If you’re lucky enough to have a cool dad, make sure he knows how much you appreciate him this Father’s Day by spending some quality time together. Certainly, there will be fewer activities this year to enjoy with dad, as we are slowly re-opening our state, and many places are only allowing certain numbers of guests. Activities like fishing, bike riding, cooking, or helping dad with a home improvement project are obviously still options… but if your dad likes to spend the day relaxing in front of the TV, here’s a fun idea – have a Father’s Day Best and Worst Dads movie/TV marathon!
There are so many shows and movies with unforgettable dad characters. Some are beloved, dedicated fathers like Daniel Hilliard in Mrs. Doubtfire (played by Robin Williams), a divorced man whose wife has full custody of their children, so he disguises himself to get hired as their nanny just to spend more time with his kids. Others fall into the Al Bundy/Homer Simpson category of not-so-great dads, and will likely make you appreciate your dad even more.
I decided to make a list of some of my personal favorite dad characters from shows and movies. It’s hard to rank them since they’re all so great, so these are in no particular order, well, except Scott Lang from Ant-Man might actually be my favorite dad character.)
Awesome Dad Characters in TV & Movies:
- Scott Lang (Played by Paul Rudd) Ant-Man / Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Marlin (Voiced by Albert Brooks) in Finding Nemo
- Mufasa (Voiced by James Earl Jones) in The Lion King
- Daniel Hillard (Played by Robin Williams) in Mrs. Doubtfire
- Joel Hammond (Played by Timothy Olyphant) on Santa Clarita Diet
- Philip Banks (Played by James Avery) in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- Danny Tanner (Played by Bob Saget) on Full House
- Dan Conner (Played by John Goodman) in Roseanne
- Hank Hill (Voiced by Mike Judge) in King of the Hill
- Randy Marsh (Voiced by Trey Parker) in South Park
That being said, this list of terrible dad characters is much longer! I didn’t come up with this one though, I found it online, and this is just the first 10 of 22. It’s pretty accurate though!
Worst Dad Characters in TV & Movies:
- Homer Simpson in (Voiced by Dan Castellaneta) “The Simpsons”
- Daniel Plainview (Played by Daniel Day-Lewis) in “There Will Be Blood”
- Al Bundy (Played by Ed O’Neill) on “Married with Children”
- Frank Gallagher (Played by William H. Macy) on “Shameless”
- Danny DeVito Double-Dip: Frank Reynolds on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and Mr. Wormwood in “Matilda”.
- Jack Torrance (Played by Jack Nicholson) in “The Shining”
- George Bluth Sr. (Played by Jeffrey Tambor) on “Arrested Development”
- Tywin Lannister (Played by Charles Dance) on “Game of Thrones”
- Michael Corleone (Played by Al Pacino) in “The Godfather”
- Darth Vader (Played by James Earl Jones / David Prowse) in “Star Wars”
(List Source: TheWrap.com.)
These are some dads that kind of fit both lists or neither list in some cases, but they were just too memorable to leave them out.
Honorable Mentions:
- Walter White (Played by Bryan Cranston) in Breaking Bad
- Rick Grimes (Played by Andrew Lincoln) in The Walking Dead
- Frank Murphy (Voiced by Bill Burr) in F is for Family
- Rick Sanchez (voiced by Justin Roiland) in Rick and Morty
- Professor Membrane (Voiced by Rodger Bumpass) in Invader Zim
