Don Draper from ‘Mad Men’

The Character: As Don Draper on AMC's 'Mad Men,' Jon Hamm plays a charming advertising executive working in New York in the 60s, but beyond his polished good looks lies a heavy-drinking, heavy-smoking womanizer who can't seem to remain faithful to anything beyond his job. And yet, we love him anyway.

The Inspiration: Don Draper was inspired in part by Draper Daniels, the talented ad-man and creative head of Leo Burnett in Chicago, responsible for a slew of iconic campaigns, including the Marlboro Man. Unlike Don Draper, Draper Daniels was never a womanizer or philanderer, though he did have a strange way with women -- Daniels pursued his company's vice president, Myra Janco, but had the weirdest way of doing so. Rather than ask her out on a date, Daniels approached her by saying they should form a different kind of merger, then handed her a business card with his best qualities listed on one side, and hers on the other before telling her he wanted to marry her. An engaged woman and happy with her life, Myra resisted, but the next day Daniels picked Myra up to go to a pottery show and asked if they could stop at the courthouse, where he sort of wrangled her into getting a marriage license.