Secondary Characters in Film: The 20 Best Examples, Ranked

Frodo Baggins does not climb Mount Doom. He is carried up it by his gardener. The hero of a nine-hour trilogy runs out of strength a few hundred yards from the end, and the job passes to the man who came along to cook.

That is what secondary characters in film are for. A secondary character supports the lead, and the good ones change where the story goes. These are the 20 best examples, ranked by how much of the protagonist’s story falls apart if you cut the character. Number 20 owns one scene. Without number one, the hero does not finish. There are no villains on this list, and the reason is further down. Spoilers ahead for all 20 films.

20) Edna Mode, The Incredibles (2004)

Edna Mode is on screen for a few minutes of The Incredibles, and in that time she hands the film its turning point.

• Release date: 5 November 2004
• Director: Brad Bird
• Character: Edna “E” Mode (voiced by Brad Bird)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What she does for the protagonist: Gives Helen the truth about Bob and the suits to go after him
• Box office: $631.6 million
• Awards: 2 Oscars from 4 nominations: Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing. Selected for the National Film Registry in the class announced in January 2026
• Fun fact: Lily Tomlin was considered for the voice and turned it down. She felt Bird, who had been doing the scratch track, should play Edna himself

Secondary character example:

Bob Parr brings Edna a torn super suit to mend. She assumes his wife knows about his new job and makes suits for the whole family. It is a small mistake with a large result.

Helen visits, learns what her husband has been hiding and finds a homing beacon sewn into his suit. She presses the button. The film changes from a midlife comedy into a rescue mission in that scene, and Edna caused it without leaving her house.

She ranks last because the Parrs could, in theory, have found another route to the island. She is here because nobody who has seen the film forgets her. “No capes!” is a rule about costume design, delivered as a list of dead colleagues.

Why it matters: A secondary character with two scenes needs one strong opinion and one action that moves the plot. Edna has both. Size of role and size of impact are different measurements.

19) Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park (1993)

Ian Malcolm is the foil in Jurassic Park: the one guest who says out loud that the park is a mistake before anything has gone wrong.

• Release date: 11 June 1993
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Character: Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)
• Type of secondary character: Foil
• What he does for the protagonist: Argues the film’s case while Alan Grant is still dazzled
• Box office: More than $914 million in its original run
• Awards: 3 Oscars, all technical, for visual effects and sound. National Film Registry, 2018
• Fun fact: Malcolm was cut from an early script. Spielberg put him back after Goldblum auditioned. Goldblum also asked for a change: the script had Malcolm run from the T. rex, and he suggested the flare instead

Secondary character example:

The lunch scene is the one to study. Hammond expects applause. His lawyer sees money. Grant and Sattler are uneasy and polite about it. Malcolm is neither. He warns Hammond about the consequences of genetic power he did not earn.

A foil exists to make the lead clearer by contrast. Grant is a digger who loves the past and distrusts children. Malcolm is a talker who loves chaos and flirts with Sattler. Put them in the same jeep and you learn who Grant is. When the T. rex attacks, Malcolm grabs a flare to draw it off so that Grant can reach the children. The cynic does the brave thing, and he is injured for it.

Why it matters: Give the theme of your film to a secondary character. If the hero states the theme, it is a lecture. If the odd man at the lunch table states it, it is an argument.

18) Donkey, Shrek (2001)

Donkey is comic relief with a job to do: he is the first creature in Shrek who refuses to be scared away.

• Release date: 18 May 2001
• Directors: Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson
• Character: Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy)
• Type of secondary character: Comic relief
• What he does for the protagonist: Stays, which is the one thing nobody has ever done for Shrek
• Box office: $484.4 million on a $60 million budget
• Awards: Won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Nominated for Adapted Screenplay. National Film Registry, 2020
• Fun fact: Murphy received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He is the only actor nominated by BAFTA for a voice performance

Secondary character example:

Shrek saves Donkey by accident and cannot get rid of him. The jokes come from that. So does the plot, because Donkey is the only one who knows the way to Duloc.

The scene that earns him a place here is quiet. Under the stars, Shrek admits to Donkey why he lives alone. People judge him before they know him, so he left first. No other character in the film could hear that. Later Donkey finds out Fiona’s secret, and when Shrek jumps to the wrong conclusion, Donkey is the one who comes back and tells him so. Then he arrives at the wedding on a dragon. Shrek himself is a reluctant anti hero, and he is number 14 on that list.

