10 Famous Movie Characters You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People

John Goodman has enjoyed a stellar second run in his post-Roseanne career, thanks in large part to his relationship with the Coen Brothers and the plum roles he's had in their films. Perhaps none put him back on the map as effectively as his performance as Walter Sobchak, the quick-tempered, Shabbos-honoring, Vietnam vet that helps drive the action of The Big Lebowski.

As with so many of the characters in the Coen Brothers' universe, Walter was gleaned from the real world. This time they pulled from their relationship with director and screenwriter John Milius, who you might know as the author of some of the greatest, most badass lines of dialogue ever uttered in American cinema.

Milius wrote the line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." He came up with Dirty Harry's "Do you feel lucky?" speech. He wrote Robert Shaw's monologue about the fate of the U.S.S. Indianapolis for Jaws.

Milius is also a self-described "Zen Anarchist". And although he didn't serve in Vietnam, that was only because he was rejected due to his chronic asthma. The fact that he, in his own words, "missed going to my war" was demoralizing, and made him obsessed with guns and war ever since.

Gee, almost sounds like the kind of guy who'd walk around all day wearing a khaki hunting vest and carrying a semi-automatic.

Speaking of The Big Lebowski...