50 Greatest Movie Drunks
They’re three sheets to the wind…
W.C. Fields in Everything
The Drunk: Doesn’t matter what character W.C. Fields plays, he always ends up a drunk. “’Twas a woman drove me to drink," he's been known to slur. "I never had the courtesy to thank her.” What a gent.
Tipple Of Choice: Anything and everything.
John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Drunk: Championing one heck of a volatile temper, Tom Doniphon doesn’t take rejection well – when he’s rejected by Hallie, he heads straight to the pub. Then burns down his crush object’s house.
Tipple Of Choice: Something strong. Really strong.
Vince Vaughn in Swingers (1996)
The Drunk: Trent, who’s probably the most embarrassing drunk on the entire list. He gets so wasted during one bender that he stands on a table of waffles with his shirt over his head. Shameless.
Tipple Of Choice: Whatever comes in a cocktail glass. Or a glass, full stop.
Stan Laurel in The Bohemian Girl (1936)
The Drunk: Stan, a gypsy. The word ‘subtle’ could never be used to describe him – witness the scene where he drunkenly attempts to spring old Arline from jail, but goes about it with all the subtlety of a trumpeting elephant.
Tipple Of Choice: Wine. From a wine barrel.
Val Kilmer in Tombstone (1993)
The Drunk: Doc Holliday can do maths, even when drunk. “I have two guns,” he slurs, “one for each of ya.” Except he’s actually only wielding one gun. Alright, he can’t do maths, but he sure can shoot.
Tipple Of Choice: Something old school.
Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou (1965)
The Drunk: Gunfighter Kid Sheleen, who was once brilliant, but has drunken himself into such a stupor that he couldn’t hit a target if his life depended on it.
Tipple Of Choice: Well, it’s not milk.
Matt Dillon in Factotum (2005)
The Drunk: So dependent on certain liquids that even when he’s woken up and promptly vomited, the very next thing he does is crack open another bottle of beer. Total pro.
Tipple Of Choice: Beer. Yum.
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Dean Martin in Rio Bravo (1959)
The Drunk: A self-loathing ex-gunfighter who used to be a quick shot, but now spends his time roving the streets filled up to his eyeballs with booze.
Tipple Of Choice: He doesn’t get much of a choice as he’s a penniless waster. Whatever drops he can find, he’ll take.
Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year (1982)
The Drunk: A larger-than-life booze hound who has Errol Flynn as his idol. Alan Swann’s benders are all the better because he executes them so publically, getting trollied just before stepping out on stage to perform live on King Kaiser's hit variety show.
Tipple Of Choice: Anything that you can drink.
Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas in Strange Brew (1983)
The Drunks: Bob and Dough Mckenzie only need one thing in life: beer. Which is lucky, considering they’ve just gotten their dream jobs at a brewery. But can they resist temptation?
Tipple Of Choice: Good ol’ fashioned beer.
Who's your favourite drunk? Tell us below...
Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.
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