American Film Institute’s
100 Years . . . 100 Heroes & Villains
The American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated the centennial of cinema by airing a number of television specials, each honoring a different aspect of excellence in American film. On June 3, 2003 AFI broadcast a program entitled “100 Years . . . 100 Heroes & Villains—America’s Greatest Movie Heroes & Villains.”
To determine the winners, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community—screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics, among them—to choose from a list of nominated films compiled by AFI. The selected films (and their ranking) are listed below.
The
symbol appears next to those films which also received an Academy Award nomination (although this was not a requirement for inclusion on the list). Click on the name of one of those films to display more information about it. You can also click on the IMDb link to to open a new browser window or tabshowing information about the film from the Internet Movie Database. Or, click on a title in the column on the right to display the winners from another AFI program.
For more information, you can follow this link to the American Film Institute’s website.
| The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) IMDb |
| Hero: Robin Hood (18) | |
| Alien (1979) IMDb |
| Hero: Ellen Ripley (8) | |
| Villain: The Alien (14) | |
| All About Eve (1950) IMDb |
| Villain: Eve Harrington (23) | |
| All the President’s Men (1976) IMDb |
| Hero: Bob Woodward / Carl Bernstein (27) | |
| Bambi (1942) IMDb |
| Villain: Man (20) | |
| Batman (1989) IMDb |
| Villain: The Joker (45) | |
| Hero: Batman (46) | |
 | The Big Sleep (1946) IMDb |
| Hero: Philip Marlowe (32) | |
| Blue Velvet (1986) IMDb |
| Villain: Frank Booth (36) | |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1967) IMDb |
| Villain: Clyde Barrow / Bonnie Parker (32) | |
| Boys Town (1938) IMDb |
| Hero: Father Edward Flanigan (42) | |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) IMDb |
| Hero: Butch Cassidy / The Sundance Kid (20) | |
| Cape Fear (1962) IMDb |
| Villain: Max Cady (28) | |
| Casablanca (1943) IMDb |
| Hero: Rick Blaine (4) | |
| Chinatown (1974) IMDb |
| Villain: Noah Cross (16) | |
| City Lights (1931) IMDb |
| Hero: The Tramp (38) | |
| A Clockwork Orange (1971) IMDb |
| Villain: Alex De Large (12) | |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967) IMDb |
| Hero: Luke Jackson (30) | |
| Die Hard (1988) IMDb |
| Villain: Hans Gruber (46) | |
| Dirty Harry (1971) IMDb |
| Hero: Harry Callahan (17) | |
| Dr. No (1962) IMDb |
| Hero: James Bond (3) | |
| Double Indemnity (1944) IMDb |
| Villain: Phyllis Dietrichson (8) | |
| Dracula (1931) IMDb |
| Villain: Count Dracula (33) | |
| Erin Brockovich (2000) IMDb |
| Hero: Erin Brockovich (31) | |
| The Exorcist (1973) IMDb |
| Villain: Regan McNeil (9) | |
| Fargo (1996) IMDb |
| Hero: Marge Gunderson (33) | |
| Fatal Attraction (1987) IMDb |
| Villain: Alex Forrest (7) | |
| The French Connection (1971) IMDb |
| Hero: Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (44) | |
| Gandhi (1982) IMDb |
| Hero: Mahatma Gandhi (21) | |
| Gladiator (2000) IMDb |
| Hero: General Maximus Decimus Meridus (50) | |
| The Godfather Part II (1974) IMDb |
| Villain: Michael Corleone (11) | |
| Goldfinger (1964) IMDb |
| Villain: Auric Goldfinger (49) | |
| Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) IMDb |
| Hero: Arthur Chipping (41) | |
| The Grapes of Wrath (1940) IMDb |
| Hero: Tom Joad (12) | |
| High Noon (1952) IMDb |
| Hero: Will Kane (5) | |
| In the Heat of the Night (1967) IMDb |
| Hero: Virgil Tibbs (19) | |
| Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) IMDb |
| Hero: Indiana Jones (2) | |
| It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) IMDb |
| Villain: Mr. Potter (6) | |
| Hero: George Bailey (9) | |
| Jaws (1975) IMDb |
| Villain: The Shark (18) | |
| Lassie Come Home (1943) IMDb |
| Hero: Lassie (39) | |
