10 Movie Characters That Mean More Than You Think

By Jack Pooley / August 29, 2022

3. Shelly Finkelstein - Friday The 13th Part III

Paramount Pictures

On the face of it, poor Shelly Finkelstein (Larry Zerner) is just another unfortunate lamb to Jason Voorhees' slaughter in Friday the 13th Part III, a chubby prankster who ends up with his throat cut by the hulking horror icon.

But like Sylvia Trench in the James Bond series, Shelly contributes something major to Jason's core mythology, because he was the original owner of the hockey mask which Jason would later steal from him and make his own.

The grand irony is that while Shelly desperately wanted to be something more than a nobody - even pranking his "friends" so they'd pay attention to him - he gained ultimate notoriety in death by providing Jason with surely the most distinctive aspect of his famous attire.

Well done, Shelly, you did it!