Why it matters: Comic relief characters fail when the comedy is all they do. Let the funny one be the only person the hero tells the truth to, and the jokes start to carry weight. If you are curious about the studio behind him, we answer is Shrek from Disney elsewhere on the site.

17) Nigel, The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Nigel teaches Andy Sachs how to survive at Runway, and then the film uses him to show her what survival there costs.

• Release date: 30 June 2006
• Director: David Frankel
• Character: Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What he does for the protagonist: Gives Andy the wardrobe and the attitude, then becomes the warning
• Box office: $327 million
• Awards: 2 Oscar nominations: Best Actress for Meryl Streep and Best Costume Design
• Fun fact: Tucci agreed to play Nigel three days before shooting started. The production had auditioned about 150 other actors

Secondary character example:

Andy goes to Nigel for sympathy after Miranda humiliates her. He gives her none. He tells her she is not trying, then walks her through the fashion closet and sends her out dressed for the job. It is the makeover scene, and it is also a mentor setting a standard.

The payoff comes in Paris. Nigel tells Andy he has landed the job he has waited years for, creative director for a rising designer. The next day Miranda hands that job to a rival to save her own position. Nigel sits in the audience, swallows it and says she will pay him back. Andy watches a good man accept that, and she walks away from Runway within hours.

Why it matters: A mentor can teach twice. Once with advice, and once by being an example of where the advice leads.

16) Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight (2008)

Alfred is the confidant in The Dark Knight: the one person Bruce Wayne does not perform for.

• Release date: 18 July 2008
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Character: Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine)
• Type of secondary character: Confidant
• What he does for the protagonist: Tells Bruce what the Joker is, and hides the one thing that would break him
• Box office: $1.009 billion
• Awards: 8 Oscar nominations, 2 wins, including Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. National Film Registry, 2020
• Fun fact: Caine said he forgot his lines during one scene because Ledger’s performance on a Joker video was so startling

Secondary character example:

Bruce cannot work out what the Joker wants. Alfred can. He tells a story from his army days about a bandit in Burma who stole jewels and threw them away, and he gives Bruce the line the film is remembered for: some men want to watch the world burn.

His biggest act is one Bruce never learns about. Rachel leaves a letter saying she has chosen Harvey Dent. After her death, Alfred reads it and burns it. A butler decides what the hero gets to believe about the woman he loved. That is a secondary character changing the protagonist’s story from the kitchen.

Bruce’s own fight with his one rule is number 20 on our internal conflict list. This entry is the man who watches him have it.

Why it matters: A confidant is useful when they know more than the hero and have to choose what to say. Give yours a secret and a reason to keep it.

15) Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)

Hermione is the sidekick who knows things, and the first film makes clear that Harry does not get to the end without her.

• Release date: 16 November 2001 (UK and US, where it was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)
• Director: Chris Columbus
• Character: Hermione Granger (Emma Watson)
• Type of secondary character: Sidekick
• What she does for the protagonist: Supplies the knowledge Harry has not had time to learn
• Box office: $1.029 billion, including re-releases
• Awards: 3 Oscar nominations: Art Direction, Costume Design and Original Score
• Fun fact: Watson’s theatre teacher in Oxford put her forward. She went through more than five interviews and was chosen from thousands of applicants

Secondary character example:

She starts as the girl nobody on the train wants to sit with. Correct, loud about it, and alone. Then a troll gets into the school. Harry and Ron save her, and when the teachers arrive, Hermione lies and takes the blame. The rule follower breaks a rule for them. The friendship starts there.

From that point she is the group’s memory. In the run of traps under the trapdoor, each of the three friends gets one obstacle that only they can solve. The strangling plant is hers. Ron takes the chess game. Harry goes on alone.

Why it matters: That trapdoor sequence is a template. If you have a trio, build a series of problems and give each person one that fits them. The audience learns that the hero needs the team.

14) Genie, Aladdin (1992)

The Genie is a sidekick with the one thing a sidekick needs and rarely gets: a want of his own.

• Release date: 25 November 1992 (wide), after a limited release on 11 November
• Directors: John Musker and Ron Clements
• Character: Genie (voiced by Robin Williams)
• Type of secondary character: Sidekick
• What he does for the protagonist: Turns Aladdin’s last wish into a test of character
• Box office: $504 million on a $28 million budget
• Awards: 2 Oscars from 5 nominations: Original Score and Original Song for “A Whole New World”. Williams received a special Golden Globe
• Fun fact: The directors wrote the part for Williams, and he ad-libbed a large share of it. He took union scale, $75,000 against his usual $8 million, on condition that his name and the character were not used to sell the film

Secondary character example:

Strip out the songs and the impressions and look at the structure. The Genie wants to be free. Aladdin promises to use his third wish to free him. Then Aladdin gets scared that he is nothing without the magic, and he goes back on his word.

