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

2. Steven Russell - I Love You Phillip Morris

One of the main reasons you might not know that this character is based off a real person is because you may have missed this fantastic film when it came out in 2009. I Love You Phillip Morris was one of the best movies I saw that year (despite so-so ratings) because of the characters. Specifically, Jim Carrey's Steven Russell. A homosexual ex-cop-turned-con-man, Carrey makes him into an unbelievable character. The film tells you right from the beginning: "This really happened. It really did," and yet, the story is still so outrageous, filled will false identities, impersonations, cons and scams (not to mention jail breaks), that it's still hard to believe. Although the real-life story is slightly different, Stephen Jay Russell really was a gay con man who pulled of some incredible stuff. He embezzled money, he stole identities, and he broke out of jail a number of times using remarkable strategies. At one point, he called the county he was locked up in pretending to be a judge, and had his bail lowered by $900,000, and then was able to post his own bail. Now, I don't want to give away too much of the film, but after you go watch it (which I assume you will be doing shortly), it's worth doing a Google search of all the tricks Russell pulled and reading up on just how legitimate his story is. Oh, and Russell's still in jail now: his release date is July 12th, 2140.