One of the most famous American presidents, used in wildly various contexts. note
Simply put, it's taking a well-known person from Real Life history and using this person as a character in a story. This does mean any work of that kind, whether it's Historical Fiction, a Hollywood History story, a piece of Alternate History, or a well-researched and accurate biopic of events. Needless to say, there isn't necessarily any similarity in personality between the real person and the character in the story. They may even be classical composers who were secretly sleeper agents for extraterrestrials. Whatever works.
Naturally this covers a lot of works (save for non-fiction), but given how often people can disagree about real history and our present, it would be hard to draw a line between which fictional works would fit and which fictional works wouldn't. Thus all are included.
Note that despite this trope having "Historical" in the name, present-day living people are also included in this list, as long as they have a very significant social impact or cultural legacy that will cause them to be remembered in future media. Please remove troping in these people's pages as you browse.
Obviously, the vast majority of (in)famous historical figures are long deceased. If a story mentions real-life dead people by characters living in the present-day, or if they're featured in historical flashbacks, then they also double as Posthumous Characters. Also compare this trope with Public Domain Character, Anonymous Ringer, Roman à Clef, Real-Person Fic, and Real-Life Celebrity Tropes.
Subtropes:
- Allohistorical Allusion
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: It's revealed that a historical figure had an unusual or extraordinary aspect of their life that isn't recorded in the history books.
- Julius Beethoven da Vinci: Multiple historical figures were actually the aliases of an immortal being.
- You Will Be Beethoven: A time-traveler accidentally kills a historical figure or finds that the historical figure did not exist, so they decide to take on the identity of the historical figure to secure the timestream.
- The Dead Rise to Advertise: Deceased celebrities are used to endorse products in commercials.
- Fictionalized Death Account: A work of fiction has a historical figure die in a different way from how they died in real life.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: A work of fiction makes a historical figure more impressive than their real-life counterpart.
- Historical Domain Superperson: A historical figure is depicted as having superpowers.
- Historical Beauty Update: A historical figure is depicted as being more attractive than they were in real life.
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative
- Historical Domain Crossover
- Historical Downgrade
- Historical Figures in Archival Media
- Historical Gender Flip: A historical figure is depicted as a different gender or sex than they were in real life.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: A historical figure is depicted as more heroic and benevolent than they were in real life.
- Historical Hilarity
- Historical In-Joke
- Historical Person Punchline
- Historical Relationship Overhaul
- Historical Ugliness Update
- Historical Villain Downgrade: A malevolent historical figure has their atrocities downplayed, but isn't necessarily depicted in a more favorable light.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: A historical figure is depicted as a worse person than they were in real life.
- In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed
- Real-Person Cameo
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman
- Young Future Famous People
Examples with their own subpages:
Other examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- In The United States, every February, President's Day is celebrated. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birth-dates are within a week of each other (though 77 years apart), so President's Day was introduced to turn the two holidays into one. While the purpose it to remember them, watching the TV that month would make you think our forefathers wanted nothing more than to sell you discount cars and mattresses.
- "Victory by Computer": During the school trip to Metropolis Museum of Science and Industry, Ms. Leigh introduces the kids to William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen, the transistor's inventors.
Anime & Manga
- Thomas Edison makes a brief appearance in Episode 9 of Appare-Ranman! when Appare accidentally breaks into his house.
- Most of the cast of Bungo Stray Dogs are based on and named after famous historical authors from Japan and western countries, such as Osamu Dazai, Atsushi Nakajima, Ranpo Edogawa, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Louisa May Alcott.
- The entire Fate franchise runs off this. The servants are based on various historical figures (Nero Caesar, Zhuge Liang, Vlad the Impaler), mythical figures (Cú Chulainn, Hercules, Shuten-Douji), or fictional characters who are in the public domain (Frankenstein's Monster, Jekyll & Hyde, and Alice).
- While not the only anime set in the Bakumatsu period (and thus all characters are Historical Domain Character), Gintama is one of the few that completely reinvent/exagerate character traits (e.g. Saigo Takamori is a transvestite, Hijikata Toshizo is crazed about Mayonnaise, and Kondō Isami is a stalking gorilla). Also mixed in people that are far more legendary, such as Kintaro and Hyubei, and you have a crack manga.