That broken promise is the low point of the film, and it belongs to the sidekick. The plot is about a lamp, and the story is about whether a street thief keeps a promise to a friend when it costs him a kingdom. He does, with the last wish, and the Genie leaves to see the world.

For more from the studio, see our list of the best Disney animated movies.

Why it matters: Give your sidekick a goal that the hero has the power to grant or refuse. You get a loyalty test for free.

13) Minny Jackson, The Help (2011)

Minny Jackson takes the biggest risk in The Help, and the film’s most famous scene is hers.

• Release date: 10 August 2011
• Director: Tate Taylor
• Character: Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer)
• Type of secondary character: Confidant
• What she does for the protagonist: Supplies the story that keeps the book’s authors safe
• Box office: $221.8 million on a $25 million budget
• Awards: 4 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Spencer won Best Supporting Actress
• Fun fact: Spencer was a friend of the novelist Kathryn Stockett. She inspired the character in the book and read Minny’s chapters for the audiobook before she played her on screen

Secondary character example:

Skeeter wants to write a book of interviews with the Black maids of Jackson, Mississippi. Aibileen agrees first. Minny is her closest friend and the one Aibileen talks to when the doors are shut. She joins in knowing what it could cost her.

Minny has been fired for using an indoor bathroom during a storm. Her revenge is a chocolate pie with an ingredient she names only after her former boss has eaten two slices. When the women fear the book will expose them, Minny insists the pie story goes in. It is insurance. The one person who could identify the town will deny it is Jackson for the rest of her life.

Why it matters: Minny solves the plot problem with her own backstory. When your secondary character’s past turns out to be the key, it feels planned, because it was.

12) Quint, Jaws (1975)

Quint is a foil to two men at once, and Jaws needs him for the monologue that makes the shark frightening.

• Release date: 20 June 1975
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Character: Quint (Robert Shaw)
• Type of secondary character: Foil
• What he does for the protagonist: Shows Chief Brody what a life spent fighting the sea does to a man
• Box office: $495 million on a $9 million budget
• Awards: 3 Oscars from 4 nominations: Editing, Score and Sound. Nominated for Best Picture. National Film Registry, 2001
• Fun fact: Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden both turned the part down. Shaw, who was also a playwright, rewrote part of the USS Indianapolis speech himself. Who deserves the credit for it is still argued over

Secondary character example:

Three men go out on the Orca. Brody is afraid of the water. Hooper trusts his equipment. Quint trusts nothing but experience. Each man is a different answer to the same fish, and the film plays them against each other for an hour.

At night, drunk, Quint and Hooper compare scars. Then Quint explains a tattoo he had removed. He was on the USS Indianapolis when it sank in 1945, and he spent days in the water while sharks took the crew. The film has barely shown its shark at this point. It does not need to. Shaw puts the fear into the audience with a story.

Quint dies the way he always expected to. Brody, the man who hates the water, finishes the job.

Why it matters: A foil earns his place when he shows the hero a possible future. Brody looks at Quint and sees obsession. It makes his own plain courage look better.

11) Dory, Finding Nemo (2003)

Dory is the sidekick who forgets everything, and she teaches Marlin the one thing he needs to remember.

• Release date: 30 May 2003
• Director: Andrew Stanton, with co-director Lee Unkrich
• Character: Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres)
• Type of secondary character: Sidekick
• What she does for the protagonist: Shows a frightened father how to trust
• Box office: $940.3 million, including the 3D re-release
• Awards: Won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, from 4 nominations
• Fun fact: Stanton first imagined Dory as male. He changed his mind after watching DeGeneres on television change the subject five times in one sentence

Secondary character example:

Marlin’s flaw is fear. He lost his wife and all but one of his eggs, and he has kept Nemo on a short line ever since. Dory has short-term memory loss, so she cannot hold on to fear. She is his opposite, built to order.

She reads the address on the diver’s mask. She asks for directions when he will not. Inside the whale, she tells him to let go and he has to decide whether to trust her. He does, and they are blown out into Sydney Harbour. When Marlin gives up and leaves her, it is Dory who finds Nemo.

