60. George Bailey
Played by James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)

George Bailey’s everyman charm reminds us that it doesn’t take a war to make a hero. In fact, a man can do something big and important even in a town as small as Bedford Falls. He saves his brother’s life, lends money to the poor, and prevents the lovely Mary (Donna Reed) from becoming an old maid. The sometimes hapless angel Clarence says it best: “You see, George, you really had a wonderful life.” But, as portrayed by a frequently frantic Stewart, he has to go though hell to realize that.

Defining Moment: During their first dance, George and Mary fall into a swimming pool, but they still don’t miss a beat. (Republic Studios DVD)

59. Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore
Played by Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now (1979, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Coppola’s more expansive Apocalypse Now Redux made his poetic dissection of America’s most torturous war all the more pointed, but Duvall’s portrayal of a gung-ho airborne cavalry commander remains this masterpiece’s manic high point. Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard, en route to a fateful rendezvous with Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, can only gape as Kilgore leads a helicopter assault on a beachside village, taking time out to run a surfing demo.

Defining Moment: Kilgore pauses in his barking for a quietly chilling soliloquy. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” he intones to Willard, going on to describe an annihilating bombing run on an enemy stronghold: “ . . . the whole hill. Smelled like . . . victory.” (Paramount DVD)

58. Phyliss Dietrichson
Played by Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944, dir. Billy Wilder)

Set in a shadowy, twilit Los Angeles, this yarn was among the first true noirs—flashback narration, hard-boiled protagonist, and all. It also showcases one of the most fatale of femmes. Stanwyck’s devious Mrs. Dietrichson slinks around in just a towel, coming on strong to her soon-to-be-stooge Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who’s dropped in to ask her absent, older husband about an insurance renewal. Despite the ill-fitting blond wig (Wilder’s suggestion), the one-liners, and the crocodile tears, she’s a seductress who wastes no time hiding her intentions.

Defining Moment: Her fear and—could it be?—regret are palpable after Neff has done her dirty work, and suspicions have been aroused. (Image Entertainment DVD)

57. Tom Powers
Played by James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931, dir. William Wellman)

Something of a charming sociopath at first, Cagney’s gangster is a blustery guy who’s always looking for a new angle. In this breathless tale of his rise and fall, we see an operator who just can’t get no satisfaction, which leads him to such antisocial behavior as mushing a grapefruit half in some dame’s face. And as much of a prick as he’s been, when he finally reaches his grisly end, you sort of feel it didn’t have to be this bad.

Defining Moment: A rare glimpse of self-awareness as he’s shot down in the rain: “I ain’t so tough.” (Warner VHS)

56. Alan Swann
Played by Peter O’Toole in My Favorite Year (1982, dir. Richard Benjamin)

A riff on real-life onetime swashbuckling matinee idol Errol Flynn, Swann is an irrepressible sot who can’t do stage work to save his life. Which presents something of a dilemma for the producers of King Kaiser’s live ’50s-era TV show (loosely based on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows). Junior writer Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is designated Swann’s keeper, and the determined-to-misbehave rotter shows Benjy a thing or two about living—and drinking—before showtime.

Defining Moment: Anytime Swann falls down, maybe . . . but truly, the triumphant horseback ride through Central Park. (Warner DVD)

55. The Dude
Played by Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (1998, dir. Joel Coen)

“Sometimes there’s a man,” goes Sam Elliott’s framing voice-over for this smoking man’s cult classic, “I won’t say a hero . . . possibly the laziest [man] in Los Angeles County. . . . ” Meet Jeff Lebowski, a.k.a. the Dude, a former radical who enjoys bowling and “the occasional acid flashback.” Mistaken by crooks for a much richer namesake, the Dude must work to solve a mystery that’s only deepened by his lifestyle (“I’m adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen to keep my mind limber,” he notes). “The whole Raymond Chandler aspect of it, I didn’t delve into that much,” Bridges says. “I didn’t think of the Dude fancying himself as a private investigator—he just happened to fall into that role.” Real-life Coen brothers friend and Dude prototype Jeff Dowd, an indie film rep, says Bridges quickly inhabited the part (“I’m a pretty easy act to get”), taking Dowd’s ’60s nostalgia and laid-back mumble into absurdist vignettes with costars John Goodman, Julianne Moore, and John Turturro. The Dude’s “a total slacker,” says Bridges. “I wouldn’t want that in my real life, but to go with that sensibility in a film was kind of fun. It’s his world, and he can do whatever the fuck he wants.”

Defining Moment: His postcoital chat with Moore’s Maude plumbs Dudean depths back to his student radical days: “I was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement—the original . . . not the compromised second draft.” (Universal DVD)

54. Frank Booth
Played by Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet (1986, dir. David Lynch)

Frank Booth has a way with words, and with women (“Don’t you fucking look at me!”; “Daddy wants to fuck!”; “I’ll fuck anything that moves!”). He has a bit of a temper, but he’s also a complete softie when the right song is played. He was a fan of Pabst Blue Ribbon long before it became fashionable. He’s reasonably skilled in impromptu surgery. He dresses well when circumstances require it. And he’s one of the most monstrously funny creations in cinema history.

Defining Moment: Frank’s entrance, in which, sucking on who knows what through his oxygen mask, he demonstrates to Dorothy (an extremely game Isabella Rossellini) and viewers his peculiar idea of foreplay. (MGM DVD)

53. Ninotchka
Played by Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

“Garbo laughs” was the film’s tag line, and, yes, the heretofore serious actress lightens up in Lubitsch’s quick-witted comedy. A Russian envoy dispatched to Paris to unbungle her comrades’ mess, Ninotchka is all business, from her severe suit to her no-play agenda. To her, love is “merely a chemical reaction.” But when she succumbs to the charms of European playboy Leon (Melvyn Douglas), her communist economy gives way to capitalistic frivolity. Chemically speaking, the woman melts.

Defining Moment: Ninotchka’s wooing in a Paris bistro. When Leon, in a huff because his jokes don’t even get a smile, accidentally falls off his chair, she throws back her head and howls with laughter. Turns out this uptight Russian is a doll. (MGM VHS)

52. Howard Beale
Played by Peter Finch in Network (1976, dir. Sidney Lumet)

Is he an “angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our times” . . . or just nuts? The newscaster’s populist rants are so vehement that it’s hard to discern the uncomfortable truths behind them. Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his all-over-the-map portrayal of Beale, which ranges from serene fatalism in the face of termination to messianic tirades on the air to, finally, his destruction, sacrificed as a ratings stunt.

Defining Moment: Everyone remembers “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!” But his best moment is one of silence: As the network president delivers a sermon on the divinity of corporate America, the once-raving Beale sits silently in the foreground, focused, calm, understanding everything. (Warner DVD)

51. Freddy Krueger
Played by Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, dir. Wes Craven) and too many later films

It was not so much the character as his concept that made him terrifying—a boogeyman who killed you by invading your dreams. But his particulars—the burn-scarred face; the sweater that, it would seem, he stole off a Muppet; his sarcastic sneer; his bloodthirstiness; and of course, that claw—were so perfectly suited to the concept that Freddy became a mythic figure.

Defining Moment: From the first film, the only one really worth taking seriously: Freddy pins a victim to the ceiling before starting to slash. It’s one of the most genuinely sadistic scenes in movies. (New Line DVD)