- The Gundam saga uses expies of historical characters instead: e.g. Char Aznable (AKA: "The Red Comet") is an expy of Manfred von Richthofen (AKA: the Red Baron), Andrew Waltfeld is an expy of Erwin Rommel (the original Magnificent Bastard), etc. Things get complicated when later series start featuring expies of expies of historical people...
- Hetalia: Axis Powers has several brief appearances of historical characters, often as the bosses of the nations.
- A subset of this is shipping said historical characters with the nations they rule over. America/Barack Obama, Prussia/Frederick the Great, France/Joan of Arc and England/Elizabeth I are... quite popular among fanworkers.
- Similarly, there are having them simply interact with the nation-tans. There's even one where Benjamin Franklin figures out America's true identity.
- A subset of this is shipping said historical characters with the nations they rule over. America/Barack Obama, Prussia/Frederick the Great, France/Joan of Arc and England/Elizabeth I are... quite popular among fanworkers.
- In the 1970s, Toei made Ikkyuu-san, an anime based on the (possibly fictionalized) earlier Zen Buddhist monk (according to That Other Wiki) Ikkyuu.note .
- They also made an anime based on the earlier life of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
- Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow (set in 1800s Australia) has Colonel Light
, the city planner who started the Australian town of Adelaide. He fishes with Lucy-May's brother Ben and has various conversations with him.
- Moriarty the Patriot introduces Billy the Kid.
- Mugen no Gunkan Yamato, being a Historical Fiction manga, has many real-life admirals from both sides of the Pacific War.
- Niji no Kanata e! Shoujo Diana Monogatari is a biopic of Princess Diana and focuses on her early life to her teen years.
- In Nobunagun the main character is a reincarnation of Oda Nobunaga. Other characters include such colorful personalities as Jack the Ripper, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton.
- Paris No Isabelle has Léon Gambetta and Adolphe Thiers, though the latter goes through such a Historical Villain Upgrade that he's the anime's Big Bad.
- Red River (1995) is based on actual Turkish history, including The Manly Deeds of Suppiluliuma and The Ten Year Annals of Mursili II. Both of those books were written by the actual Mursili II, who is Prince Kail in the story. Protagonist Yuri Suzuki is mostly believed to be a Composite Character of multiple, influential women, including Prince Kail's legal wife.
- Read or Die has several characters who are actually clones of historical ones, such as Beethoven and Mata Hari.
- Reiri: With the exception of the eponymous heroine, every major character is an actual historical figure. The manga depicts the last days of the Takeda clan between the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 and the Battle of Tenmokuzan in 1582 and it mostly follows the course of the real events, albeit with a good chunk of fictional context surrounding said events mixed in.
- Most of the cast of The Rose of Versailles consists of several historical figures, particularly those involved in the French Revolution such as Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, Axel von Fersen the Younger, Marquis de La Fayette and Maximilien Robespierre. Many of the historical figures play a role in the plot, with the protagonist, Oscar, being assigned to protect Marie Antoinette ever since the latter was a Crown Princess.
- Robin Hood (1990): Richard The Lionheart, an English King who favours Robin Hood and is a benevolent ruler compared to Lord Alwine. This is actually common for Robin Hood adaptations, as it is widely believed the tale originated in the 12-13th Century, during his reign.
- Record of Ragnarok uses numerous figures from history and mythology for their cast of characters notably, Lü Bu, Sasaki Kojiro, Jack the Ripper, Raiden Tameemon, Qin Shi Huangdi, Nikola Tesla, Leonidas I, Grigori Rasputin, Nostradamus, Simo Häyhä; and Soji Okita.
- In Rurouni Kenshin, both Hajime Saitou, and the Shinsengumi are characters that become important to the plot.
- La Seine No Hoshi has Marie Antoinette and several of the French aristocracy, who serve as the main heroine's Arch-Nemesis.
- Steins;Gate uses a rather strange example in the form of John Titor, a forum poster back in 2000 and 2001 who claimed to be a time traveler - Only this time, Okarin's discovery of time travel changed the arrival date to 2010, the claims (though slightly different this time around) are true, and her real name is Suzuha Amane.
- Many of the characters in Vinland Saga are actually historic people, among them Leif Erickson, Canute, and Sweyn, and possibly even the Jomsvikings, although it's difficult to tell if the Jomsvikings are just myth or if there was an original kernel of truth that was later built upon and exaggerated in tales. (Technically even main character Thorfinn "Karlsefni" is one too, there really was a Thorfinn "Karlsefni" Thórdarson who was an explorer associated with Leif Erickson, although much of the life of the fictional version is entirely made up.) There was also an actual Thorkell the Tall who fought for the English and joined Canute, but it's not known if he was really a giant who could kill a hundred men with his bare hands.
