10 Movie Characters Who Debuted Much Earlier Than You Think

4. John McClane (Die Hard) - The Detective

The Character

John McClane (Bruce Willis), the legendary NYPD officer who finds himself single-handedly attempting to stop the terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper in John McTiernan's electrifying 1988 action classic.

The film's popularity of course led to four sequels of varying quality, while a prequel-sequel is currently in the works, set to star Willis in a limited capacity. Wait and see on that one.

Their REAL Debut

This one's a teensy bit of a cheat, but technically speaking, the source inspiration for Die Hard's plucky protagonist first appeared in the Frank Sinatra-starring 1968 neo-noir movie The Detective.

You see, the first Die Hard is based on the 1979 Roderick Thorp novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which is a sequel to Thorp's 1966 novel The Detective.

Both books revolved around private detective Joe Leland, as played by Frank Sinatra in The Detective, and when Die Hard was being put together, contractual obligations required Fox to first offer the lead role to a 73-year-old Sinatra.

Sinatra promptly passed on it, at which point Leland was transformed into John McClane, Willis was hired, and an iconic action franchise was born.

But in terms of cinematic DNA, John McClane only exists because we had his older parallel universe alternate, Joe Leland, first.