6. Tarzan
Everyone's favourite jungle boy first appeared in 1912 and was first depicted on film 1918 spawning an epic franchise thereafter. Background Little Tarzan was born into the British aristocracy but when his parents got themselves stuck on the western coast of Africa and Mum died by natural causes and Dad gets killed by Tarzan's future surrogate father Tarzan is instead raised by a race of great apes called the Mangani. This results in the feral, vine swinging Tarzan we know and love. Importance of being orphaned Tarzan's parents' death is a vital plot device to whole story. The idea of someone born into wealth ironically being raised in feral surroundings is all part of the draw for Tarzan. Without his jungle upbringing we'd just have plain old John Clayton and that character may not have been as popular. To measure the appeal of that character all you have to do is swing on a rope. Everytime anyone swings on a rope, or anything else for that matter, they think of tarzan and probably do that weird shouty-screamy thing. Companions From the 30s to the 60s Tarzan had his chimpanzee sidekick, Cheetah, who actually never appeared in any of the books. Instead that was a monkey named Nkima.