| Lawrence of Arabia (1962) IMDb |
| Hero: T. E. Lawrence (10) | |
| Little Caesar (1930) IMDb |
| Villain: Caesar Enrico Bandello (38) | |
| The Little Foxes (1941) IMDb |
| Villain: Regina Giddens (43) | |
| The Manchurian Candidate (1962) IMDb |
| Villain: Mrs. John Iselin (21) | |
| Marathon Man (1976) IMDb |
| Villain: Dr. Szell (34) | |
| The Mark of Zorro (1940) IMDb |
| Hero: Zorro (45) | |
| Misery (1990) IMDb |
| Villain: Annie Wilkes (17) | |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) IMDb |
| Hero: Jefferson Smith (11) | |
| Mommie Dearest (1981) IMDb |
| Villain: Joan Crawford (41) | |
| Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) IMDb |
| Villain: Captain Bligh (19) | |
| The Night of the Hunter (1955) IMDb |
| Villain: Reverend Harry Powell (29) | |
| A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) IMDb |
| Villain: Freddy Krueger (40) | |
| Norma Rae (1979) IMDb |
| Hero: Norma Rae Webster (15) | |
| On the Waterfront (1954) IMDb |
| Hero: Terry Malloy (23) | |
| One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) IMDb |
| Villain: Nurse Ratched (5) | |
| One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) IMDb |
| Villain: Cruella De Vil (39) | |
| Patton (1970) IMDb |
| Hero: General George Patton (29) | |
| Philadelphia (1993) IMDb |
| Hero: Andrew Beckett (49) | |
| The Pride of the Yankees (1942) IMDb |
| Hero: Lou Gehrig (25) | |
| Psycho (1960) IMDb |
| Villain: Norman Bates (2) | |
| The Public Enemy (1931) IMDb |
| Villain: Tom Powers (42) | |
| Rebecca (1940) IMDb |
| Villain: Mrs. Danvers (31) | |
| Rocky (1976) IMDb |
| Hero: Rocky Balboa (7) | |
| Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) IMDb |
| Villain: Tony Camonte (47) | |
| Schindler’s List (1993) IMDb |
| Hero: Oskar Schindler (13) | |
| Villain: Amon Goeth (15) | |
| Sergeant York (1941) IMDb |
| Hero: Alvin York (35) | |
| Serpico (1973) IMDb |
| Hero: Frank Serpico (40) | |
| Shane (1953) IMDb |
| Hero: Shane (16) | |
| The Shining (1980) IMDb |
| Villain: Jack Torrance (25) | |
| The Silence of the Lambs (1991) IMDb |
| Villain: Dr. Hannibal Lecter (1) | |
| Hero: Clarice Starling (6) | |
| Silkwood (1983) IMDb |
| Hero: Karen Silkwood (47) | |
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) IMDb |
| Villain: The Queen (10) | |
| Spartacus (1960) IMDb |
| Hero: Spartacus (22) | |
| Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) IMDb |
| Hero: Han Solo (14) | |
| Hero: Obi-Wan Kenobi (37) | |
| Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) IMDb |
| Villain: Darth Vader (3) | |
| Superman: The Movie (1978) IMDb |
| Hero: Superman (26) | |
| Sweet Smell of Success (1957) IMDb |
| Villain: J. J. Hunsecker (35) | |
| Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) IMDb |
| Hero: Tarzan (34) | |
| Taxi Driver (1976) IMDb |
| Villain: Travis Bickle (30) | |
| The Ten Commandments (1956) IMDb |
| Hero: Moses (43) | |
| The Terminator (1984) IMDb |
| Villain: Terminator (22) | |
| Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) IMDb |
| Hero: Terminator (48) | |
| Thelma & Louise (1991) IMDb |
| Hero: Thelma Dickerson / Louise Sawyer (24) | |
| The Third Man (1950) IMDb |
| Villain: Harry Lime (37) | |
| To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) IMDb |
| Hero: Atticus Finch (1) | |
| Training Day (2001) IMDb |
| Villain: Alonzo Harris (50) | |
| True Grit (1969) IMDb |
| Hero: Rooster Cogburn (36) | |
| 12 Angry Men (1957) IMDb |
| Hero: Juror #8 (28) | |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) IMDb |
| Villain: HAL 9000 (13) | |
| The Usual Suspects (1995) IMDb |
| Villain: Verbal Kint (48) | |
| Wall Street (1987) IMDb |
| Villain: Gordon Gekko (24) | |
| The War of the Worlds (1953) IMDb |
| Villain: Martians (27) | |
| What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) IMDb |
| Villain: Baby Jane Hudson (44) | |
| White Heat (1949) IMDb |
| Villain: Cody Jarrett (26) | |
| The Wizard of Oz (1939) IMDb |
| Villain: The Wicked Witch of the West (4) |