10 Video Game Characters You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People

Though Halo's Master Chief has never revealed his face to fans - in the video games, anyway - the character's overall personality was modelled off one of the most iconic actors of all time: Clint Eastwood.

In a 2012 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Master Chief voice actor Steve Downes revealed that Bungie gave him a very specific pitch for the character:

"He's a super-soldier, a man of few words, a lone wolf, a guy in a spacesuit. You never see his face behind his reflective helmet visor. Think spaghetti Westerns, Clint Eastwood. But in space."

And though the world of Halo is so very different to Eastwood's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns, it's nevertheless easy to see how Eastwood's portrayal of a terse badass inspired the similarly sparing, gravel-voiced Master Chief.

Downes also had an amusing perspective on how Master Chief would be different were he created today, with video games generally being taken more seriously as both art and storytelling:

"The reality is, if Microsoft were casting Halo now, they'd just hire Clint Eastwood."

Clint Eastwood lending his voice to Halo? Tough to picture it, honestly.