50 GREATEST FICTIONAL BADASSES

#15 – PARKER.

Donald Westlake created a character in 1962 that can only be labeled a “non-hero.” Parker is a thief — but he’s no charming cat-burglar who playfully eludes clueless cops. What he is is a ruthless thug who does whatever it takes to get what he wants (usually money), and he doesn’t care about a living soul other than himself. His name is synonymous with badass.

And he is wicked.  A ruthless sunuvabitch holding to his own rules and his own code of honor. So far, 8 Hollywood movies have been made of his exploits, and everyone (but the last) has changed his name for fear, I assume, that he will come out of the page and beat the living shit out of the filmmakers for screwing up his stories. Everyone from Peter Coyote to Mel Gibson, from Robert Duvall to Lee Marvin has played him. Terrence Stamp’s role in The Limey was based on him. 

Luc Sante wrote it best: “He is a loner, competing with conglomerates (the syndicate) and fending off marginal elements (psychotics, amateurs). He has no interest in society except as a given, like the weather, and none in power. He is a freebooter who acquires money in order to buy himself periods of vegetative quiet.”