Hitman - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A hitman is a person hired to kill

Contract killing

Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...

another person.

Hitmen in organized crime

Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime

Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...

, Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski

Richard Kuklinski

Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was an American contract killer. The 6'5" , 300 pound Kuklinski worked for Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families. He claimed to have murdered over 250 men between 1948 and 1986...

Other cases involving hitmen

These are non-mafia killings, or attempted killings, that involved a hitman. In some of these cases the "hitman" was not necessarily a "professional" hitman, but a paid amateur.

Hitmen

Glennon Engleman
Glennon Engleman
Dr Glennon E. Engleman was a St Louis dentist who moonlighted as a hitman, concocting and carrying out at least seven murders for profit over the course of 30 years....

, American dentist who moonlighted as a hitman on the side
Christopher Dale Flannery
Christopher Dale Flannery
Christopher Dale Flannery, aka Mr. Rent-A-Kill is alleged to have been an Australian hitman. Flannery was born in Brunswick, Victoria.- Juvenile Crime:...

, reputed Australian hitman
Artur Gorsky, reputed Russian hitman with more than 250 confirmed kills
Charles Harrelson
Charles Harrelson
Charles Voyde Harrelson was an American organized crime figure who was convicted of assassinating federal judge John H. Wood, Jr., the first federal judge killed in the 20th century...

, father of actor Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
Richard Kuklinski
Richard Kuklinski
Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was an American contract killer. The 6'5" , 300 pound Kuklinski worked for Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families. He claimed to have murdered over 250 men between 1948 and 1986...

, American contract killer, linked to the murders of over 33 men and rumored to have murdered over 250 men
Alexander Solonik
Alexander Solonik
Alexander Viktorovich Solonik , also known as Sasha the Macedonian,A reference to Alexander the Great and Solonik's Greek descent and ability to shoot handguns from both hands, in Russian called a Macedonian shooting and Superkiller, was an infamous Russian hitman in the early 1990s and was...

, Russian hitman who killed more than 300 people, and who was known for shooting with both hands

Notable victims of hitmen

Li Fuguo
Li Fuguo
Li Fuguo , né Li Jingzhong , known from 757 to 758 as Li Huguo , formally Prince Chou of Bolu , was a eunuch official during the reign of Emperor Suzong of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty...

a Tang Dynasty Eunuch killed by a hitman hired by Emperor Tang Daizong
Shiori Ino
Shiori Ino
was a 21-year-old Japanese female university student who was murdered on October 26, 1999. The murder exposed significant dereliction of duties in the Saitama Prefectural Police, brought about changes to legal treatment of stalking and is known as an example of media manipulation.-Murder:In January...

was a 21-year-old University student killed by hitman Yoshifumi Kubota, who served 18 years in prison for the killing. He was paid by her ex-boyfriend and his brother; the case gained some notoriety in Japan.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh was a senior Hamas military commander and one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military affiliate of Hamas...

, a Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

official was killed on January 20, 2010, with the killers being suspected Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

agents. The hitmen have Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

warrants for their arrest.
Grady Stiles
Grady Stiles
Grady Franklin Stiles, Jr. was a freak show performer. His deformity was ectrodactyly, where the fingers and toes are fused together to form claw-like extremities. Stiles' stage name was the "Lobster Boy"....

, freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...

performer whose family hired a hitman to kill him because of his abusiveness
Ji Yunqing, a Chinese Shanghai Triad boss affiliated with Wang Jingwei's Puppet Regime in the late 1930s murdered by BIS hitman Zhan Seng.

Notable cases of hiring a hitman

Mike Danton
Mike Danton
Michael Sage Danton is a Canadian ice hockey player currently playing for the IFK Ore of the Swedish Division 1. Danton played for the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League between 2000 and 2004, before being imprisoned for a conspiracy to commit murder...

, former NHL player, hired an undercover federal agent to kill his sport agent.
Wanda Holloway
Wanda Holloway
Wanda Holloway is a woman from Channelview, Texas, known for hiring a hit man to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival.-Overview:...

: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom is a 1993 comedy TV movie produced by and for HBO. It was directed by Michael Ritchie and starred Holly Hunter, Swoosie Kurtz and Beau Bridges....

is based on Holloway's hiring a hitman to kill the mother of a girl competing with her daughter at cheerleading.
Lawrence Horn
Lawrence Horn
Lawrence Horn is a musician, formerly a record producer and chief recording engineer for Motown Records. He is currently serving a life sentence for hiring a hit man to commit a triple-murder....

, record producer whose hiring of a hitman led to the case Rice v Paladin Press
Paladin Press
Paladin Press is a book publishing firm founded in 1970 by Peder Lund and Robert K. Brown.The company publishes non-fiction books and videos covering a wide range of specialty topics, including personal and financial freedom, survivalism and preparedness, firearms and shooting, various martial...
Charlotte Karin Lindström
2007 hitman case
The 2007 hitman case is an Australian criminal case involving Steven Wayne Spaliviero and Swede Charlotte Karin Lindström. Lindström is so far the only one sentenced for the crime. Spaliviero is currently in jail awaiting sentence since 2006 for drug-related crimes but has been found not guilty of...

, Swedish waitress/model who attempted to hire a hitman to kill persons testifying against her boyfriend in a drug trial in Australia
Pamela Smart
Pamela Smart
Pamela Ann Smart is serving a life sentence for accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering in New Hampshire...

of Derry, New Hampshire
Derry, New Hampshire
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 33,109 people, 12,537 households, and 8,767 families residing in the town. The population density was 924.8 people per square mile . There were 13,277 housing units at an average density of 143.2/km²...

