10 Outrageous Movie Characters You Won't Believe Exist In Real Life

4. Zorro - The Mask Of Zorro

If you've seen any of the films following the masked bandit Zorro, you would recognize the eponymous character's token "Z" anywhere. But would you recognize it if it were a J? The story of Zorro came to readers in its first rendition from Johnston McCulley in 1919 in the story series "The Curse of Capistrano." However, it has been speculated that the masked bandit was based off a real-life bandit: Joaquin Murrieta, who doled out justice in California during the Gold Rush. Murrieta, like many others, went to California in the mid 1800. After a number of unfortunate events that were not well recorded, he became the leader of a gang and a wanted man in California. Murrieta was even referred to as "Robin Hood of El Dorado" occasionally, and the details of his life are vague at best, leaving folk myth and legend to fill in the gaps. Everything from his origins to his death at the hands of state rangers becomes hard to pin point, and the story is left up to the imagination. And it's a good thing, too, because those blanks and his wild-fire reputation inspired McCulley almost 100 years ago to create a character that we still know to this day.