89. Sandy Olsson
Played by Olivia Newton-John in Grease (1978, dir. Randal Kleiser)

Although she spends most of the film as the queen of the prudes, she still manages to make John Travolta jump hurdles to win her heart. She’s as sweet as her poodle skirts, and she can sing too. The best part? She’s only a hop, a drive-in, and a carnival away from transforming into Bad Sandy, the hot-to-trot herald of the swinging ’60s.

Defining Moment: Courtesy of a makeover, Bad Sandy—in black pants, red heels, and a leather jacket—brings her man to his knees. And yes, Newton-John did have to be sewn into those pants. (Paramount DVD)

88. Raymond Babbitt
Played by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1988, dir. Barry Levinson)

An excellent-driving, card-counting autistic savant, Raymond “Rain Man” Babbitt lives an ordered, institutional life until his flashy kid brother, Charlie (Tom Cruise), kidnaps him for their dad’s inheritance. Behind Ray’s tottering gait, cocked head, and stare into middle distance, Hoffman creates a fully realized human being. Definitely.

Defining Moment: Charlie runs a hot bath, and Ray, haunted by a memory, flies into a panicked fit. (MGM DVD)

87. Captain Jack Sparrow
Played by Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, dir. Gore Verbinksi)

Only an actor as eccentrically inventive as Depp could morph Errol Flynn circa Captain Blood with Keith Richards circa Exile on Main St., and add a soupçon of swishbuckling ambiguity to his elegantly wasted mannerisms. While it’s never clear whether Jack is hero or villain, what’s certain is that despite his failings as a pirate, he thinks he’s one pretty hip buccaneer.

Defining Moment: His arrival in Port Royal is marked by triumphant music and a dramatic tracking shot of Captain Jack set against an exquisite sky. As the scene continues, it’s revealed that his vessel is a decrepit dinghy, barely able to make it to the dock before sinking. (Touchstone DVD)

86. Melanie Daniels
Played by Tippi Hedren in The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

A wealthy, impetuous party girl—the Paris Hilton of her day—Melanie gets shaken out of her complacency by malevolent forces of nature after her arrival in bucolic Bodega Bay. In three short days, she endures inexplicable bird attacks and discovers unexpected reserves of strength and caring. As played by Hedren, a former model (and Melanie Griffith’s mother), she is the ne plus ultra of Hitchcock’s icy blonds—her hair in a tight French roll, her chic suit immaculate until the final, most savage onslaught. Is she a harbinger of catastrophe or the only woman who can complete the Brenners’ fractured family? The Birds offers no easy answers.

Defining Moment: When she ventures alone into a bedroom to investigate some rustlings. For the five days shooting this scene, Hedren had real birds hurled at her, and a visiting Cary Grant told her, “I think you’re the bravest lady I’ve ever met.” (Universal DVD)

85. Stanley Kowalski
Played by Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, dir. Elia Kazan)

From the moment he appears onscreen—remarking that his shirt is sticking to him and promptly peeling it off—he has no predecessor and no equal. Surly, sweaty, mocking, muscular, and dangerous as only the young Brando could be, Stanley blasted a path through all the stilted, mannered depictions that American cinema had known before. Throughout the film he stalks his sister-in-law, Blanche (Vivien Leigh), with an incendiary combination of barely leashed cruelty and knowing hunger until their final violent confrontation, which leaves her broken and him an indelible icon.

Defining Moment: Stanley stands at the bottom of the stairs, dripping wet, in a torn T-shirt, screaming for his mate. Every anguished yell is charged with pure animal lust, need, and loss—everything Hays Code Hollywood had been excruciatingly careful to keep offscreen till then. (Warner DVD)

84. Darth Vader
Played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones in Star Wars (1977, dir. George Lucas) and two later films

In 1977, moviegoers feverishly wondered: What was this heavy-breathing, black-caped, Dr. Doom–looking thing? A robot? A man? Both? With every guess at the evil behind the mask, this Dark Lord’s mystique grew. With his megalomaniacal determination and merciless sadism—not to mention those flashes of fascist symbolism—Darth Vader is the ultimate badass, and audiences often rooted for him rather than whiny Luke Skywalker.

Defining Moment: In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader reveals himself as Luke’s father. His inner conflict begins here, as he reaches out to his long-lost son (after slicing off the boy’s hand) and proposes that they rule together. (The DVD is due in September.)

83. William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting
Played by Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York (2002, dir. Martin Scorsese)

The sinewy, eagle-eyed (literally—the glass orb in his left socket has an American Eagle engraved on it) ruler of downtown Manhattan’s Five Points is so charismatically scary that, in his quieter moments, he can make you believe that his dog-eat-dog tribalism is a policy of sweet reason. But when crossed, he shows an appalling, venal viciousness that demonstrates his nickname is more than just an indication that he can carve up a nice pork roast. “This man is a tough man; he has his hands in raw meat all day,” says Scorsese.  “It makes it very immediate—maybe he cannot find the soul, because his hands are in the gristle.” Bill “considers himself a great patriot,” says Day-Lewis. “He was born in America. Anyone who gets off the boat, as far as he is concerned, is subhuman. I could get away with creating my own code of behavior because he comes from the part of society where etiquette did not play a huge part. It’s not like The Age of Innocence, where people had to be bound and corseted by a rigid system of behavior.”

Defining Moment: For most, his flag-draped soliloquy; for gossipy industry insiders, the part where he stabs a fellow card player through the hand and says, “Don’t make that noise again, Harvey.” (Touchstone DVD)

82. Jack Torrance
Played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980, dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Writer’s block, while thoroughly terrifying, is a bit of a novel concept to base a horror film around. But throw in a desolate hotel built on an Indian burial ground, a psychic son who talks through his imaginary friend, and Shelley Duvall’s shrill voice, and . . . well, it’s a wonder nonproducing writer Jack Torrance doesn’t pick up his ax sooner. Few monsters are more frightening than the loving and trusted dad (played to tightly wound perfection by Nicholson) who suddenly vows to “bash your brains in.”

Defining Moment: After wife Wendy (Duvall) accuses him of trying to strangle their son, Jack strolls into the Overlook Hotel’s Gold Room and falls off the wagon with a thud, ordering a drink from a previously nonexistent bartender during what seems to be a full-blown hallucination. (Warner DVD)

81. Aurora Greenway
Played by Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment (1983, dir. James L. Brooks) and one later film

A terrifying tsunami of maternal angst, Aurora is uptight, neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, overbearing, hypercritical, and, maddeningly, always right. No mere foil for her endlessly forgiving (and cancer-stricken) daughter, MacLaine’s Oscar-winning rendering of a controlling shrew is somehow endearing despite and because of her flaws. Kind of like, well, your mother.

Defining Moment: On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, motherly responsibility compels her to issue the following warning: “If
you marry, it will be a mistake of such gigantic proportions it will ruin your life and make wretched your destiny.” As usual, her well-intentioned but poisonous premonition turns out to be eerily accurate. (Paramount DVD)