Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "original-author-as-character"
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1. Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The life and adventures of the Ingalls family in the nineteenth century American Midwest.
Stars: Melissa Gilbert, Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Rachel Lindsay Greenbush
Votes: 26,874
2. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
PG-13 | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Barely 17 yet, Frank is a skilled forger who has passed as a doctor, lawyer and pilot. FBI agent Carl becomes obsessed with tracking down the con man, who only revels in the pursuit.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen
Votes: 1,095,361 | Gross: $164.62M
3. Almost Famous (2000)
R | 122 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand
Votes: 293,346 | Gross: $32.53M
4. The Pianist (2002)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music
During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 912,008 | Gross: $32.57M
5. Beautiful Boy (I) (2018)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama
Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.
Director: Felix van Groeningen | Stars: Steve Carell, Maura Tierney, Jack Dylan Grazer, Oakley Bull
Votes: 99,525 | Gross: $7.65M
6. American Sniper (2014)
R | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Cole Konis
Votes: 529,168 | Gross: $350.13M
7. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,169 | Gross: $5.51M
8. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Votes: 741,201 | Gross: $56.67M
9. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,318 | Gross: $44.82M
10. Jarhead (2005)
R | 125 min | Biography, Drama, War
A psychological study of Marine's state of mind during the Gulf War. Told through the eyes of a U.S. Marine sniper who struggles to cope with boredom, a sense of isolation, and other issues back home.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Scott MacDonald
Votes: 206,498 | Gross: $62.66M
11. Girl, Interrupted (1999)
R | 127 min | Biography, Drama
A directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Brittany Murphy
Votes: 211,273 | Gross: $28.87M
12. Captain Phillips (2013)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Catherine Keener
Votes: 492,581 | Gross: $107.10M
13. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,356 | Gross: $53.27M
14. Lone Survivor (2013)
R | 121 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster
Votes: 306,646 | Gross: $125.10M
15. The Theory of Everything (2014)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Stephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.
Director: James Marsh | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior, Sophie Perry
Votes: 482,010 | Gross: $35.89M
16. Papillon (I) (2017)
R | 133 min | Adventure, Biography, Crime
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega, in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island.
Director: Michael Noer | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan
Votes: 86,172 | Gross: $2.34M
17. 127 Hours (2010)
R | 94 min | Biography, Drama
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Sean Bott
Votes: 401,335 | Gross: $18.34M
18. Walk the Line (2005)
PG-13 | 136 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick
Votes: 265,819 | Gross: $119.52M
19. The Lover (1992)
R | 115 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 1929 French Indochina, a French teenage girl embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a wealthy, older Chinese man, each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jane March, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Jeanne Moreau, Frédérique Meininger
Votes: 23,496 | Gross: $4.90M
20. Raging Bull (1980)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Votes: 380,172 | Gross: $23.38M
21. Donnie Brasco (1997)
R | 127 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the Mafia life--at the expense of his regular one.
Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby
Votes: 332,192 | Gross: $41.91M
22. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,890 | Gross: $70.41M
23. In the Name of the Father (1993)
R | 133 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An Irish man's coerced confession to an I.R.A. bombing he did not commit results in the imprisonment of his father as well. Meanwhile, a British lawyer fights to clear their names and free them.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Alison Crosbie, Philip King
Votes: 187,089 | Gross: $25.01M
24. Out of Africa (1985)
PG | 161 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen
Votes: 86,344 | Gross: $87.10M
25. Adaptation. (2002)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton
Votes: 203,019 | Gross: $22.25M
26. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War
The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Votes: 115,922 | Gross: $70.00M
27. Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Frances Mayes, a 35-year-old San Francisco writer, gets a divorce that leaves her with terminal writer's block and depression. Later, she decides to buy a house in Tuscany in order to change her life.
Director: Audrey Wells | Stars: Diane Lane, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan
Votes: 59,538 | Gross: $43.61M
28. The Glass Castle (2017)
PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama
A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads with a mother who's an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stir the children's imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Stars: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson
Votes: 38,527 | Gross: $17.27M
29. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
R | 102 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A teenager finds his dreams of becoming a basketball star threatened after he free falls into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Director: Scott Kalvert | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol, James Madio
Votes: 121,017 | Gross: $2.42M
30. Eat Pray Love (2010)
PG-13 | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A married woman realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to "find herself".
