Composite character

In a work of media adapted from a real or fictional narrative, a composite character is a character based on more than one individual from the story.^[1]

Examples

Film

• The Great Escape (1963): The characters in this John Sturges film are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. The main character, Capt. Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) a.k.a. the "Cooler King", was based on at least three pilots: Bill Ash, David M. Jones, and John Dortch Lewis.^[2][3][4][5]
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967): The character of C.W. Moss (portrayed by Michael J. Pollard) in director Arthur Penn's film is a composite of two Barrow Gang members: W. D. Jones and Henry Methvin. In the film, the Moss characterization relies predominantly on the basis of Jones, a juvenile devotee adept at carjacking, whom the couple take under their wing up until the climax. Then, traits of minor but catalytic member Methvin are interwoven near the end as his father, via Moss's dad, bargains with vengeful law enforcement for his son's immunity in exchange for luring the unsuspecting Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker into the fatal, bullet-ridden ambush.^[6][7]
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991): The Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) character in Jonathan Demme's film (based on the novel of the same name, authored by Thomas Harris) is a composite based on the serial killers Jerry Brudos, Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Gary M. Heidnik, Edmund Kemper, and Gary Ridgway.^[8]
• Schindler's List (1993): Steven Spielberg's film contains one blended composite character. Although Ben Kingsley's character of accountant Itzhak Stern is based upon a real person and he did interact with Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), in the film Stern also absorbed aspects of a few other historical figures: Abraham Bankier, who planted the seed with Schindler to employ Jews for cheaper labor, thereby keeping them safe; and Mietek Pemper, who was at the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp and later worked for Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) as his personal secretary. He was instrumental in persuading Schindler to utilize Jews in assembling war materials. A possible fourth person in the mix is Marcel Goldberg, a corrupt Jewish cop who nonetheless aided Stern in the expansion of their lists, which kept thousands of Jews alive and safe. (In Steven Zaillian's screenplay, Goldberg and Pemper have minor roles played by other actors, but nevertheless are still considered to be part of this composite.)^[9]
• Apollo 13 (1995): The character Henry Hurt (Xander Berkeley) in director Ron Howard's docudrama is portrayed as a NASA public relations employee assigned to assuaging Marilyn Lovell (Kathleen Quinlan)—the wife of astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks)—while simultaneously tasked with answering reporters' questions. This character is a composite of the NASA protocol officer Bob McMurrey, assigned to act as a buffer between the Lovell family and the press; and several Office of Public Liaison employees, whose job was to actually work with the press.^[10]
• Charlotte Gray (2001): Cate Blanchett's titled character of Charlotte Gray is a composite character based on such SOE agents as Pearl Witherington, Nancy Wake, Odette Hallowes and Violette Szabo.
• Catch Me If You Can (2002): In yet another Spielberg film, based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his counterfeit escapades, the main character is pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks. However, his character is a mixture of several agents, primarily Joseph Shea, who didn't want his name used in any film adaptation—a request Abagnale and the film crew honored after he died.^[11]
• 21 (2008): Director Robert Luketic's characters were fictionalized; in some instances, with whitewashed versions of their real-life counterparts, stirring controversy. Jeff Ma, whose saga was the main focus, was accused of being a race-traitor, in allowing Jim Sturgess to be cast as his facsimile. But it's Kevin Spacey's Micky Rosa who is a composite of John Chang, Bill Kaplan, and J.P. Masser.^[12]
• Dallas Buyers Club (2013): Screenwriters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack told the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), who contracted AIDS and smuggled unapproved drugs to help alleviate symptoms of his and fellow sufferers, such as trans woman Rayon (Jared Leto). The latter character was actually a composite derived from a plethora of interviews with anonymous real-life transgender AIDS patients. Further embellishments were made in creating Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), who was another composite comprised from several doctors—with one, Dr. Linda Laubenstein, being the main source of inspiration, for her activism against the social stigma of the disease.^[13]
• Dunkirk (2017): Kenneth Branagh's character, Commander Bolton, in Christopher Nolan's World War II epic is a composite of several real-life people, including Commander James Campbell Clouston and Captain Bill Tennant.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}
• Bombshell (2019): Margot Robbie's character Kayla Pospisil was an amalgamation, based on a number of conservative women who spoke to the filmmakers about harassment from Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). "We’re not revealing the people we talk to. We’re trying to protect them," director Jay Roach said of the project's sources.^[19]

Television

• 1st Lt. (later CPT) Colleen McMurphy on the television series China Beach was a composite of several real-life Army nurses who served in Vietnam.^[20][21]
• Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke is a composite of several Old West Kansas lawmen.^[22]
• Ulana Khomyuk in Chernobyl is a composite character created to represent "the many scientists who worked fearlessly and put themselves in a lot of danger to help solve the situation."^[23]

Literature

• The three Herods in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles (Herod the Great (Luke 1:5), Herod Antipas (Luke 3:1; 9:7-9; 13:31-33; 23:5-12), and Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-23)) are three separate historical rulers, but are portrayed as a single character in Herod as a Composite Character in Luke-Acts, described "as an actualization of Satan’s desire to impede the spread of the good news though his ["Herod’s"] rejection of the gospel message and through political persecution".^[24]
• The Senator: My Ten Years with Ted Kennedy, a memoir by Richard E. Burke allegedly exposing various activities of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy featured several composite characters associated with Kennedy's alleged drug use and sexual dalliances; the inclusion of such became a point of criticism for the book.^[25][26]

Journalism

• A series of 1944 The New Yorker articles by Joseph Mitchell on New York's Fulton Fish Market which were presented as journalism. Once the stories were published in 1948 as the book Old Mr. Flood Mitchell disclosed that "Mr. Flood is not one man; combined in him are aspects of several old men who work or hang out in Fulton Fish Market, or who did in the past."^[27] Mitchell assigned his composite character his own birthday and his own love for the Bible and certain authors.^[28] In his introduction to Mr. Flood, Mitchell wrote, "I wanted these stories to be truthful rather than factual, but they are solidly based on facts."^[29]
• John Hersey is said to have created a composite character in a Life magazine story, as did Alastair Reid for The New Yorker.^[29]
• Vivian Gornick in 2003 said that she used composite characters in some of her articles for the Village Voice.^[30]

See also

• Fictional character
• Fictional location

References