Marlin’s change from start to finish is a clean positive character arc, and she drives every stage of it.

Why it matters: Design the sidekick around the hero’s flaw. Whatever your protagonist cannot do, make it the thing the sidekick does without thinking.

10) Adrian, Rocky (1976)

Adrian is the love interest who gives Rocky’s fight a meaning, and the last shot of the film belongs to her as much as to him.

• Release date: 3 December 1976, after a New York premiere on 20 November
• Director: John G. Avildsen
• Character: Adrian Pennino (Talia Shire)
• Type of secondary character: Love interest
• What she does for the protagonist: Hears the truth about the fight, and is the person he calls for when it ends
• Box office: $225 million on a budget of about $1 million
• Awards: 3 Oscars from 10 nominations, including Best Picture. Shire was nominated for Best Actress. National Film Registry, 2006
• Fun fact: Carrie Snodgress was cast first and left over money. Susan Sarandon and Cher both auditioned. After Shire read, the producers and the director insisted on her

Secondary character example:

Adrian works in a pet shop and barely speaks. Rocky tells her bad jokes through the bars of a birdcage until she answers. Two shy people teach each other to talk, and that is the first half of the film.

The night before the fight, Rocky walks the empty arena and comes home beaten before a punch is thrown. He tells Adrian he cannot win. All he wants is to go the distance, to still be standing at the final bell. He says that to nobody else. A love interest who is only a prize could not carry that scene. She is the one person he does not have to act tough for.

He loses on a split decision and does not listen to the verdict. He is shouting her name.

Why it matters: The test of a love interest is whether the hero’s goal changes because of them. Rocky stops fighting for a title and starts fighting for self-respect, and Adrian is the person he needs to see it.

9) Chuckie Sullivan, Good Will Hunting (1997)

Chuckie Sullivan tells Will Hunting to leave, and he is the only person in the film who can.

• Release date: 5 December 1997 (limited)
• Director: Gus Van Sant
• Character: Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck)
• Type of secondary character: Confidant
• What he does for the protagonist: Gives Will permission to go, from the one voice Will trusts
• Box office: $225.9 million
• Awards: 2 Oscars from 9 nominations: Robin Williams for Best Supporting Actor, and Affleck and Matt Damon for Original Screenplay
• Fun fact: Affleck was 25 when he won, which made him the youngest winner of a screenwriting Oscar

Secondary character example:

Sean, the therapist, is the mentor. He gets the big scenes and the Oscar. Look at what he cannot do, though. Will can dismiss a professor or a therapist as an outsider who wants something from him. He cannot dismiss Chuckie.

On a building site, Will says he would be happy to stay in Southie and lay bricks for ever. Chuckie tells him that would be an insult to everyone who never had his chance. Then he describes the best part of his day. It is the ten seconds between pulling up at Will’s house and knocking, when he hopes Will has gone without a goodbye.

The film ends on that knock. Nobody answers. Affleck plays the smile with no dialogue.

Will’s own struggle is number 9 on our list of internal conflict in film. Chuckie is the outside push that ends it.

Why it matters: Advice lands hardest from the character with the most to lose by giving it. Chuckie is asking his best friend to leave him behind.

8) Fredo Corleone, The Godfather Part II (1974)

Fredo is a foil for Michael Corleone: the brother who is weak where Michael is cold, and whose fate shows what Michael has become.

• Release date: 20 December 1974, after a New York premiere on 12 December
• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Character: Fredo Corleone (John Cazale)
• Type of secondary character: Foil
• What he does for the protagonist: Gives Michael a choice between family and power, and lets the audience watch him choose
• Box office: $93 million on a $13 million budget
• Awards: 6 Oscars from 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro. National Film Registry, 1993
• Fun fact: Cazale appeared in five feature films before his death in 1978, and all five were nominated for Best Picture. He was never nominated himself

Secondary character example:

Fredo is the older brother who was passed over. He wants respect and he will take it from anyone who offers. Hyman Roth’s people offer. Fredo gives them information, and gunmen fire into Michael’s bedroom.

In Havana, at a New Year’s Eve party, Fredo lets slip that he knows Roth’s man. Michael understands at once. He takes his brother’s face in his hands and kisses him.

Michael could forgive him. Their mother is alive, so he waits. After her funeral, Fredo goes fishing on Lake Tahoe with one of Michael’s men. Michael watches from the house. The film ends on his face, alone.