- The Vision of Escaflowne has Isaac Newton as the Big Bad.
- Ya Boy Kongming! (AKA Paripi Koumei) is a Fish out of Water comedy about Zhuge Liang, 3rd century Chinese strategist featured in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, getting reincarnated in 21st century Japan and becoming the manager of Eiko Tsumiki, an up-and-coming musician.
- Yo-kai Watch: When Thomas Edison died, he became a Yōkai called T. Energison.
- Honoo no Alpen Rose being set in Switzerland during World War Two, has General Henri Guisan. He becomes close friends with the main character as they work against the Nazis together.
- The White Witch (2014) is based on the feats of Simo Hayha in the Winter War.
- Zeno Kagiri Naki Ai Ni is a biopic based on the Polish missionary Zeno Żebrowski and his charity efforts in Japan.
Comic Books
- Albert Einstein: Time Mason stars in the comic as a time-hopping ass-kicking hero working for an organization called the "Time Masons" to protect the timeline.
- American Dreams (2021) features occultist Aleister Crowley, inventor Thomas Edison, and escape artist Harry Houdini as major characters, and also features appearances by lesser-known figures like journalist Nellie Bly and rabble-rouser Emma Goldman.
- Aquila: Queen Boudica and Emperor Nero appear as major characters.
- Julius Caesar frequently appears in Asterix. Less frequent, but still recurring, are Cleopatra and Brutus. Pompey's the main villain of one story, and Vercingetorix is only shown a couple of times from behind but is extremely significant in the backstory. More obscure figures occasionally show up, like Cassivellaunus.
- The first issue of Back to the Future relates the story of how Doc was brought into the Manhattan Project while teaching at CalTech in 1943, and features J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leslie Groves, Vannevar Bush, and Robert Millikan as characters. A later story, set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, brings back Groves as a character.
- Batman:
- In the Elseworld Dark Masterpiece, Leonardo da Vinci inspired a Renaissance Batman.
- In the Elseworld Scar of the Bat Eliot Ness becomes a 1920s Batman.
- Another Elseworld, Batman: Detective No. 27, features Theodore Roosevelt, Allan Pinkerton and Kate Warne as founders of "The Secret Society of Detectives". Later, the story includes Babe Ruth (leading to an inevitable pun on "bat-man" and a subtler one on All-Star #3), Sigmund Freud, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Black Dynamite:
- One recurring character is Alex Haley, best known as the author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
- Various celebrities in attendance at the LA Forum in Issue #4 include boxers Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Larry Holmes; singers Ike and Tina Turner; Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Howard Cosell. Evel Knievel also helps perform a stunt.
- The antagonists of that issue are Chuck Taylor and Jack Purcell, two white athletes best known for lending their names to famous shoe brands.
- In Code Name: Gravedigger, Joseph Goebbels is the Big Bad: obsessed with finding and stopping the activities of the black One-Man Army who is wreaking havoc with Nazi operations across Europe.
- Conan the Barbarian: The historical Babylonian king Shamash-shum-ukin shows up in "Citadel at the Center of Time" as a time-traveling sorcerer.
- Die Abrafaxe, which has been relating adventures across time since 1976, is filled with this. A partial list includes Albertus Magnus, Alcibiades, Francis Bacon, Nicolas Baudin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Anne Bonny, Catherine the Great, Francis Drake, Nicolas Flamel, Matthew Flinders, John Franklin (as a young midshipman), Frederick Barbarossa, St. Gertrude the Great, Robert Hooke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Ludwig Leichhardt, Louis XIV, Queen Nefertiti, Isaac Newton, Peter the Great, Marco Polo, Ferenc Rákóczi, Socrates, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Wilhelm II.
- Elsewhere (2017): The basic premise relies on a lot of this, starring Amelia Earhart and D. B. Cooper. The big reveal of Issue #4 is that Lord Kragen, the Big Bad, is also one, being Amelia's navigator Fred Noonan who she spends the entire story up to that point looking for.
- Gilles de Geus has the historical Dutch prince Willem van Oranje and admiral Lumey among the main characters, while the Big Bad is the historical Spanish Duke of Alba. Other characters from Dutch history also show up from time to time, most frequently the inventor Cornelis Drebbel.
