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

3. Indiana Jones - Indiana Jones Series

You know him well: the archeology professor/vigilante of history, fighting to preserve artifacts (and the occasional beautiful woman) from being wiped off the face of the planet. From the mind of George Lucas emerged a hero for the ages... a whip-wielding historian for the books. But a man too adventurous to be real? Not if you've heard of Hiram Bingham III. Bingham was a Yale professor, historian, and explorer in the early 1900s. His most famous feat? Discovering the lost city of Machu Picchu. Based on his book and the stories he left behind, exploring was what Bingham lived for. He later moved on to the military and politics, but his time in Peru (sponsored by Yale and the National Geographic Society) is legendary. And his legacy lives on: the road that cuts through Machu Picchu, now a high-volume tourist attraction, is called the Hiram Bingham Highway. Indy might have come face to face with Nazis and uncovered the Ark of the Covenant, but Bingham rediscovered a lost city. Maybe they should have called Indy "Indiana Bingham" (...and come on, look at that hat!).