The 10 coolest fictional fixers, ranked

The next Coen Brothers film, set in '50s Hollywood, is the latest proof of our cultural obsession with fixers

Published May 16, 2014 7:31PM (EDT)

Kerry Washington in "Scandal"            (ABC/Danny Feld)
Kerry Washington in "Scandal" (ABC/Danny Feld)

The Oscar Award-winning Coen brothers will follow their most recent release, "Inside Lewlyn Davis" with "Hail Caesar," about a Hollywood fixer hired by studios to keep the images of celebrities spotless. Deadline reports that the main character, Eddie Mannix, "sounds a lot like the Fred Otash of his day — the famed 1950s private investigator who worked for Confidential magazine and was the muckraker of the time using wiretaps to spy on movie stars and gather dirt."

Discretion is key for fixers, who, like crime scene "cleaners," will do anything it takes to keep their clients happy and their adversaries quiet. On television, they're portrayed as tough, hard-as-nails, and mysterious; some are selfish, while others highly moralistic, making it hard to tell whether they fight for good or for evil in their binary fictional worlds. The Coen brothers, known for their ruthless killers and quirky characters, are sure to create a memorable fixer--but they'll have to compete with these 10 iconic fixers from television and the movies. Here they are, ranked from the scariest, baddest fixers to the least intimidating:

1. Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, "Breaking Bad"

2. Harvey Keitel as Victor the Cleaner, "Point of No Return"

3. Harvey Keitel as Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe, "Pulp Fiction"

4. Jodie Foster as Madeline White, "Inside Man"

5. George Clooney as Michael Clayton, "Michael Clayton"

6. Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, "Scandal"

7. Richard Gere as Billy Flynn, "Chicago"

8. Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan, "Ray Donovan"

9. Alec Baldwin as Blake, "Glengarry Glenn Ross"

10. Wayne Knight as Newman, the muffin bottom cleaner, "Seinfeld"


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Cleaners Coen Brothers Crime Fixers Hail Caesar Hollywood Movies Television Video