Movie Characters Inspired By Real People Pt.1

Writer: Naseem Randhawa

Hollywood has some really outrageous characters but did you know they were based on real people? In this feature we take a look at the real-life people behind the characters who inspire and somehow are lucky enough to have a movie based on them.

James Bond (Sidney Riley) – "James Bond"

James Bond has a license to kill in fiction, whereas Sidney Reilly, a Russian who simultaneously worked for 4 countries (including United Kingdom) had a license to kill in real-life. Thus serving as a model for James Bond novelist Ian Fleming. He performed incredible tasks that included infiltrating a corrupted millionaire's yatch disguised as a priest, went on a journey to Moscow in 1918 to kill a baddie and seduced Russian Minister's wife to get information about the weapon supply to Germany. Unfortunately unlike his fictional counterpart, Russians finally caught and executed him in 1925. Reilly was said to not feel the lack of murders, money and women.

Zorro (Don Diego de la Vega) – "Zorro"

If you thought an extreme character like Zorro portrayed by actor Antonio Banderas was a little extreme, we bet you never knew that the sword wielding vigilante actually originated from a Joaquin Murrieta. Known as the Hispanic Robin Hood of El Dorado, Murrieta was a man of legend during the 'Gold Rush' incident of California back in 1850's. The Mexican bandit was famously known to be a black-clad masked outlaw who defends his people against corrupted authority. In 1853, a group of Rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men. In the confrontation, three of the Mexicans were killed. They claimed one was Murrieta, and even had his severed head to proof it, but 25 years later, his sister claimed that head was not her brothers and fuelling speculations that the sightings of Murrieta after he was allegedly killed could have been him living in secrecy after all.

Lucy Whitmore (Michelle Philpots)- "50 First Dates"

The quirky Lucy Whitmore played by the equally quirky Drew Barrymore in "50 First Dates", is about a girl who after a car accident, has a short term memory that only lasts a day, leaving her boyfriend played by Adam Sandler, to remind her each day on the previous days' events over and over again everyday. In real life, 47-year-old Michelle Philpots suffers the same condition due to the injuries she has sustained in two road accidents back in 1994. Her husband of 13 years has to convince her everyday that they are married and when she expresses doubt, he shows her their wedding album and refreshes her memory.

Viktor Navorski (Mehran Nasseri) – "The Terminal"

In "The Terminal", we follow Tom Hanks who plays Victor Navorski, a citizen of former Soviet Republic who finds himself unable to enter the United States or return to his home country due to a civil war. Left stranded in JFK International Airport with nowhere to go and no citizenship, Viktor makes his home out of the terminal and goes through loads of crazy adventures and meets the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones. Viktor's tale was based on the slightly solemn life of Mehran Nasseri, an Iranian refuge who spent 17 years at the departure hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. Mehran first arrived at the airport in 1988, when he was cast out from his country for participating in a political protest, and discovered that his passport and travel papers to be stolen. Describing his stay as being in a quiet library, Mehran only left the airport in 2006 when he was transferred to a hospital due to an unknown illness. In 2007, he was transferred to a homeless shelter in France where he lives until today, refusing to leave its confines, for which psychologists explain that he might be institutionalised.

Raymond Babbitt (Kim Peek) – "Rain Man"

In "Rain Man", Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond Babbit, an autistic brother of Tom Cruise's that gets into trouble and can't quite find his place in society. Hoffman's character is insipired by Kim Peek, who after the movie, spent the next 21 years demonstrating his mental abilities that allow him to photographically memorise what he has read, heard, and watched. It all started in 1984, when screenwriter Barry Morrow met Peek in Arlington, Texas. The character of Raymond Babbitt, although inspired by Peek, was portrayed as having autism when Peek himself did not. The movie caused a number of requests for appearances, which also increased Peek's self-confidence.