To celebrate Father's Day this Sunday, Blockbuster recently presented a survey on the best and the worst movie dads—and how they stack up against those off-screen.
Topping movie lovers' list of on-screen fathers they'd most like as their own is the devoted and determined single dad Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness played by Will Smith. Fans also chose Will Smith as the celebrity dad they'd most like to have as their own. The on-screen and off-screen Smith was most popular with young females ages 18-34, although males also named him a top pick.
Real-life dads get less respect than their on-film counterparts, with survey respondents comparing their own fathers to some of the most notoriously humorous and sometimes bumbling dads in movie history. Topping the list is Steve Martin's George Banks in Father of the Bride. Movie lovers also named Jack Byrnes, the overprotective ex-CIA dad in Meet the Parents and Chevy Chase's clueless Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Vacation as characters reminiscent of their own dads.
When asked what movie dad they'd least like to have as their own, more than a third chose the terrifying Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining followed by Jim Carrey's Fletcher Reede in Liar, Liar and dad from the Dark Side Darth Vader from the Star Wars series. Fortunately, none of these characters showed up on the "movie dads most like my own" list!
For more information on the survey, check out the Blockbuster press release.
