In honor of Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko, the disgraced billionaire of Wall Street whose character returns this week in the sequel Wall Street:Money Never Sleeps, thought I'd share my favorite list, the Forbes Fictional 15, which ranks the wealth of billionaires in movies, television and books.
While I like that Forbes includes Carlisle Cullen (Twilight) Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Wayne (Batman), I would prefer a charisma ranking to a financial ranking. That probably would restore Gordon Gekko to the list. Among my choices for the other most charismatic rich folk on screen: Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) in The Thin Man, Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) in It Happened One Night, Hoppsy (Henry Fonda) in The Lady Eve, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) in The Philadelphia Story, Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine (Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy) in Trading Places, and William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) in Meet Joe Black.
Your choices for most charismatic movie millionaire? Why?
Lucille Bluth is #1 in my book. But I'll offer Dick Powell in CHRISTMAS IN JULY as Mr. Charisma. Sure, he didn't have billions in 1940, but I'm adjusting for inflation.— garyk
Comment removed.- Henry F. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.— eaglesfillthesky
- I admit my fondness for the Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee characters in "The Palm Beach Story" -- such generous millionaires!— carrierickey
- Winthorpe and Valentine profited off the same insider trading of commodities which the Dukes wanted to do themselves. Charismatic, sure, but unethical as hell.— Adam B.
Not sure how you define "charismatic", but certainly Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane was interesting to hold your attention for a whole movie. Also liked Anthony Hopkins' billionaire character in "The Edge". Tony Curtis hilariously pretended to be a millionaire in "Some Like it Hot". Leo DiCaprio did an admirable job playing Howard Hughes in "The Aviator". Daniel Day Lewis' self made millionaire in "There will be Blood" was charismatic in a brutal fashion.
Come on people. Thurston Howell III and Lovie. Gilligan's Island. How can you top that????— Justicek- I gotta go with the Trading Places guys. But then, I would.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
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- I prefer the two older billionaries in trading places that remind me of some mainline blueblood— streetjustice
- Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in the fifth element— eaglesfillthesky
- Trading Places is a great movie about insider trading. Moving back to Wall Street, Gekko redefined how people dressed. Nobody in finance wore contrast collars or braces until that movie. Oliver Stone was furious that people embraced GG as an idol. So when he made the sequel, he decided to introduce Shia LeBouef, ruiner of franchises (see Indiana Jones), to try to cut the bulls off of Gordon Gekko.— BlairW
- Michael Corleone
- Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown— JoeyMac47
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