Ever curious whether your favorite fictional heroes and villains were completely invented? The reality is, several of the most iconic heroes, villains, and legends we adore were drawn—at least in part—from real individuals.
Authors and creatives have a habit of taking quirks, anecdotes, or even scandalous reputations from history to animate their characters. In the following countdown, nine well-known fictional characters can thank real-world inspirations for their lives.
9. Catwoman
Gotham’s whip-cracking, high-tech antihero wasn’t entirely a figment of imagination. Selina Kyle’s cat-like agility and allure drew inspiration from actual women—such as stunt woman Ruth “Cat Girl” Steele and film icons Jean Harlow and Hedy Lamarr. Their combination of danger, appeal, and intelligence informed the definitive femme fatale.
8. Professor Moriarty
Sherlock Holmes’s greatest genius foe has his origins in Adam Worth, a 19th-century crime lord known as the “Napoleon of Crime.” Worth’s audacious burglaries and extensive system of underground operations were the ideal starting point for Arthur Conan Doyle’s dark antagonist.
7. Iron Man (Tony Stark)
And before Tony Stark wore the armor, there was Howard Hughes—the outrageous billionaire pilot, engineer, and bon vivant. Stan Lee routinely invoked Hughes as Stark’s real-life template: a genius and billionaire with more than a whiff of instability.
6. Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s eternal libertine was based on poet John Gray, whose stunning looks and mysterious aura captivated Wilde. Gray’s inspiration tinted Wilde’s story of vanity, decadence, and immortality.
5. Hannibal Lecter
The eerily sophisticated cannibal of The Silence of the Lambs has origins in the real world of Dr. Alfredo Ballí Treviño, a Mexican physician who was convicted of murder. His quick mind and unnerving charm gave Thomas Harris’s most nightmare-inducing character its template.
4. Dracula
Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula was greatly influenced by Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century prince notorious for his ruthlessness and vicious methods of punishment. Vlad’s crimson-stained legacy provided the ideal inspiration for literature’s greatest vampire.
3. Peter Pan
The boy who refused to grow up was inspired by J.M. Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies children, especially their five boys. Their imagination, energy, and exploits inspired Barrie to create the fantasy world of Neverland and its Lost Boys, who were perpetually mischievous.
2. James Bond
Ian Fleming’s debonair secret agent was inspired by Forest Yeo-Thomas, a World War II spy known as “The White Rabbit.” A master of dangerous missions and near-misses, Yeo-Thomas had the bold, larger-than-life character that came to define James Bond.
1. Sherlock Holmes
At the head of the list is the great detective himself. Arthur Conan Doyle modeled Sherlock Holmes after his mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, an Edinburgh surgeon renowned for his keen powers of observation. Bell’s remarkable ability to infer personal details from minute clues became Holmes’s calling card.
From infamous villains to quirky inventors, real individuals have long provided the sparks behind fiction’s most iconic figures. These examples serve to remind us that reality sometimes inspires art only insofar as it is stranger, darker, and more intriguing than we were capable of imagining.