Title role
Encyclopedia
The title role in the performing arts
is the performance part
that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida
, Giselle
, Michael Collins
or Othello
. The actor
, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role.
The actor playing the title role is not always the lead
; the title role may or may not be the protagonist
. In the television
miniseries
Shogun, for example, Toshirō Mifune
had the title role, but the lead was played by Richard Chamberlain
. In the James Bond
film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun
, the title character is the primary antagonist. It can be even more complicated when the title role and the lead are in different genders; for example, in the recent revival of August Wilson
's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
, Whoopi Goldberg
had the title role, but the lead was Charles S. Dutton
. The show Danny Phantom
is an example of the title character being in a cartoon universe rather than a real life one. The show Danny Phantom revolves around the character Danny Fenton
who lives a human life and a ghost one. The characters ghost form name, Danny Phantom, is seen in the shows title.
is the fictional character
whose name is contained in the title, as in Marjorie Morningstar
, by Herman Wouk
, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
, Harry Potter
by J.K. Rowling, Kim Possible
, by Mark McCorkle
& Bob Schooley
, Michael Clayton
, by Tony Gilroy
and Dracula
, by Bram Stoker
. The title character need not be directly named in the title, but may be the fictional character that the title refers to, such as Bilbo Baggins
in The Hobbit
or Simba
in Disney's The Lion King
. A title character may only be indirectly described in the title, as in An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde
, where the 'ideal husband' (the title role) may be the apparently perfect Sir Robert Chiltern, or it may be the enigmatic Lord Goring, supposedly a confirmed bachelor. Wilde's deliberately ambiguous title creates dramatic irony in this case, as it is difficult to say which character has the title role.
Title characters are distinguished from real people, living or dead, as a fictional character is a construct of fiction. For example, US President
John F. Kennedy
is not the title character of a biography
entitled John F. Kennedy, as he was a real person. In Oliver Stone's fictional film JFK
, Kennedy is a MacGuffin
rather than a title character.
Like title roles in film and theater, the title character need not be the protagonist. In The Lord of the Rings
, for instance, Sauron
, the title character, is the primary antagonist
; in Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein
, the title character is Valentine Michael Smith
but the character accepted as being the main character in that novel is Jubal Harshaw
. In The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
, Gatsby is a major character, but his story is told by narrator and protagonist Nick Carraway. Another example is the classic tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
. Although Oz the Wizard is the title character, Dorothy Gale
is the main character. Other examples include Beetlejuice
, where the title character is the antagonist and the 1999 filmThe Mummy
where the title character is the main antagonist, Imhotep. This concept also applies to video games. Perhaps the most well-known example in games is The Legend of Zelda, in which the title character is Princess Zelda
, but the protagonist is Link.
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
is the performance part
Part
Part may refer to:*Part *Part , a relation in mereology*Part , the music played or sung by an individual instrument or voice*Parts , a 1997 children's book by Tedd Arnold...
that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (film)
Michael Collins is a 1996 historical biopic written and directed by Neil Jordan and starring Liam Neeson as General Michael Collins, the Irish patriot and revolutionary who died in the Irish Civil War. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival....
or Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
. The actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role.
The actor playing the title role is not always the lead
Leading actor
A leading actor, leading actress, star, or simply lead, plays the role of the protagonist in a film or play. The word lead may also refer to the largest role in the piece and leading actor may refer to a person who typically plays such parts or an actor with a respected body of work...
; the title role may or may not be the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
. In the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Shogun, for example, Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
had the title role, but the lead was played by Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
. In the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
, the title character is the primary antagonist. It can be even more complicated when the title role and the lead are in different genders; for example, in the recent revival of August Wilson
August Wilson
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...
's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
had the title role, but the lead was Charles S. Dutton
Charles S. Dutton
Charles Stanley Dutton is an American stage, film, and television actor and director. He is perhaps best known for his roles as "Fortune" in the film Rudy and "Dillon" in Alien 3...
. The show Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show was about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and the world from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret...
is an example of the title character being in a cartoon universe rather than a real life one. The show Danny Phantom revolves around the character Danny Fenton
Danny Phantom (character)
Danny Phantom, the heroic ghostly alter-ego of Daniel "Danny" Fenton – is a superhero, the protagonist and title character of the Nickelodeon animated television series Danny Phantom, created and designed by Butch Hartman, Shannon Tendell, and Stephen Silver...
who lives a human life and a ghost one. The characters ghost form name, Danny Phantom, is seen in the shows title.
