The Personality of a modern tough guy

[B.R.Stateham]

Since my last blog, a comment was made which has had me swimming through the pages of the past, examining all the detective characters I've enjoyed reading over the last forty some-odd years. That expanded into the characters seen in the movies and on tv.

The comment made was something to the effect that our modern day genre has morphed to the point that a character like a Mike Hammer or Bulldog Drummond couldn't exist these days. Or, at least, doesn't exist these days.

Frankly, for the most part, I thank the statement is true. With the disingenuous creation of Politically Correctness, tough guys. more or less, have faded away into that Great Gumshoe Heaven.

With the exception of a tv character called Nash Bridges. Of course the show is not on anymore, but this San Francisco cop was truly a unique character. Smart, humorous, confident, tough. . . all the ingedients for a great character. He had his minor flaws (apparently he had more ex-wifes than fingers), he was just about perfect as a character goes.

But surely there are others, both in print and in the movies and/or on tv, that I am not aware of. I almost put in Jason Bourne. . . but I'm not quite sure I'd put him in the detective venue. Would you?

[B.R.Stateham]

Hey! All great comments! I forgot about 24. . . but could we call him a detective? More spy than detective.

But Sipowwicz in NYPD Blue definitely. And ole'baldy in The Shield. That guy is definitely flawed!

[Jack Getze]

You can buy the DVD for Electric Mist right now.

[Jon Loomis]

Maybe Easy doesn't count, though, since his books are set in post-war L.A. But that would certainly be a solution, B.R.: set your book in the tough guy golden age, right after WWII.

[Jon Loomis]

How about Easy Rawlins? He's a pretty tough guy, though not a psychopath like Mouse.

[Christopher Valen]

I agree with Jack. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are great tough-guy characters. I'd also add James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux to the mix. A truly flawed but very tough guy. Alex Baldwin played Robicheaux in the terrific movie Heaven's Prisoners based on one of Burke's novels of the same name. Tommy Lee Jones will play Robicheaux in Burke's In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead scheduled for release this summer.

[Jack Getze]

Try Robert Crais. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike play by their own rules.

[John McFetridge]

Where would you put a character like Andy Sipowicz from NYPD Blue or Tony Soprano? What about that bald guy in The Shield? I've never seen 24, but people tell me the Jack Bauer character is pretty good.

There are plenty of tough guy characters on The Wire (usually the bad guys, though, not the cops). And what about Elmore Leonard, a character like Chili Palmer is pretty much a tough guy.

[John Dishon]

It's a movie from 1992, so I don't know if that's recent enough for you. Directed by John Woo though, so you know it's quality.

[B.R.Stateham]

Ooohh!
I really like Chow Yun-Fat as an actor! Thanks, John! I'll check this one out!

[John Dishon]

There's Tequila Yuen (played by Chow Yun-Fat) from Hard Boiled.