Why it matters: A foil can be a measuring stick. The way your protagonist treats the weakest person in the story tells the audience who he is.

7) Doc Brown, Back to the Future (1985)

Doc Brown builds the machine that causes the problem and the plan that solves it, which makes him the hardest-working mentor on this list.

• Release date: 3 July 1985
• Director: Robert Zemeckis
• Character: Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What he does for the protagonist: Gets Marty into 1955 and is the only person who can get him out
• Box office: $381.1 million in its first run on a $19 million budget
• Awards: Won the Oscar for Sound Effects Editing, from 4 nominations. National Film Registry, 2007
• Fun fact: Lloyd based Doc’s hair on Albert Einstein and the conductor Leopold Stokowski. He stooped through the shoot to bring his 6 feet 1 inch closer to Michael J. Fox’s 5 feet 5

Secondary character example:

Marty McFly has no special skill beyond a skateboard and a guitar. Everything he needs comes from Doc. The DeLorean is Doc’s. The rule about not changing the past is Doc’s. The lightning plan, 1.21 gigawatts at 10.04pm on a Saturday night, is Doc’s.

The film also gives Doc a choice of his own. Marty writes him a letter warning him about the night he will be shot. Doc tears it up on principle. At the end we learn he taped it back together. “I figured, what the hell.” The man who lectures about the space-time continuum breaks his own rule for a friend.

Why it matters: Exposition is dull when a character recites it. Make your mentor eccentric enough and the audience will listen to any amount of plot. Then give him one decision that is about feeling, not science.

6) Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars (1977)

Obi-Wan Kenobi starts Luke Skywalker’s story with a message and a lightsaber, and he ends his own so that Luke can carry on.

• Release date: 25 May 1977
• Director: George Lucas
• Character: Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What he does for the protagonist: Calls Luke to the adventure, trains him, and dies to let him escape
• Box office: $775.4 million on an $11 million budget
• Awards: 6 Oscars from 10 nominations. Guinness was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. National Film Registry, 1989
• Fun fact: Guinness disliked the dialogue, which he called “ropey”. He also took 2.25% of the backend, and it made him rich. He later claimed he talked Lucas into killing the character

Secondary character example:

Every beat of the mentor role is here in its cleanest form. The old man in the desert knows the hero’s father. He hands over the father’s weapon. The hero refuses the call, loses his home, and comes back ready.

Then Obi-Wan does the thing mentors have to do. He gets out of the way. On the Death Star he faces Vader, sees that Luke is watching, raises his blade and lets the blow fall. The others escape because every stormtrooper is looking at the duel.

In the trench run, with the targeting computer switched off, it is Obi-Wan’s voice Luke hears. The mentor wins the battle after he is dead.

Why it matters: A mentor who stays alive can solve the hero’s problem for him, which kills the third act. Remove the mentor before the final test. The lesson has to work without the teacher.

5) Goose, Top Gun (1986)

Goose is the sidekick whose death is the story. Everything Maverick does in the last third of Top Gun is about him.

• Release date: 16 May 1986
• Director: Tony Scott
• Character: Lieutenant Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)
• Type of secondary character: Sidekick
• What he does for the protagonist: Keeps Maverick human while he is alive, and gives him something to overcome when he is gone
• Box office: About $360 million on a budget of $13 to $15 million
• Awards: Won the Oscar for Best Original Song, “Take My Breath Away”, from 4 nominations. National Film Registry, 2015
• Fun fact: The 2022 sequel is built on this character. Miles Teller plays Goose’s son, and Edwards appears in archive footage

Secondary character example:

Goose sits in the back seat. He has a wife, a small son and a moustache, and he sings at the piano. Maverick has none of those things. Goose is the evidence that you can be a fighter pilot and a whole person, and he is the only one who can tell Maverick he is flying too dangerously.

Roughly two-thirds of the way through, their F-14 hits another jet’s wash and goes into a flat spin. Both men eject. Goose strikes the canopy and dies.

The inquiry clears Maverick. It does not matter. He loses his nerve, nearly quits, and in the final dogfight he breaks off before he re-engages. The film ends when he throws Goose’s dog tags into the sea.

Why it matters: If a secondary character is going to die, the audience has to love them first and the hero has to pay afterwards. Goose gets an hour of charm. Maverick gets half an hour of grief. That ratio works.

