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Poll: Best Corporate Character?

In The Firm, AMC's September Movie of the Month, Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) seems an ideal recruit for the law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Not only is he bright and capable, but he's so determined to distance himself from his humble origins that he ignores the (almost) obvious. The firm's wildly generous salary and benefits are a poisonous lure and accepting them represents a deal with the devil. All the traits that make McDeere a good corporate soldier – his intelligence, his determination, his loyalty and his testosterone level – prove easily exploitable by the forces he finds himself caught between. It’s a classic scenario. The essentially-good-but-tragically-flawed hero learns that he’s in over his head and must fight for his moral and physical survival.

To celebrate The Firm, we’ve put together a list of quintessential characters from our favorite films about the world of business. We’ve got Dragon Ladies and Masters of the Universe, Boy (and Girl) Wonders and Sniveling Sycophants. Who’s at the top of your corporate ladder?

Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise, The Firm, 1993)

Tom Rath (Gregory Peck, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, 1956)

J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, 1967)

Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Ackroyd, Trading Places, 1983)

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, Wall Street, 1987)

To see the rest of the list, take the jump...

Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox, The Secret of My Success, 1987)

J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton, Baby Boom, 1987)

Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver, Working Girl, 1988)

Sherman McCoy (Tom Hanks, The Bonfire of the Vanities, 1990)

Blake (Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992)

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins, The Player, 1992)