- In The Heathens an Aftershock comic by Cullen Bunn, Pirate Queen Ching Shih is returned from the Hell and tasked with having Infernal Fugitives go and get Dragged Off to Hell. Her latest assignment is to take on Jack the Ripper, so she's given a team that has Billy the Kid, rival gangsters Lucky Luciano and Bumpy Johnson plus the thief Sophia Bluvstein.
- Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly: At the museum, Harley befriends James Joyce, an esteemed writer who in Real Life had a fart fetish (and often sent letters to his wife Nora detailing the exact things he'd like to do with her ones). The two have a long conversation about their shared kink and Harley also tells him his writing sucks.
- Invincible includes Abraham Lincoln as the modern-day superhero "the Immortal", who returns to life after any manner of destruction. The character goes through periods of changing outlook and personality, starting aloof and irritable, before making a successful effort to improve his disposition. He eventually helps to lead humanity into the interstellar age at the end of the series.
- JFK Secret Ops stars John F. Kennedy. It's set in an Alternate History where he survived being shot, and is on a mission to track down everyone who was involved in the assassination attempt.
- Plenty of Hollywood stars and historical figures from the 1960s appear in Jupiter's Circle, like Ayn Rand, J. Edgar Hoover, Katharine Hepburn and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, by Don Rosa, sets its main character in various decades from the 1870s to the 1940s, featuring such characters as Murdo Mac Kenzie, Wyatt Earp, and Theodore Roosevelt.
- Lucky Luke has met many historical figures of the Wild West: such encounters are one of the main drivers of the series and whole albums are devoted to his confrontation with Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane and many others. In an early album, he opposes the Dalton gang, whose fictional cousins Joe, Jack, William and Averell later become his collective nemesis.
- Marvel 1602 has Elizabeth I, James VI and I, and Ananias and Virginia Dare. 1602: Fantastick Four features William Shakespeare.
- Mortadelo y Filemón:
- Practically every single famous Spanish politician of the second half of the 20th Century has appeared in more than one volume. A lot of foreign politicians and world leaders, such as the US Presidents (from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama), Fidel Castro or the European Prime Ministers, appear quite often too.
- Adolf Hitler sometimes appears in the comics.
- For example, in "El racista" he has just talked with two Jews, one of which says that Hitler is preparing something to keep them warm next winter...
- In "Mundial 78" about the 1978 World Cup, there was a fictional match (the finals) between Spain and Germany. The political authorities in the seats of honour were Adolfo Suárez, Spanish Premier at the time... and Adolf Hitler, who was waving at the reader.
- Ronald Reagan shows up in several albums written in The '80s ("El Cacao Espacial", "La Perra de las Galaxias" and "Los Ángeles 84").
- George W. Bush appears in Pax Americana #1. Since this universe seems to have had its own run of presidents, Dubya's appearance might be a symptom of inter-reality bleed.
- Rebel Dead Revenge depicts the death of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and his re-animation to lead a zombie Confederate army. Jackson's wife Anna and daughter Julia are also present.
- Various historic storylines worked into The Sandman (1989), especially the "Distant Mirrors" arc, which features Augustus ("August"); Maximilien Robespierre ("Thermidor"); Emperor Norton ("Four Septembers and a January"); and Harun Al Rashid ("Ramadan"). William Shakespeare also appears, cameoing with Christopher Marlowe in "Men of Good Fortune" and then getting two stories of his own — "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest", the latter being the series epilogue and featuring a cameo by Ben Jonson.
- Jonatan Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D.. Every single scientific genius since Imhotep was a member of the Ancient Tradition of The Shield. And, as of the 1950s, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Nostradamus still are.
- Shazam!: In Shazam! (1973)...
- In issue #27, Dr. Sivana uses his Reincarnation Machine to bring several notorious criminals of the XVIII century back to life: pirates Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Anne Bonny, serial killers Micajah and Wiley Harpe, terrorist Captain Walter Butler, renegade Simon Girty and treacherous General Benedict Arnold.
- In issue #28, Billy Batson meets Paul Revere as fighting Black Adam in the past.
- Smite: Homer makes an appearance.
- Supergirl:
- The Unknown Supergirl: After her existence is revealed to the world, Kara is invited to a party in the White House by President John Kennedy and his wife Jackie.
