15 Fictional Characters You Might Not Know Are Based on Real People
Why make up an entire person, when you can just use a ready-made model?
![15 Fictional Characters You Might Not Know Are Based on Real People](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/4/5/781645_320x180.jpg)
Is reality truly stranger than fiction? We don’t know for sure -- but it’s certain that a lot of the time, it doesn’t charge royalties. It happens more often than you think that writers just take real, living people, change them barely enough to claim copyright (or, you know, avoid a defamation lawsuit), and call it a day. Yes, writing is still a lot of work, but it really helps to have a library of several billion ready-made models, doesn’t it?
![HANNIBAL LECTER was inspired by Mexican doctor ALFREDO BALLI TREVINO. Thomas Harris interviewed Dr. Salazar in the '60s. Details given by Harris match Trevino, who was doing time for murder (not cannibalism, though).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/3/781633.jpg)
Source: Latin Times
![The DUKES OF HAZZARD are based on JERRY RUSHING. Bo Duke is a fictional version of Jerry Elijah Rushing, who ran illegal moonshine from his car, Traveller (named after General Lee's horse).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/4/0/781640.jpg)
Source: Outsider
![ABED NADIR is Dan Harmon's friend ABED GHEITH. He's kind of a kid-like version of me, the real Abed has said of his Community counterpart. Harmon even had him audition for his own part, before Danny Pudi pretty much stole it.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/6/781626.jpg)
Source: Comedy Central (via archive.org)
![CRACKED.COM MISS PIGGY is PEGGY LEE. a porcine Bonnie Erickson originally named her creation Miss Piggy Lee, as a tribute to the jazz singer- which she later shortened to just Miss Piggy to avoid upsetting Lee.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/5/781635.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![STRINGER BELL was inspired by KENNETH JACKSON. Kenny Bird Jackson was involved in drug dealing and other illegal stuff in Baltimore before breaking into legitimate business, much like Idris Elba's character in The Wire.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/6/781636.jpg)
Source: BaltimoreBrew
![SCROOGE McDUCK is a feathered ANDREW CARNEGIE. Just like Donald's rich uncle, Carnegie left his native Scotland at an early age to seek (and find) fortune in America.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/9/781639.jpg)
Source: PopMatters
![ROCKY BALBOA is based CHUCK WEPNER. on Nicknamed The Bayonne Bleeder, no one took Wepner seriously until he held his own against Muhammad Ali. Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky shortly after the fight.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/7/781637.jpg)
![SHERLOCK HOLMES is a (barely) exaggerated EUGENE VIDOCQ. A former criminal turned police informant Vidocq was the world's first private detective, and also invented modern criminology.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/4/781634.jpg)
![VITO CORLEONE is mostly FRANK COSTELLO. Don Corleone is a mashup of a few real-life crime bosses, but his life story and his diplomatic ways most closely resemble those of Costello, the Prime Minister of the Underworld.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/2/781632.jpg)
Source: Den of Geek
![Zohan really exists, and his is name is NEZI ARBIB. Arbib and his brothers (all of them former Israeli soldiers) run a hair salon in Los Angeles. Adam Sandler spent some time with them preparing for the movie.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/3/781693.jpg)
![AURIC GOLDFINGER is a villainified CHARLES ENGELHARD, JR. An acquaintance of Ian Fleming, Engelhard became very rich in the gold business. He was happy to play up his similarities to Goldfinger when the movie came out.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/8/781628.jpg)
Source: All Engelhard
![ELI GOLD takes his ruthlessness from RAHM EMANUEL. Alan Cumming closely studied Emanuel to play Gold, in the process turning what was intended to be an ancillary character into one of the best things about The Good Wife.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/0/781630.jpg)
Source: The Washington Post
![LUCIOUS LYON is JAY-Z (among other people). The Jay-Z story... very much inspired Lucious Lyon, Empire co-creator Danny Strong has said. Inspiration also comes from Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, and more.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/7/781627.jpg)
Source: Complex, The Philadelphia Inquirer
![TEMPERANCE BONES BRENNAN is author KATHY REICHS. While Reichs has written books with a protagonist named Temperance Brennan, Emily Deschanel's character in Bones is based on Reichs herself, who is also a forensic anthropologist.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/2/9/781629.jpg)
Source: IGN
![MARY POPPINS is (unwittingly) P. L. Travers' aunt. Travers had been penning Mary Poppins books for years, when she realized she was unconsciously writing about her great-aunt, Ellie (Helen Morehead Christina Saraset).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/3/1/781631.jpg)
Source: Bibliology