionary is also not the sharpest blade in the armoury, leading to some darkly hilarious results over the course of Rome's run.

Stevenson's performance is not intended to invoke some philosophical debate about the legionary's nuances - the Northern Irish actor aims to entertain, and that he does. Audiences shouldn't care so much about a one-dimensional character, but the entertainment factor of Stevenson's performance means that they find themselves pleasantly surprised at the fact that they do.