Movie and TV characters with AS?

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Not characters specifically written to have AS but characters who have been given traits which suggest AS even though the screenplay author never thought much about it. Consider: many writers build characters using bits of real people they have met. As a result they may create characters which are largely AS but have a few characteristics totally at odds with a real AS person.

My first nomination is "Mr. Potatoe Head" the obnoxious IT worker in "War Games" Remember the scene? Matthew Broderick drops in on some friends that work at a computer center to ask about trapdoors and such and gets a spirited response from a true geeks geek. His boss replies "Mr. Potatoe Head! Yer doin it again!" Remember?

My tv nomination goes to Joe Friday, the cop character created by Jack Webb decades ago. Consider: he lives alone, has few friends, he is never enthusiastic about meeting or associating with others, constantly says inappropriate things and is almost morbidly obsessed with police work, often memorising the criminal code numbers for obscure violations. And what a perfect role. Cops are permitted, perhaps encouraged, to be rude.

Surely Webb didn't set out to create an AS character. AS had not been defined at the time the old tv shows were made.

What do you think? Who else would you name? Remember, fictional characters only.

Sam from Benny & Joon. Shy, aloof, outcast, obsession with old movies and quotes lines from them and acts them out. Is preoccupied with it. Is also literal.

Edwards Scissorshands. Literal, outcast, aloof, shy. Obsessed with making sculpture out of bushes and spends his time doing it. Doesn't carry on a conversation. I read he was actually based on Tim Burton's childhood who has AS.

Some character out of Cloak & Dagger but I don't remember his name and I vaguely remember what was said about him by another guy.

Malcolm and Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle. Malcolm has a savant memory and Dewey is an outcast and aloof and he is a bit eccentric. He likes to make things.

Dillon out of All Grown Up. A bit eccentric and he likes to make things just like his dad.

Joon from Benny & Joon but she is a schizo and they share the same signs. She had routines, hated loud noise, spent her whole time painting, perhaps sensitive to smell because she made a comment about one of her formers housekeeper's hair smelling, didn't like things to be moved, prefers to have the same foods, emotionally ret*d and child like.

Mr. Bean

Pee Wee Herman

Good candidate but I think this character might have been intended, right from the start, to be AS, not someone who turned out that way without the screenwriter being aware. Wonderful movie though; one of my favorites.





Yet he is outgoing and makes lotsa friends. This suggests the writer grabbed some AS characteristics and mixed them with other NT character traits to create the character he wanted. Good show too.

Andy from 40 year old virgin?

and how about sheldon from the big bang theory, main character from scrubs, any characters from harry potter, alan from two and a half men, or angela, kevin or michael scott from the office-US version?

The characters of Brennan and Zack from "Bones."

From what I've read so far, the writers did not have AS in mind when developing the characters - possibly didn't even know it existed. Instead, wrote them as your basic science geeks who are brilliant but socially awkward.

The show airs, all kinds of fans write in with this 'name' for the geek syndrome, and since then, even though to my knowledge the characters still don't officially have AS, both actors now consult psychologists who specialize in adults with Asperger's for their respective roles.

Or so I've heard - piecing together bits of interviews and rumors from the set.

- Jo

I know he's not even human... but The Doctor from Doctor Who... in need of people skills, a little unusual, very very smart.. (I used to have a crush on him - lol.)

Watch the music video for Silverchair's "Emotion Sickness"! !! !

Starting at 5:15,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb8rdc-0OpQ

I have posted this here before but, this seems to be a somewhat good (maybe over exaggerated) representation of someone with AS talking to an NT. (at 5:15 into the video)

Hahahahahaha that had me in stitches!! "I wipe my ass with $10" XD

I think you have a point there.

(And believe me, you're not the only one with a crush )

The character Rose Nylund in the TV series ”The Golden Girls” created by Susan Harris, 1985-1992.

Not any character, but Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger and Severus Snape might be Aspies.

Ross from Friends - socially awkward, married a lesbian (I'm thinking maybe there were signs that he didn't pick up before marrying her, that an NT might have noticed), and obsessed with dinosaurs. And he always speaks really correctly.

I personally never saw any aspie traits but if they really do, then I wonder if JK Rowling has it or has any of the traits?


An aspie author would make their characters a little quirky or different because authors tend to base their characters off of people they know or themselves.

When an author has every quirky aspie like character in their books, it does make me wonder about the writer. If it's just one, I find it interesting. If they say it was based on them, then I wonder.

A new one I've decided on is Bret and Jemain from Flight of the Conchords. They both have flat expressions, are eccentric, childish, very socially naive, and very socially unsuccessful. I know of course that alot of that is for comedic value, but still I can't help but see a pattern. I especially relate to Bret. I love how he's always wearing all those dorky shirts with the animal pictures on them.