- In The Mysterious Motr of Doov, Supergirl and her cat Streaky are transported to another world by a tornado, run into two weird artificial beings and a cowardly werewolf, travel to the emerald Pyramid of Motr, hoping the Sorcerer can help them return to their respective worlds, and meet a native of Chicago who was abducted in 1898 and has been pretending to be the Motr. After everybody has been returned to their respective worlds and eras, Supergirl guesses that L. Frank Baum met the "Motr", and The Wizard of Oz was inspired by her adventure in Doov.
- Superman:
- The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!: Luthor's lair has a "Hall of Heroes", keeping statues dedicated to his "role models": Atilla the Hun (sic), Genghis Khan, Captain Kidd and Al Capone.
- The Living Legends of Superman has several historical figures: Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Moses, William Shakespeare, Saint Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Woodrow Wilson.
- The Einstein Connection reveals that Albert Einstein is Luthor's personal idol, and every year Luthor reenacts one episode of Einstein's life on his birthday.
- In "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali", Jimmy Carter is the incumbent president, and former heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali is one of the main characters.
- Ultimate Marvel:
- The first issue of Ultimate Origins features Franklin D. Roosevelt, ordering to start the "Project: Rebirth" program. He also debriefed Captain America about his mission in Europe.
- Steve Rogers saw Adolf Hitler in a newsreel in the local cinema. The newsreel also mentioned then-vice president Harry S. Truman.
- In Ultimate Comics: Thor, Zemo asks Heinrich Himmler for troops.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: The entire point of the Golden Age's "Wonder Women of History" feature is to have a short interlude in the fantastical superhero story to have a quick comic about a famous woman from history and get across a bit of her early life and then what makes her historically important. There are some creative liberties taken (Amelia Earhart is implied to have ended up on Paradise Island), but usually these are very minor and due to the limited space and format.
Film — Animation
- Anastasia is based around the titular Grand Duchess being the only one of her family to survive the revolution but has lost her memories and lives under the name "Anya". There's also an (already dead) Grigori Rasputin who's portrayed as an undead lich who wants to finish off his curse on the Romanov family by killing Anastasia.
- Famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo appears briefly in the Pixar film Coco.
- "Nuvogue" from The Gate to the Mind's Eye features cutouts of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in their video. Cheeky for a video series intending to show off then-current advances in computer animation, the cutouts use their portraits as found on U.S. currency, and these are pasted onto bodies which are clearly not meant to look like their own. Also featured is the replication of Trumbull's Declaration of Independence found on the $2 bill, the various historical figures animated to look like they are playing along with the song.
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists includes (heavily fictionalized versions of) Charles Darwin and Queen Vicky.
- Most of the characters in Pocahontas, albeit fictionalised.
- The Big Bad of Wolfwalkers is the Lord Protector, who's a fictionalized version of Oliver Cromwell. While he's only known as "the Lord Protector" in-story and in the credits, it's still obvious who he's supposed to be, especially since "Lord Protector" was the title Cromwell went under during his rule instead of "king".
Film — Live-Action
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Christopher Columbus as well as Isabel of Castile and several Spanish aristocrats.
- The Swedish comedy The Adventures of Picasso does this with Pablo Picasso and many of his contemporaries.
- Against All Flags: Captain Kidd and Roc Brasiliano (more commonly known as Roche Braziliano) were historical pirates. However, neither would have been Madagascar in 1700: Kidd was imprisoned in Boston, and Brasiliano had vanished without trace (presumed lost at sea) in 1671.
- Grand Duchess Anastasia and her grandmother from the 1950s film Anastasia and its animated remake.
- In Apache, Massai, Geronimo, and Al Sieber are all historical figures.
- Young Jane Austen, famous English writer, is the protagonist of Becoming Jane.
- The Bell Witch Haunting features the eponymous Bell Witch legend.
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has loads in order to pass a history exam.
- Blackthorn features Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Etta Place. Additionally, Simón Patiño—the powerful Bolivian industrialist and mine owner Eduardo supposedly stole from—was also a real person.
- Brass Target constructs a Conspiracy Thriller around the death of General George S. Patton in a car accident just after World War II.
