This weekend brings us Soul Surfer, the inspirational true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who continued pursuing the sport even after a shark made off with one of her arms. And while the latest in CG effects allow actress AnnaSophia Robb to appear to be missing a limb for most of the film's running time, Hollywood's fascination with amputees predates such elaborate digital trickery. Check out our favorite limb-lacking characters after the jump, and add your own suggestions in the comments.
Captain Hook in Peter Pan
The antagonist in this beloved Disney cartoon is probably most people's first exposure to a movie character who has a prosthesis. (Why, exactly, did pirates get hooks after losing a hand? It seems like the sort of thing that would only be useful in very specific circumstances. And was his name Captain Hook before the accident? Was he renamed after the tragic event, or did his surname suddenly become ironic?) Obsessed with and terrified by the crocodile that took his hand away, Hook makes for a flamboyantly fascinating character. (Not fascinating enough to excuse the existence of Steven Spielberg's Hook, but that's another story.)
An unnamed Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind
Old movies get a bad rap for sanitizing the grittiness of the world at large, but through implication and suggestion, they were often able to go to dark places. Take the classic scene where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is asked to assist in an amputation at a bombarded army hospital in the waning days of the Civil War. We never see the details, but we know that the operation is going to take place with no anesthesia, and between the pleading wails of the patient and the horrified look on Scarlett's face, the intensity of the moment is captured perfectly.
Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives
Actor Harold Russell didn't need any special effects to play a double amputee in this classic tale of soldiers coming home from World War II -- in 1944, while making a training film as an Army instructor, Russell was holding a bomb that went off due to a defective fuse, blowing both of his hands off. But it's more than his physical qualifications that made him perfect the role; he brings a real emotional heft to the role of a young man who keeps his pre-war fiancée (Cathy O'Donnell) at a distance, thinking she won't want to love him anymore. Russell won two Oscars for his work in the film, and 65 years later, Best Years still packs a dramatic punch and remains one of the greatest films ever about veterans and their readjustment to home life.
Drake McHugh in Kings Row
The role that was arguably the apex of Ronald Reagan's acting career, McHugh was a small-town ladies' man who flirted with the wrong doctor's daughter and woke up after a minor accident with both legs removed, leading to the famous line, "Where's the rest of me?" While this film about the twisted secrets of a placid-on-the-surface small town couldn't be as explicit as the novel on which it's based, viewers who read between the lines can pick up on all the sin and psychosis on display here.
The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
One of the most memorable scenes in this brilliant medieval comedy -- Your Highness isn't fit to carry its coconut shells -- involves King Arthur (Graham Chapman) doing battle with the formidable Black Knight (John Cleese), with the latter refusing to concede victory even after the king has removed all four of his limbs, one at a time. You've got to admire his moxie.
Gobber the Blacksmith in How to Train Your Dragon
The village's smithy and dragon-fighting instructor (voiced by Craig Ferguson) may be missing a foot and a hand, but he's one of the vikings' fiercest warriors. And thanks to his adeptness with tools, he's got any number of replaceable attachments for his hand that turn out to be convenient in a great many situations. (The bad guy in the kung-fu parody segment of Kentucky Fried Movie, "A Fistful of Yen," has a similar Swiss Army quality to where his hand used to be, screwing in everything from a buzzsaw to an electric toothbrush.)
Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump
This officer (played by Gary Sinise) goes through the wringer -- he loses his legs in combat in Vietnam, goes into a drunken depression, gets a second chance when Forrest (Tom Hanks) gives him a job on a shrimp boat, and by the end of the movie, he's got snazzy new titanium legs that allow him to walk again. Although his new legs are functional, they're still not as cool as the ones belonging to...
Lady Helen Port-Huntley in The Saddest Music in the World
Canadian director Guy Maddin is known for his outrageous flights of fancy, and one of his oddest creations would have to be this tormented beer heiress (Isabella Rossellini), who lost her legs in a car accident and now wears glass ones, filled to the top with the sudsy beverage that made her family rich.
One of the characters in Hustler White
There's no remotely safe-for-work to describe what this guy does. Google it if you really want to know.