One of my favorite characters was based heavily on Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride, with a dash of voudoun thrown in for good measure. A lot of fun, he was.

Michael Madsen as Mr. Chapel from the television show Vengeance Unlimited. Ex-Company Man/spy turned avenging Face with a metric ass-tonne of contacts and favours, well it's the million or owe him a favour.

Another one is Ben Kingsley as Amos in the film The Assignment from a few years back. Because there just aren't enough scarily focused ex-Mossad agents in the world.

Thanks, Foreigner.

Joe Rogan as NewsRadio's Joe

From Sexy Beast:
Ian McShane as Teddy Bass - Definitely a Mr. Johnson. Especially considering that he screws the runner.

Jet li from The One, and to a lesser extent, any of his other flicks.

Takeshi Kitano would make a cool yakuza, I say.

In the same vein, Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Kilelr) would make a great Yakuza hitman.

The french actor Vincent Cassel could make a nice euroguy. He have presence. And add Monica Bellucci if you wish.

Marquis de Sade as played by Geoffery Rush in the film Quills. Picture him as a magician with Control Thoughts and Mob Mood. Scared yet? You can see him in a prison, having subverted most of the place to ensure his good treatment and... perks *shudder*

I have an NPC in my game who I'm not ashamed to admit is a direct ripoff of F Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack

Also, Jayne Cobb from Firefly just screams "gunbunny".

Harrison Ford as a jaded ex-LS detective who works the street shadows while LS wants him back for one last run. (hey guys, I'm surprised none of you said that before.)

In our campaign we had Avery Brooks' "Hawk" but as a wolf shaman- think about it. sure the obvious is a sammie but a lot of it is attitude. play up his physical strength, skills of hand to hand combat and interogation and give him a big revolver (Brook's character had a .44 mag revolver) .

Oddjob from Goldfinger as an ork psy-ad.
(he was far better than Jaws)

Penelope Ann Miller from The Shadow as a lawyer, who also happened to be a vampire. "please can we be tried in night court?"

Alec Baldwin from the same film as a Johnson.

Jonathon Price from Tomorrow Never Dies as a corp exec.

Kurt Russel from Tombstone as a street samurai.

I have played a Doc Holiday phys ad character based on Val Kilmers from "Tombstone". Had a fixer based on the chick from "Ronin". these were both pre-gens that were given to me for my first character.

I always saw Harrison ford as a street sam, (BladeRunner)

Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery as fixers (Hunt for Red October)

Keanu Reeves as a decker (Johnny Mnemonic)

politicians have always been played Mel Brooks (Spaceballs)

Alan Richtman as corp johnson thats double crossed the group

Some humor can be nice in a campaign

predator, although it didn't end well.

no need to get snarky, just pointing out there are characters faster and more deadly in the Spenser-verse than Hawk. and that I was well aquainted with the books. Hawk is not the ultimate killing machine. He just works out regularly and is good with his hands but that doesn't mean adept.

OTHERWISE I'll point out here, that this is the forum people to drop in their feelings, I gave mine. are you trying to say they are invalid? That my experience or views don't count because they don't match your views?

He's having a bad day.

John Chrichton (Played by Ben Browder in Farscape).

He's smart, charismatic and always has a late 20th century pop culture reference to make.

Too bad. No chance it will become better?

Ontopic: Monk

In response to Ubbergeek and Nidhogg...

Gary Oldman, Takeshi Kitano, and Tadanobu Asano are awesome in any movies they do.

PS: See Sonatine.

Ok I like a lot of the others suggestions heres a few more:

Ted Danson from Becker as a street Doc would rule

I cant for the life of me think of his name the guy who plays in Sneakers? blond hair and blue eyes? well him as he appears in Spy Game

The whole team from Sneakers

Brad Pitt as a street Sam come on? that man can rumble I can recognise a man who knows how to throw his fists and Fight club and Snatch tell me he can and well. Would be cool to base him as a street sam along the lines of Tyler Durden (not a skitso but as a character who dont give a dam)

Jessica Alba from Dark Angel! its even set in Seattle so she would be a phis ad me thinks

Aeon from Aeon Flux Im sorry I liked it as I liked many many other movies that were border line cheesy.

Chic in Ultra Violet Mia Jovavitch I think? well that one and her character in 5th Element as a Phis ad

JACK BOWER! as the man you certainly do not repeat not want after you.

Did I mention Jack Bower! 'ever heard of a Russion Gulash?......you think this towel wont fit down your throat.....trust me it will.......see now I wet it and push it down until its in your stomach......then once your stomach acids begin to digest it I will slowly pull it out.......you wont die....for days and you will be in agonized pain' (more or less along those lines anyway )

'God' from Navy seals played by Bill Pakston

Hudson, Hicks and Frost and Apon from Aleins first two played by Bill Pakston and Michael Bay

Most the cast of 24

Samual L Jackson as a Fixer lol lol My GM had a Troll based on him as a fixer lol was very cool.