- Bridge of Spies has attorney James Donovan, American pilot Gary Powers, American student Frederic Pryor, and Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
- The Cat's Meow is based on actual events, and its cast of characters is a veritable who's who of Hollywood in 1924: media mogul William Randolph Hearst, film producer Thomas Ince, Hearst's mistress Marion Davies, actor Charlie Chaplin, writer Elinor Glyn, columnist Louella Parsons, and actress Margaret Livingston.
- Fantasy versions of several historical figures serve as the lead characters in Dracula Untold, especially Mehmet and Vlad.
- Vlad III, better known as Vlad the Impaler, was a prince of Wallachia (a neighboring state to Transylvania, both part of Romania today) whose life has been conflated over the past 150 years with Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula. He was infamous for impaling the bodies of enemy soldiers and criminals alike on upright wooden stakes and leaving them to die while he ate his lunch nearby.
- Mehmet the Conqueror was a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, famous for conquering Constantinople and for beginning the Turkish conquest of southeastern Europe. He serves as the film's antagonist.
- The Elder Vampire is indicated in the original script to be none other than the Roman Emperor Caligula.
- Dumas (2010): The film is based around Alexandre Dumas (the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers) and his collaborator, Auguste Maquet. François Guizot, a French historian, also appears in the film.
- The Cinderella adaptation Ever After has Leonardo da Vinci as the eventual fairy godmother figure.
- The Execution of Mary Stuart depicts Mary of Scotland's execution, where she gets beheaded.
- The Gunfight at Dodge City: Bat Masterson, Ed Masterson and Dave Rudabaugh were all historical figures who would have crossed paths in Dodge City, although not in the way the film depicts.
- Houdini & Doyle: There are a few historic people other than the two titular characters that appear in the show.
- The 1939 film of The Hunchback of Notre Dame features King Louis XI of France.
- Virtually every character in Jackie is a real life historical figure including the main protagonist. The only exceptions are The Journalist (a Composite Character based on Theodore H. White, Arthur M. Schlesinger and William Manchester) and The Priest (a Canon Foreigner original to the film).
- I Shot Jesse James features Jesse James, his killer Robert Ford, Ford's rival Edward O'Kelley (called John Kelley in the film), and Frank James (Jesse's older brother and fellow bandit) as major characters.
- In The Limehouse Golem, Karl Marx is considered as a suspect in the killings, but quickly exonerated. George Gissing and Dan Leno were also real life people.
- Most of the characters in Marie Antoinette (2006) are historical figures, mainly from late 18th century France. They include but is not limited to the titular character who became the Queen of France, Louis XVI, Louis XV, Princess Victoire, Princess Sophie, Maria Theresa, Madame Du Barry, Axel von Fersen and the Princesse de Lamballe.
- McKinley at Home, Canton, Ohio depicts William McKinley receiving his nomination for president from George Bruce Cortelyou, while Ida Saxton is seen in the background.
- Che Guevara, in The Motorcycle Diaries.
- The protagonists of Ned Kelly (1970), Ned Kelly (2003), Mad Dog Morgan, Captain Thunderbolt, The Outlaw Michael Howe, and Van Diemen's Land are all based on historical Australian outlaws.
- The Outlaws IS Coming! features Annie Oakley, Rob Dalton, Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Bat Masterson, Cole Younger, Wild Bill Hickock and Belle Starr. An historical accuracy is purely coincidental.
- Outlaw Women: Sam Bass and Johnny Ringo were Real Life Wild West outlaws.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides features Blackbeard, with smaller appearances by King George II of England and some of his ministers, and a brief cameo by King Ferdinand VI of Spain.
- Nikola Tesla appears in The Prestige.
- The MST3K-bait film Quest of the Delta Knights has a young Leonardo Da Vinci as a central character - then proceeds to posit that all his great ideas were just ripped off from Archimedes.
- In Red One, Santa is explicitly referred to as literally being Saint Nicholas of Myra, one of the real life figures who inspired Santa Claus.
- In Rio Grande, J. Carrol Naish appears as General Philip Sheridan.
- Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Sigmund Freud in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
- And Thubten Gyatso in Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years. (This is referred to in "Empty House", but the pastiche is worth noting because the author is one of the more warlike proponents of a free Tibet, so the thirteenth Dalai Lama is right up his alley.)
- William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Queen Elizabeth I, as well as the rest of the theatre company, in Shakespeare in Love.
- Shanghai Knights includes as a supporting character a young Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Shanghai Noon reveals at the end that major character Roy O'Bannon is actually Wyatt Earp.
