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.

Use in film

*Several characters in the movie '' 21''. *The character Henry Hurt in the

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typ ...

'' Apollo 13'' is portrayed as a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

employee assigned to the wife of astronaut Jim Lovell, and who also is seen 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 Affairs employees whose job was to actually work with the press. * Buffalo Bill in '' The Silence of the Lambs'' is a composite based on the serial killers Jerry Brudos, Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, Gary M. Heidnik, Edmund Kemper, and Gary Ridgway. *The character Commander Bolton in the 2017 film '' Dunkirk'' is a composite of several real life people, including Commander James Campbell Clouston and Captain Bill Tennant. *The characters in the 1963 film '' The Great Escape'' are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. The character Virgil Hilts, the "Cooler King," was based on at least three pilots, David M. Jones, John Dortch Lewis, and William Ash. *In '' Bombshell,'' Margot Robbie's character Kayla Pospisil was based on a number of conservative women who spoke to the filmmakers about Ailes' harassment. "We’re not revealing the people we talk to. We’re trying to protect them," director Jay Roach said of the project's sources.

Use in 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 Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

. * Marshall Matt Dillon on ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central chara ...

'' is a composite of several Old West Kansas lawmen. *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."

Use in books

*''The Senator: My Ten Years with Ted Kennedy'', a memoir by Richard E. Burke allegedly exposing various activities of U.S. Senator

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

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. *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".

Use in comics

*All the characters from Amalgam Comics are combinations of superheroes from

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...

and

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

, such as Super-Soldier ( Captain America + Superman) and Dark Claw ( Wolverine +

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...

Use in journalism

*In 1944, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'' ran a series of articles by

Joseph Mitchell Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

on New York's Fulton Fish Market that were presented as journalism. Only when the story was published four years later as the book ''Old Mr. Flood'' did Mitchell write, "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." Mitchell assigned his composite character his own birthday and his own love for the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

and certain authors. 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." *

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...

is said to have created a composite character in a ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' magazine story as did Alastair Reid for ''The New Yorker''. *

Vivian Gornick Vivian Gornick (born June 14, 1935) is an American radical feminist critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. Early Life and Education In 1957 Gornick received a bachelor of arts degree from City College of New York and in 1960 a master of ...

in 2003 said that she used composite characters in some of her articles for the '' Village Voice''.

References