10 Most Memorable Original Film Characters

3. The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin in Kid Auto Races at Venice)

Created almost 100 years ago (1914, to be precise), the character of The Tramp is funny, moving, sad, and acrobatic, all at the same time. From being stuck in Yukon eating a shoe, to fighting a twice-his-size boxer, to raising a kid and seducing a €œprincess€, The Tramp has done it all. His was probably the first ever character with a memorable costume. And a century later, it is still recognizable by everyone! Think about it: tie a towel around your neck, and you€™ll be considered as any superhero, maybe Superman (and crazy, too!); put on a cowboy hat, and you€™re just any cowboy. But put on a bowler hat, and you€™re instantly recognized as The Tramp (or maybe a Magritte painting!). His power is incredible: inspiration, humor, tenderness, anger (at the Dictator!), but most of all, nostalgia for a long-gone Golden Age era of Hollywood, with silent films, under-contract stars, but also acrobatics and antics. It was an era of pure creativity and sheer imagination, hence the bronze medal for this character. Runner-up: Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane
 
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Francis Barel is a movie fan, a pop culture fan, and most of all a fan of Americana: everything that makes the American culture, whether it's baseball, entertainement or business. On the fun side, we're talking: John Williams, blockbuster movies, romantic comedies, and comic books. On the business side, we're talking: box-office returns, finance & banking, payments, and the corporate side of comic books.