Accountancy may not be the most glamorous job in the world and when it comes to Hollywood the writers are far more likely to opt for a wise cracking Private Detective or lycra-clad super hero but down the years there have been some memorable accountants in movies. Here is our countdown of the Top Ten Movie Accountants:
10. Harold Crick
Played by Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction
Harold Crick begins the movie as an IRS auditor whose life takes a sudden turn when a strange voice begins narrating his every move.
9. Leo Getz
Played by Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2
Who can forget the loud mouthed, quick talking Leo Getz who is given the protection of Riggs and Murtaugh when he decides to blow the whistle on his money laundering employers.
8. Mollie Jensen
Played by Kirstie Alley in Look Who’s Talking
Mollie who? Ok so the star of the film is the baby (who’s thoughts are narrated by the voice of Bruce Willis) but the film also touches on accounting ethics when it is revealed that the child is the result of accountant, Mollie Jensen, sleeping with one of her clients!
7. Louis Tulley
Played by Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters
Accountant Louis Tulley finds himself possessed by the demonic spirit of Vinz Clortho.
6. Hermes Conrad
Voiced by Phil LaMarr in Futurama
Hermes Conrad is a Jamaican bureaucrat and the accountant at Planet Express in the animated series Futurama.
5. Oscar Wallace
Played by Charles Martin Smith in The Untouchables
The fame and the plaudits for bringing down Al Capone went to Elliot Ness but it was the FBI accountant Oscar Wallace who identified the tax evasion charge.
4. Norm Peterson
Played by George Wendt in Cheers.
Ok so not technically a movie but how could we leave out Norm, the legendary beer drinker from the classic Cheers series. Norm was an accountant before turning his hand to interior decoration.
3. Leo Bloom
Played by Gene Wilder in The Producers
Leo Bloom is accountant to Max Bialystock a Theatre Producer who is down on his luck. Leo, somewhat innocently, advises that should Max raise money for a production that flops he would legally be allowed to keep all of the extra money.
2. Andy Dufresne
Played by Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption
Andy Dufresne was a banker who was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Though not technically an accountant his knowledge of the tax code led him to become the accountant for all of the guards at Shawshank Penitentiary and eventually at other prisons in Maine.
1. Itzhak Stern
Played by Ben Kingsley in Schindler’s List
Itzhak Stern was a Jewish accountant and right hand man to Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist. Stern is widely credited with typing the list of names that became known as Schindler’s list, a list of Jews who survived the Holocaust because of Oskar Schindler’s intervention.
Have we missed anyone?
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About the Author – shaun
Shaun is the owner of Van Zant Media and, subsequently, The Accountant Marketer. Can be contacted at [email protected]. Check me out on Google+
What about Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas, from “Midnight Run”?
Charles Grodin plays an accountant who embezzled $15 million from the Mob and then gave it all to charity (well, nearly all). Needless to say the Mafia are none too happy with him. Neither is Robert De Niro as the bounty hunter trying to bring him in.
Ah I forgot about him, I watched that movie the other week too!