- Sunset has retired lawman Wyatt Earp and cowboy actor Tom Mix teaming up to solve a mystery in 1920s Hollywood.
- Apart from the film crew, every character in Tombstone Rashomon is a historical figure connected to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- Unconscious has brief appearances by Drs. Alzheimer and Freud, as well as Alfonso XIII of Spain.
- Eliot Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitti in The Untouchables.
- Vamps: Vlad Tepes is one of the vampires. He went to America in 1583.
- When the Last Sword Is Drawn: Saitou Hajime, one of the more famous of The Shinsengumi, is the primary viewpoint character for his fictional comrade Yoshimura Kanichiro's life. The film also includes fellow Shinsengumi Hijikata Toshizo and Okita Soji. The last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, also appears, as does historical government figure Oukubo Toshimichi (considered one of the co-founders of the modern Japanese state).
- Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) appears in several WW1 movies, amongst which are Wings, Hell's Angels and The Blue Max, and has a rather large role in several movies named after him.
- Aberline from The Wolfman (2010) is a fictionalized version of the real life Inspector Frederick Abberline.
- President Richard Nixon in X-Men: Days of Future Past. As one of the most famous leaders in the 1970s.
Music
- Several of The Foxy Bard's personas are based on real people.
- Shmuel Pallache, the Sephardi pirate rabbi, was a real person. It's unknown if he was also a musician.
- Christopher Hatton, the Elizabethan courtier, was also real.
- Shmuel Pallache, the Sephardi pirate rabbi, was a real person
Pinball
- Magic Girl have Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla as supporting characters for the protagonist.
Podcasts
- Pretty much the entire cast of 1865 is this. Just to name a few we have Edwin Stanton, Andrew Johnson, Robert Todd Lincoln, Gideon Wells, and Mary Surratt all making appearances. Abraham Lincoln appears in flashbacks, and John Wilkes Booth is the focus of a three episode prequel series.
- Less is Morgue: Has the ghost of Blackbeard as a surprisingly brilliant financial expert, and the ghost of Tarrare - a legendary French weirdo - as a tragic figure with unresolved familial issues.
- The Magnus Archives features a large number of historical figures in a number of contexts; most of them fall under Beethoven Was an Alien Spy, but occasionally they show up as normal humans who had the misfortune to run across various monsters.
- Pretending to Be People
- Ursula Kemp, an accused witch from St. Osyth, works for Marvin Glass.
- Politicians Paul Simon and Robert Byrd played a role in the history of the Circle of Knowledge.
- Ursula Kemp
- The Springheel Saga features numerous well-known personages such as The Duke of Wellington, Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria, as well as more obscure figures involved in the actual Spring-Heeled Jack case, including victims Lucy Scales, Jane Alsop and Mary Stevens, main suspect Thomas Millbank and magistrate, Mr. Hardwick. Series 2's Unreliable Narrator and Sidekick, James Malcolm Rymer, was the real-life creator of Varney the Vampire and Sweeney Todd.
Tabletop Games
- Lovecraftian Inspirations From The Real Life, supplement for games like Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green, has references to many real life persons. E.g. it is suggested that few famous mathematicians/physicists, who in real world had mental problems, have discovered something eldritch. Caligula is interpreted as possessed by a Yitihian, which justifies his historical sudden change on personality.
- Being an alternate history Rocket Age is awash with them, frankly too many to list here.
- 7th Sea has a fair share of them too, not only just royalty ones.
- Atmosfear: Khufu rises from his grave to turn Egypt into a Los Vegas style gambling destination.
Webcomics
- Amazoness! features Sappho as a recurring character.
- Balderduck is full of historical characters. Some of them include Julius Ceasar with bad parenting skills, Sir Francis Drake working at McDonald's and Van Gogh watching Reservoir Dogs.
- Cyanide and Happiness: This strip sets up a "Knock Knock" Joke scenario with the twist being the person behind the door is actually Albert Einstein.
- Dawn of Time
- Gideon Mantell and Richard Owen, whose rivalry is kept intact.
- And Gideon's eventual (from his perspective) wife Mary Ann Woodhouse.
- H. G. Wells shows up as the inventor of several time machines.
- The Dreamer has many historical figures in it, including Nathan Hale.
- Dresden Codak features several historical figures in cameo roles, but a recurring character is Tiny Carl Jung.
