Entertainment desk
< January 10	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 12 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 11

Real-life characters in Tintin

The new article Al Capone in popular culture claims Al Capone is one of only two real-life characters in The Adventures of Tintin. Who is the other? JIP | Talk 21:22, 11 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried asking the article's creator? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:35, 11 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible they don't know, the article was created by splitting it off from Al Capone. The creator is not necessarily the one who originally added that information. JIP | Talk 21:49, 11 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Tintin in America says: "Capone was one of only two real-life individuals to be named in The Adventures of Tintin,[23] and was the only real-life figure to appear as a character in the series." The French article also says: "Le seul personnage réel qui apparaît dans les Aventures de Tintin". If it's only about name-dropping, then Tintin in the Land of the Soviets already mentions three (Lenin, Trosky and Stalin). There are, however, cameos by Studios Hergé members, but none of those have their real names in the book. --Wrongfilter (talk) 22:25, 11 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not entirely real-life, but it goes a but further than inspiration as both name and occupation match, is captain Haddock. Herbert Haddock was captain of the RMS Olympic during Hergé's lifetime, although this may be coincidence. There were also admiral Richard Haddock of the British Royal Navy and his grandfather of the same name, who commanded the HMS Unicorn in 1648-52. These appear to be the inspiration for sir Francis Haddock in The Secret of the Unicorn. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:26, 12 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to imagine that Captain Haddock was inspired in part by Albert Haddock, but I cannot honestly call it plausible. —Tamfang (talk) 02:11, 17 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Tintin character Ridgewell is said to be "strongly reminiscent of the real-life British explorer Percy Fawcett". --Lambiam 12:34, 12 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Herge included himself at times. He also used other criminals with very slightly changed names, such as changing Zaharoff to Bazarov. Other than the name change,the characters are identical to the real person. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 12:37, 12 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That statement (Al Capone being one of only two real-life characters) was added to the Al Capone article in 2017 [1]. The reference is Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline (translation by Charles Ruas). It only says: "(He is the first of only two historical characters whose actual names Hergé would use in his work)."

The other historical character is not mentioned in that chapter, and I don't know who is meant. Based on the exact wording ("in his work") the other historical character need not be part of the Tintin universe. ---Sluzzelin talk 17:31, 12 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]