4) Dr. King Schultz, Django Unchained (2012)

Dr. King Schultz frees Django, trains him and funds him. Then one moment of pride undoes his own plan.

• Release date: 25 December 2012
• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Character: Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What he does for the protagonist: Turns a man in chains into a bounty hunter, and then leaves him to finish alone
• Box office: $449.8 million on a $100 million budget
• Awards: 2 Oscars from 5 nominations: Waltz for Best Supporting Actor and Tarantino for Original Screenplay
• Fun fact: Waltz won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for the role. He had won the same three for Inglourious Basterds, also for Tarantino

Secondary character example:

For the first half, Schultz drives everything. He buys Django because he needs a witness, offers him his freedom, and finds he cannot walk away. He tells Django that having freed a man, he feels responsible for him. So he teaches him to shoot, to read and to play a part, and he designs the scheme to buy Django’s wife from Calvin Candie.

The scheme works, more or less. The papers are signed. All Schultz has to do is shake Candie’s hand. He has watched what Candie does to people, and he cannot do it. He shoots him, and he is killed a second later.

Look at what that does to the structure. The mentor’s flaw, a conscience that arrives at the worst time, destroys the safe ending. Django has to win the last act with nothing but what he was taught.

Why it matters: Schultz has an arc of his own. He begins as a man who kills for money and ends as one who dies for a principle. Secondary characters who change are rarer than they should be.

3) Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid (1984)

Every skill Daniel LaRusso has at the end of The Karate Kid comes from Mr. Miyagi, and the film hides the teaching inside housework.

• Release date: 22 June 1984
• Director: John G. Avildsen
• Character: Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita)
• Type of secondary character: Mentor
• What he does for the protagonist: Teaches him to fight, and teaches him when not to
• Box office: $130.8 million on an $8 million budget
• Awards: Morita was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Listed on the film’s page as a 2025 National Film Registry selection
• Fun fact: The studio wanted Toshiro Mifune, who did not speak English. It rejected Morita at first because he was known as Arnold from Happy Days. He grew a beard, taped a second audition with an accent based on his uncle’s, and got the part

Secondary character example:

Miyagi is the handyman at Daniel’s apartment block. He steps in when five boys are beating Daniel, and he puts all five on the ground. Daniel asks to be taught. Miyagi sets him to work on cars, a deck, a fence and a house.

Days later Daniel loses his temper. He has been used as free labour. Miyagi throws a punch at him and Daniel blocks it with the motion he used on the cars. Then another. Every chore was a drill. It is the best reveal a mentor has ever been given, because the audience was fooled along with the student.

The film then gives Miyagi a life. Drunk on an anniversary, he tells Daniel about the wife and son he lost at the Manzanar camp while he was serving in the US Army. The teacher needs the boy as much as the boy needs him.

Why it matters: Give the mentor a wound and the lessons stop being a service. They become a relationship, and the audience cares about both halves.

2) Red, The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Red tells the story of The Shawshank Redemption, and the film’s last question is about him, not Andy.

• Release date: 23 September 1994 (limited), 14 October 1994 (wide)
• Director: Frank Darabont
• Character: Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman)
• Type of secondary character: Confidant
• What he does for the protagonist: Supplies the hammer and the poster, and gives Andy a friend worth writing to
• Box office: $73.3 million on a $25 million budget
• Awards: 7 Oscar nominations and no wins. Freeman was nominated for Best Actor. National Film Registry, 2015
• Fun fact: In Stephen King’s novella, Red is a white Irishman. The film keeps a joke about it. Andy asks why he is called Red, and Freeman answers that maybe it is because he is Irish

Secondary character example:

Red is the man who can get things. Andy Dufresne asks him for a rock hammer and, later, a poster of Rita Hayworth. Those two orders are the escape. Red does not know it, and neither do we.

He is also the voice of the film. We never get inside Andy’s head. We get Red’s account of him, which is why the escape is a surprise. Put the camera in Andy’s cell and there is no film.

The disagreement between them is about hope. Andy says it keeps a man alive. Red says it will drive him mad. After 40 years Red is paroled, and he stands in the same boarding house room where another old prisoner gave up. The film’s last stretch asks whether Red will follow him or follow Andy’s letter to a hayfield in Buxton. He chooses the letter, and a beach in Mexico.

An honest note on category. The Academy nominated Freeman as a lead, and you can argue Red is the deuteragonist and not a secondary character at all. We cover the difference further down. If you want to see the prison, read where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.