- Girl Genius has R. van Rijn, aka Rembrandt van Rijn, more commonly known in real life as Rembrandt — in our world, a famous Dutch painter; in the Gaslamp Fantasy world of Girl Genius, a Spark and the creator of the famous Muses of the Storm King, mechanical works that have still not been paralleled 200 years later.
- The Storm King himself is the equivalent of Louis XIV, the Sun King. However, the Storm King is Andronicus Valois, whereas Louis was of the House of Bourbon, suggesting that in Girl Genius the House of Valois never died out.
- The main premise of Hark! A Vagrant.
- Kevin & Kell has Dorothy's paramour Douglas who turns out to be the legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper. Fun fact: in this universe, he's a squirrel.
- Lovecraft Is Missing is all about . . . H. P. Lovecraft going missing.
- Lovely Lovecraft: H. P. Lovecraft, obviously, as well as his mother.
- Mayonaka Densha being a time travel murder mystery involving Jack the Ripper includes not only the man himself but cameos from various other figures involved with the case such as Inspector Abberline, Mary Kelly and various other Ripper victims (Including speculated and unconfirmed ones).
- Albert Speer is one of the central characters in Misguided Light.
- The New Adventures of Queen Victoria has several.
- The Paul Reveres, being a comic set during the American Revolution, is chalk full of historical figures. Not necessarily the way you would normally recognize them.
- The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. With occasional cameos from characters like Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Queen Victoria, and Charles Darwin.
Web Original
- This is much of the point of Epic Rap Battles of History, where figures such as Genghis Khan, Bruce Lee, Nikola Tesla or even Justin Bieber can wind up as part of the latest battle. That said, fictional characters have also been a part of the mix since Episode 2, which featured Darth Vader vs. Adolf Hitler.
- Many unpublished Alternate History stories, such as those on Alternate History.com, also include appearances by historical figures. For example, A World of Laughter, a World of Tears has its point of divergence from actual history with Walt Disney becoming President of the United States.
- Chrono Hustle includes Imhotep and Nikola Tesla as main characters, and a few other historical people pop up throughout.
- The Cartographer's Handbook involves Ulysses S. Grant still serving as President and Annie Oakley working as a Cartographer.
Web Video
- American High Digital: "Davy Crockett's Hat" has Davy Crockett and Johnny Appleseed as students in class.
Western Animation
- Big Mouth: The ghost of Duke Ellington haunts the attic of the Birch family house, where he died. Fortunately, he's a congenial sort who dispenses useful life advice (and, admittedly, a fair few unhinged Conspiracy Theories) and takes holidays in town. A flashback focused on him reveals that he also had a ghost when he was a kid: Harriet Tubman.
- The entire premise of Clone High was this. Take as many historical characters as possible, clone them, put the clones in a high school setting, and Hilarity Ensues.
- Several minor characters in Futurama, though mostly as only as heads in jars. The most commonly recurring character, with roles in the plot, is Richard Nixon.
- Besides King Richard I and Prince John, Ivanhoe: The King's Knight also features Alexander II of Scotland as a prince and Inge Magnusson.
- Many bit part and recurring characters in Liberty's Kids.
- A ten-year-old Leonardo da Vinci appears in one episode of The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo.
- Molly of Denali: Walter Harper and the other members of the Stuck-Karstens expedition in the special "Molly and the Great One." Though they're only seen in flashbacks, intense details of their expedition are shown, including a fire at base camp that destroyed most of their gear. The kids latch onto Harper and a teenager named John Fredson, the latter a Gwich'in boy responsible for caring for base camp completely alone, treating them as their personal heroes.
- In all three iterations of Mr. Peabody & Sherman, the world's smartest dog and his boy are time travelers who interact with historical figures on a regular basis.
- Filmation's The New Adventures of The Lone Ranger incorporated a bit more historical old west characters in order to give it a slightly educational context.
- Pirate's Passage features Captain Charles Johnson (Daniel Defoe if you subscribe to the belief they are one and them same), Calico Jack and Anne Bonny.
- Princess Sissi is about Elizabeth of Bavaria.
- Time Squad is about a small police unit traveling through time making sure famous people do what they're historically famous for — if Copernicus ever forgets the Sun existed or George Washington Carver manifests an Evil Twin, the Time Squad will be there to fix it.on
- Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Xavier, Yadina, and Brad often go back in time and meet famous people of history when they were children, such as Rosa Parks and Leonardo da Vinci, who help them learn important lessons.
