1. George Taylor - Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Sometimes an astronaut impresses us not with his work in the vacuum of space, but rather in how he deals with life after he returns. Nowhere is this more true than the case of George Taylor (played to perfection by Charlton Heston), an astronaut who left Earth on an interstellar mission only to be thrown tragically off course. His ship lands on a world populated with sentient apes who treat humans as slave-beasts. After his shipmates are killed by the oppressive apes, Taylor sets out to make things right. He wrests his freedom from the dominant primates and sets off with the beautiful but sub-human Nova. As the movie ends, Taylor discovers his ship has crashed on a future Earth where humans destroyed themselves, leading to the rise of the apes.
Why He's Great: Do you really need to ask? Taylor takes on a city filled with intelligent apes and wins. Through it all, he never lets the apes break his spirit, proving once and for all that humans are the mental superiors to apes. Besides, he gets to have his way with Nova, and that would make him great even if he'd failed against the apes.
That's my list? Do you have someone you think I missed? Let me know in the comments.