Why it matters: Telling the story through a secondary character lets you keep the hero’s secrets. It works for Gatsby and for Sherlock Holmes, and it works here.

1) Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Samwise Gamgee is the best secondary character in film because he is the one case where the sidekick physically completes the hero’s task.

• Release date: 17 December 2003, after a Wellington premiere on 1 December
• Director: Peter Jackson
• Character: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (Sean Astin)
• Type of secondary character: Sidekick
• What he does for the protagonist: Feeds him, guards him, fights for him and carries him
• Box office: $1.148 billion on a $94 million budget
• Awards: 11 Oscars from 11 nominations, including Best Picture. It shares the record for wins with Ben-Hur and Titanic
• Fun fact: Jackson’s crew spent two hours on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu filming the single moment where Sam lifts Frodo on to his back

Secondary character example:

By the third film Frodo is failing. The Ring is eating him, and Gollum has talked him into sending Sam home. Sam goes, in tears, and then turns round.

Count what he does next. He drives off the spider Shelob. He believes Frodo is dead and takes the Ring to finish the quest himself. He learns Frodo is alive, goes into a tower full of Orcs to get him, and hands the Ring back. On the mountain, when Frodo cannot take another step, Sam says he cannot carry the Ring but he can carry him. And he does.

Tolkien wrote in a letter that Sam was the chief hero of the book. The films agree. The last scene of the trilogy is Sam’s front door.

You could call Sam a deuteragonist too, and we get to that below. If the locations are what you are after, read where The Lord of the Rings was filmed.

Why it matters: The strongest thing a secondary character can do is carry the hero at the moment the hero fails. It only works if the character has been loyal in small ways for the whole story first.

Five more secondary characters worth studying

These five missed the 20 because another character on the list does the same job with more effect on the story.

• Short Round, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
  A sidekick who rescues the hero. He burns Indy out of a trance with a torch.
• Marie, When Harry Met Sally (1989).
  The confidant as a running commentary. Carrie Fisher gets the driest lines in the film.
• Bing Bong, Inside Out (2015).
  An imaginary friend who jumps off the wagon so that Joy can make it out. A sidekick sacrifice in a children’s film.
• Rod Tidwell, Jerry Maguire (1996).
  The client who is also a foil. His marriage shows Jerry what he is missing. Cuba Gooding Jr. won Best Supporting Actor.
• Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes (2009).
  The model confidant and narrator. Every detective’s friend since has been a version of him.

What is a secondary character?

A secondary character is a character who supports the protagonist’s story without being the protagonist or the antagonist.

You will also see them called supporting characters or side characters. The terms mean the same thing. They have names, wants and a relationship with the lead, and they appear across the story. That separates them from tertiary characters, the waiter or the guard who fills one scene.

Secondary characters in film have a job that their cousins in novels do not. A novelist can tell you what the hero is thinking. A film cannot, so it gives the hero someone to talk to, argue with or look at. Rocky tells Adrian he cannot win. Shrek tells Donkey why he lives alone. Without the secondary character, the audience never finds out.

What are the six types of secondary characters?

The six types of secondary characters are the mentor, the sidekick, the confidant, the foil, the love interest and comic relief.

Type	The job they do	Examples from this list
Mentor	Teaches the hero what they need to win, then steps back	Edna Mode, Nigel, Doc Brown, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dr. King Schultz, Mr. Miyagi
Sidekick	Goes where the hero goes and does what the hero cannot	Hermione Granger, Genie, Dory, Goose, Samwise Gamgee
Confidant	Hears the truth the hero tells nobody else	Alfred Pennyworth, Minny Jackson, Chuckie Sullivan, Red
Foil	Shows the hero by contrast	Dr. Ian Malcolm, Quint, Fredo Corleone
Love interest	Changes what the hero is fighting for	Adrian
Comic relief	Lets the pressure out, then says something true	Donkey

The types overlap. Donkey is a sidekick as well as comic relief. Quint is a mentor for about a day. Pick the main job and write to it.

The mentor archetype is the oldest of the six. It goes back to a character called Mentor in the Odyssey, and we cover it with others in our archetype examples in movies. The folklorist Vladimir Propp split the same ground into the helper and the donor, the one who travels with the hero and the one who hands over the magic object. Our guide to the types of heroes according to Vladimir Propp explains his system.

Foil character examples are the ones students get asked for, so here is the short version. A foil is a character whose traits are the reverse of the hero’s, placed beside the hero so that the difference shows. Malcolm and Grant. Quint and Brody. Fredo and Michael.