Director: Ryan Murphy | Stars: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins, Viola Davis
Votes: 105,884 | Gross: $80.57M
31. tick, tick... BOOM! (2021)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
On the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.
Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens
Votes: 119,600
32. Fire in the Sky (1993)
PG-13 | 109 min | Biography, Drama, Fantasy
An Arizona logger mysteriously disappears for five days in an alleged encounter with a flying saucer in 1975. His co-workers endure ridicule and contempt as they are wrongly accused of murder.
Director: Robert Lieberman | Stars: D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg
Votes: 28,421 | Gross: $20.10M
33. Freedom Writers (2007)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school.
Director: Richard LaGravenese | Stars: Hilary Swank, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn
Votes: 85,364 | Gross: $36.61M
34. October Sky (1999)
PG | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Director: Joe Johnston | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen
Votes: 98,021 | Gross: $32.48M
35. A River Runs Through It (1992)
PG | 123 min | Drama
Two sons of a stern minister - one reserved, one rebellious - grow up in rural 1920s Montana while devoted to fly fishing.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn
Votes: 65,464 | Gross: $43.44M
36. Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
PG-13 | 136 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber, breaks out of prison and travels to the holy city of Lhasa. He is employed as an instructor to the 14th Dalai Lama and soon becomes his close confidante.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, BD Wong, Mako
Votes: 155,912 | Gross: $37.96M
37. The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1971, twenty-four male students are selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez | Stars: Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Billy Crudup, Olivia Thirlby
Votes: 46,121 | Gross: $0.64M
38. All the President's Men (1976)
PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam
Votes: 126,031 | Gross: $70.60M
39. Patch Adams (1998)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
The true story of a heroic man, Hunter "Patch" Adams, determined to become a medical doctor because he enjoys helping people. He ventured where no doctor had ventured before, using humour and pathos.
Director: Tom Shadyac | Stars: Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 122,290 | Gross: $135.03M
40. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
R | 113 min | Biography, Comedy, Crime
An adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), in which he purports to have been a C.I.A. hitman.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts
Votes: 91,993 | Gross: $16.00M
41. Soul Surfer (2011)
PG | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Family
Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer, loses her left arm in a shark attack. Unwilling to pay attention to the gravity of her situation, Bethany decides to get back into the ocean and surf again.
Director: Sean McNamara | Stars: AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood
Votes: 52,897 | Gross: $43.85M
42. Malcolm X (1992)
PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
Votes: 102,012 | Gross: $48.17M
43. Mommie Dearest (1981)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama
The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 18,336 | Gross: $19.03M
44. Stronger (I) (2017)
R | 119 min | Biography, Drama
Stronger is the inspiring real life story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become a symbol of hope after surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson, Richard Lane Jr.
Votes: 49,638 | Gross: $4.21M
45. The Walk (II) (2015)
PG | 123 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
In 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale
Votes: 135,488 | Gross: $10.14M
46. Just Mercy (2019)
PG-13 | 137 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
World-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson works to free a wrongly condemned death row prisoner.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Charlie Pye Jr.
Votes: 75,719
47. Midnight Express (1978)
R | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli
Votes: 88,230 | Gross: $35.00M
48. Dangerous Minds (1995)
R | 99 min | Biography, Drama
LouAnne, a retired US marine, becomes a teacher in a Californian high school. But her mostly Latino and black students from an impoverished and racially segregated locality do not easily embrace her.
Director: John N. Smith | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Dzundza, Courtney B. Vance, Robin Bartlett
Votes: 57,065 | Gross: $84.92M
49. This Boy's Life (1993)
R | 115 min | Biography, Drama
The story about the relationship between a rebellious 1950s teenager and his abusive stepfather, based on the memoirs of writer and literature Professor Tobias Wolff.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones | Stars: Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Barkin, Jonah Blechman
Votes: 58,340 | Gross: $4.10M
50. True Story (I) (2015)
R | 99 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
When disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel meets accused killer Christian Longo - who has taken on Finkel's identity - his investigation morphs into a game of cat-and-mouse.
Director: Rupert Goold | Stars: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones, Maria Dizzia
Votes: 72,927 | Gross: $4.72M