Title character
The title character in fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
is the fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
whose name is contained in the title, as in Marjorie Morningstar
Marjorie Morningstar (novel)
Marjorie Morningstar is a 1955 novel by Herman Wouk, about a woman who wants to become an actress. In 1958, the book was made into a Hollywood feature movie starring Natalie Wood, also titled Marjorie Morningstar.-Plot:...
, by Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author of novels including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.-Biography:...
, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
by J.K. Rowling, Kim Possible
Kim Possible
Kim Possible is an American animated television series about a teenage crime fighter who has the task of dealing with worldwide, family, and school issues every day. The show is action-oriented, but also has a light-hearted atmosphere and often lampoons the conventions and clichés of the...
, by Mark McCorkle
Mark McCorkle
Mark McCorkle is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. Among others, he is creator of the popular Disney cartoon Kim Possible. He frequently collaborates with fellow writer Bob Schooley...
& Bob Schooley
Bob Schooley
Robert "Bob" Schooley is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. He and Mark McCorkle are the creators of the animated television series Kim Possible, which aired on Disney Channel. He was also an executive producer of the series, as well as having written scripts for...
, Michael Clayton
Michael Clayton
Michael Rashard Clayton is an American football wide receiver who is currently signed with the New York Giants in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 15th overall in the 2004 NFL Draft...
, by Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney...
and Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, by Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
. The title character need not be directly named in the title, but may be the fictional character that the title refers to, such as Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
in The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
or Simba
Simba
Simba is a lion character and the protagonist of Disney's most successful animated feature film, The Lion King. He is the son of Mufasa and Sarabi, nephew of Scar, mate of Nala, and father of Kiara. He has golden fur and when he grows into an adult, he has an auburn mane...
in Disney's The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
. A title character may only be indirectly described in the title, as in An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, where the 'ideal husband' (the title role) may be the apparently perfect Sir Robert Chiltern, or it may be the enigmatic Lord Goring, supposedly a confirmed bachelor. Wilde's deliberately ambiguous title creates dramatic irony in this case, as it is difficult to say which character has the title role.
Title characters are distinguished from real people, living or dead, as a fictional character is a construct of fiction. For example, US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
is not the title character of a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
entitled John F. Kennedy, as he was a real person. In Oliver Stone's fictional film JFK
JFK (film)
JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison .Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay...
, Kennedy is a MacGuffin
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...
rather than a title character.
Like title roles in film and theater, the title character need not be the protagonist. In The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, for instance, Sauron
Sauron
Sauron is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit...
, the title character, is the primary antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
; in Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, the title character is Valentine Michael Smith
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
but the character accepted as being the main character in that novel is Jubal Harshaw
Jubal Harshaw
Jubal Harshaw is a fictional character featured in Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein. He is described as: "Jubal E. Harshaw, LL.B., M.D., Sc.D., bon vivant, gourmet, sybarite, popular author extraordinary, neo-pessimist philosopher, devout agnostic, professional clown,...
. In The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, Gatsby is a major character, but his story is told by narrator and protagonist Nick Carraway. Another example is the classic tale The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
. Although Oz the Wizard is the title character, Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...
is the main character. Other examples include Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
, where the title character is the antagonist and the 1999 filmThe Mummy
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...
where the title character is the main antagonist, Imhotep. This concept also applies to video games. Perhaps the most well-known example in games is The Legend of Zelda, in which the title character is Princess Zelda
Princess Zelda
is the name of a fictional character in The Legend of Zelda series of video games. The name has applied to every female member of Hyrule's royal family, which includes several distinct characters in Hyrule legend. Though she is the eponymous character, the player controls the main protagonist, Link...
, but the protagonist is Link.
See also
- Character actorCharacter actorA character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
- Role (performing arts)
- Leading actorLeading actorA leading actor, leading actress, star, or simply lead, plays the role of the protagonist in a film or play. The word lead may also refer to the largest role in the piece and leading actor may refer to a person who typically plays such parts or an actor with a respected body of work...
- Supporting actorSupporting actorA supporting actor is an actor who performs roles in a play or film other than that of the leads.These roles range from bit parts to secondary leads. They are sometimes but not necessarily character roles. A supporting actor must also use restraint not to upstage the main actor/actress in the...
- EponymEponymAn eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
- ProtagonistProtagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
- AntagonistAntagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...