Look at the top six of the ranking. Four are mentors or sidekicks. There is a reason. Those two types act on the plot. Confidants and foils act on the hero’s mind, which matters as much and shows less.

Protagonist, deuteragonist, tritagonist: where do secondary characters sit?

Secondary characters sit in the fourth tier of a story’s cast, below the protagonist, the deuteragonist and the tritagonist, and above tertiary characters.

The words come from Greek theatre, where they named the first, second and third actors.

Tier	What it means	Example from The Lord of the Rings
Protagonist	The lead. The story is about their goal	Frodo
Deuteragonist	The second most important character. Close to a co-lead	Sam, by the third film
Tritagonist	The third most important character	Aragorn or Gandalf, depending on who you ask
Secondary characters	Named, recurring, with a job in the story	Merry, Pippin, Éowyn, Faramir
Tertiary characters	One or two scenes, sometimes with no name. Also called minor characters	The gatekeeper at Bree

Protagonist vs deuteragonist is a question of whose goal runs the story. Deuteragonist vs secondary character is a question of degree, and people argue about it. Two entries on this list sit on the line. Morgan Freeman was nominated as a lead for playing Red. Sam has as much screen time as anyone in The Return of the King. We kept them because in both films the goal belongs to someone else. It is Andy’s escape and Frodo’s Ring.

Can a deuteragonist be a villain? Yes. A deuteragonist is ranked by importance, not by side. Secondary characters can be on the wrong side too. Fredo is.

How do filmmakers make secondary characters memorable?

Filmmakers make secondary characters memorable with five tools: casting, the entrance, a want, a rule and the line the hero cannot say.

• Casting. Secondary roles have less time, so the actor has to arrive fully formed. Robert Shaw, Alec Guinness and Michael Caine do in one scene what a lead gets an hour for.
• The entrance. Quint scrapes his nails down a blackboard. Doc Brown backs a DeLorean out of a truck in a cloud of smoke. You know who they are in ten seconds.
• A want of their own. The Genie wants freedom. Nigel wants the job. Fredo wants respect. A character with no want is furniture.
• A rule. Edna will not do capes. Doc will not change the past. Miyagi will not fight unless he has to. A rule gives a small part a spine, and breaking it gives the part a climax.
• The line the hero cannot say. Malcolm states the theme of Jurassic Park. Chuckie tells Will to go. Alfred explains the Joker. Hand the truth to the person standing next to the lead.

For the wider craft of building people an audience remembers, see our tips on writing memorable characters.

How to write secondary characters into your script

You write secondary characters by giving each one a job in the hero’s story, a want of their own and a name.

1. Start with the hero’s gap.
   List what your protagonist cannot do, will not say and does not know. Each gap is a vacancy. Marlin cannot trust, so the film hires Dory.
2. Give one job per character.
   Mentor, sidekick, confidant, foil, love interest or comic relief. If two characters do the same job, merge them. The audience can follow about five secondary characters in a feature. Past that, faces blur.
3. Give them a want that touches the hero’s.
   It can help, like Schultz’s. It can compete, like Fredo’s. It can test the hero, like the Genie’s. What it cannot do is sit off to one side.
4. Name them.
   “Cop 1” is a prop. Officer Reyes, who is two weeks from retirement and hates paperwork, is a person. You will write better lines for her, and an actor will thank you.
5. Mix the moral colours.
   A supporting cast where everyone is good, or everyone is bad, is flat. Let a friend be wrong and an enemy be kind. Let one of them change sides.

Then run the test this list is built on. Cut the character from your outline. If the story still works, you have written decoration, and you should cut them for real.

For building them from the inside, our guide to character development covers backstory and worksheets. For structure, start with the screenwriting guide.

FAQs about secondary characters in film

The Final Cut on secondary characters in film

Twenty characters, six types, one test. Secondary characters in film earn their place by doing something for the hero that the hero cannot do alone.

The ones at the bottom of this list own a scene. The ones at the top own the ending. Edna sews a beacon into a suit. Sam carries the protagonist up a volcano. Between them are a butler who burns a letter, a friend who hopes nobody answers the door and a teacher who hides karate in a car wash.

Pick a film you love and watch it for the second face in the frame. Then open your own script and cut each supporting character in turn. Keep the ones the story cannot stand without. When you are ready to build the rest, the screenwriting guide is the place to go next.