Assassin chic from 24 to best of my knowledge appears in 3 of the 4 24`s to date she got a pardon from Palmer in Number 4.....personaly hope shes working for ctu in 5.

John Travolter from pretty much any movie.except saturday night fever lol

there you go sports fans my 35 cents.

lol no not from that Im assuming we will pick the movies like Broken Arrow and Pulp Fiction or get shorty etc etc those sorts of films, face off was another one.

Mundane, uncybered private eye with lot's of contacts: Stacy Keach as "Mike Hammer" (As am alternate: Phys-Add with HighPainTolerance and Enh. Skill: .45ACP)

Classical Plaincloth cop team: Sharon Glass and Tyne Daly as "Cagned and Lacy"

Cop turned Heavily armored Cyber-Zombie: Peter Weller
His Phys-Ad partner: Nancy Allen (1)

Little Weasel/Informer that often get's shot: Peter Lorre (Ugarte from Casblanca)

Elderly jolly Dwarfen Mechanic/Rigger: Ernest Borgnine as "Domenic Santine" from Airwolf

I have used a slightly elder version of Caithlin O'Shaunessy (played by Jean Bruce Scott) from Airwolf as a female Archangle for "The Firm"


Edit: Forgot three:

For an ass-kicking female Ki-Ad/Cop: Cynthia Rothrock

For an elven mechanical genius: Bonny Barsdow from Knight Rider

For an ugly ork plaincloth cop: Inspector Colombo (Peter Falk)


(1) In the novelisation she's one tough cookie

OMG Birdy you just showing your.........how shall I put it? vintage with all that stuff.
Just my oppinion the characters worked sure.....then I dont think they work now nor would they in 2060 plus lol Columbo I give you as he was cool but that Cagney and Lacie? no no no. But then its only my oppinion as to use and like them is yours. enjoy.


Just as a side note anyone who does not get or support Jack from 24 is crazy, then they wouldnt know a Shadow Runner if it hit them in the eye.

How do I say this politely? Oh, yes.

Fuck that shit.

Jack and his gay man-purse can blow me (Kiefer, too, and may). He's one-dimensional, Mary Sue-ish, and lacking in any appreciable characteristics that make him any more interesting to me than the mooks he kills or any of the legions of munchkin assholes I've seen in my years of gaming. The show sucks, and can't seem to carry a plot for 42 minutes that doesn't involve blowing shit up. It is poorly-paced, unrealistic, poorly-written, melodramatic tripe (and this is coming from someone who watches The OC religiously). I managed to watch the entire first season until the last two episodes when I nearly vomited at the poor writing and plot cop-outs, and the last episode... Jesus fucking christ. "Hey, you know the bad guys who have been doing all this shit for the last 23 hours? Jack killed them before the opening credits." That's a crack writing team they've got there. By which I mean, the writing team seems to be on crack.

Not to mention the fact that if he and CTU are so fucking badass, why is it that terrorists have in the last four seasons managed to penetrate every level of government to its core, release multiple WMDs, and for all intents and purposes kill umpteen thousand people without any appreciable effect?

I would have to be Clint Eastwood and Sean Pertwee (Dog solders)

That's just coz I am a sucker for a rugged man!


torz x

I think we're all forgetting Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard from Blade Runner. He was a major badass as I can recall.

Yeah. And he was also a <<data corrupted: 0.2Mp>> But they beat you over the head with it in the director's cut.

There's also always Tom Berenger as a UCAS/CAS sniper, possibly operating in Aztlan. Anyone who has seen the movie knows what I'm talking about.

Or Sniper 2, or Sniper 3.

Critas used to play the descendants of the brothers from Boondock Saints. Speaking of teams though; Way of the Gun.

Speaking of evil motherfuckers, Orson Welles in The Third Man. If you haven't seen it, you are miserable, worthless savage.

Val Kilmer from Saint or Spartan. Social Adept skills, Invisible Way Adept mindset.

THe entire team from Ocean's Eleven would make a great team of non-combat runners.

Oh, it was just an innocent talk between two fans of you. Really. Really!

Apologies if these have been mentioned and I missed them:

Mr. Cairo played by Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon. He is just so incredibly polite and philospohical. Classic quote: "I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you now."
I don't think he'd need any special attributes. Just a willingness to shoot someone when they weren't expecting it.

Lianna Telfer as played by Lena Olen in The Ninth Gate. She would make an incredible Ms. Johnson. Rich, probably elven, any number of samurai under her thumb for when she needs them. Possibly an hermetic sorceror too.

Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China. Can you imagine anything more terrifying than that giggling decrepit nutcase whizzing around in his little powered wheel chair and projecting an eight-foot tall astral form? Classic quote:
Jack Burton: "You need to find this girl so that you can gain flesh and become immortal and rule the universe from beyond the grave?"
David Lo Pan: "Indeed!"
Jack Burton: "Or check into a psycho ward."

Charlie's Angels - all three of them - from the Charlie's Angels films. Picture them as initiated physical adepts. Picture them showing up as a rival shadowrunning team. Picture your players hating you. Isn't it worth it?