, who made national headlines in 1991 for hiring teenage lover Billy Flynn and his friends to murder her husband Gregory Smart
Wallace Souza
Wallace Souza
Wallace Souza was a Brazilian television presenter and politician. He was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas until his expulsion in October 2009...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

presenter
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...

who was accused of hiring hitmen to murder at least five people in 2009 to increase his programme
Canal Livre
Canal Livre was a popular crime television programme in Brazil. It was presented by the former police officer and former politician Wallace Souza and was the most popular show in the city of Manaus...

's ratings.
According to America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...

, Walker County
Walker County
Walker County is the name of several counties in the United States:* Walker County, Alabama* Walker County, Georgia* Walker County, Texas...

, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

is the #1 place in America to hire a hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...

.

Anime

In the anime Darker than Black
Darker than Black
is an anime television series, created, directed and written by Tensai Okamura and animated by Bones. It premiered across Japan from April 5, 2007 on MBS, TBS, and its affiliated broadcast stations, with its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax in May 2007. The music for the series is...

, the main character often performs contract killings for various organizations.
In the anime and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995; later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the...

, a mercenary named Tao Pai Pai is hired by the Red Ribbon Army to kill Goku.
In the anime Gungrave
Gungrave
is a PlayStation 2 third-person shooter video game developed by Red Entertainment and published by Sega. The game debuted on July 17, 2002 in Japan, September 16, 2002 in North America and November 29, 2002 in the United Kingdom...

, the main character is a hitman for the Mafia.
The anime Reborn!
Reborn!
Reborn!, known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akira Amano. The plot revolves around the life of a young boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada, who finds out that he is next in line to become the boss of the most powerful Mafia organization called Vongola, the Vongola Family...

contains several hitmen and women. Tsuna Sawada
Tsuna Sawada
, commonly nicknamed , is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Reborn! created by Akira Amano. In the story, Tsuna is one of the long lines of descendants from the Vongola family, a mafia that exists in Italy. He is the one who is to be the next leader of the Vongola, the tenth...

(the main character), along with his school friends, are trained by a hitman to succeed the previous Vongola Family.

Comics and cartoons

Hitman
Hitman (comics)
Hitman is a fictional character, a superpowered hitman in the DC Comics Universe. The character was created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea and first appeared in The Demon Annual #2 and then received his own series by Ennis and McCrea lasting 61 issues.-Background:Hitman chronicles the exploits of...

(Tommy Monaghan) is a fictional character, a super powered hitman in the DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

Universe. The character was created by Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...

and John McCrea
John McCrea
John McCrea is a comic book artist best known for his collaborations with writer Garth Ennis.-Career:...

and first appeared in The Demon
Demon (disambiguation)
A demon is a malevolent being in mythology or occultism.Demon may also refer to:* Daemon , a spirit in classical Greek mythology* Unclean spirit, the agent of a demonic possession...

Annual No. 2 and then received his own series by Ennis and McCrea lasting 60 issues.
In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American animated film based on the popular Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The film stars the voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Doug Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Tambor, and...

, Sheldon J. Plankton
Plankton (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Sheldon Jim Plankton, Jr., or simply Plankton, is a fictional character on the American television cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Mr. Lawrence. The character is also in video games and other media based on the series...

hires a hitman named Dennis to kill SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants (character)
SpongeBob SquarePants is a main fictional character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Tom Kenny and first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode "Help Wanted" on May 1, 1999. SpongeBob was created and designed by cartoonist Stephen Hillenburg...

and Patrick Star
Patrick Star
Patrick Star is the deuteragonist of the Nickelodeon animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by creator Stephen Hillenburg and voiced by Bill Fagerbakke. Patrick's most significant character trait is his lack of common sense, which sometimes makes him a negative influence on his best...

to stop them from retrieving the crown of King Neptune.

Film

Hitmen have, at times, been a notable part of crime film

Crime film

Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

A rise in such characters began in 1970s due to "mafia films" like The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...

.
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

plays a hitman in the 1972 film The Mechanic.
Henry Silva plays a hitman in the 1981 film Sharky's Machine.
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...

plays a hitman in the 1964 film The Killers
The Killers (1964 film)
The Killers, sometimes marketed as Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, is a 1964 crime film released by Universal Studios. It is the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story of the same name, following a version made in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. It was directed...

.
A notable example from the 1980s is the final scene of Scarface
Scarface (1983 film)
Scarface is a 1983 American epic crime drama movie directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana...

, in which an hit-men squad is sent to kill the protagonist, Tony Montana
Tony Montana
Antonio Raimundo "Tony" Montana is a fictional character from the 1983 film Scarface. He is portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie, and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Tony Montana has become a cultural icon and is one of the most famous movie...

.
One of the two central storylines in the 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crimes and Misdemeanors is a 1989 black comedy written, directed by and co-starring Woody Allen, alongside Martin Landau, Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Orbach, Alan Alda, Sam Waterston and Joanna Gleason....

is about the moral dilemma of a successful ophthalmologist who hires a hitman to kill his mistress because she is threatening to expose his double life.
In the early 1990s, Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...

gained some attention as a hitman in Léon: The Professional
Léon (film)
Léon is a 1994 French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson...

.

The James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

film, The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun (film)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth spy film in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond...

, features Francisco Scaramanga

Francisco Scaramanga

Francisco Scaramanga is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun. The film was so named because it described Scaramanga's possession of a golden gun....

. Scaramanga is a high-priced hit man, supposedly the best in the world, charging one million dollars per kill. He's best known for being "The man with the golden gun", because he only uses bullets made of gold in a fictitious, 4.2 mm cartridge. All of Scaramanga's dealings go through his henchman Nick Nack, which allows Scaramanga to be anonymous.

In the mid-1990s to the 2000s, several "offbeat" portrayals of hitmen arose.

John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

plays a hitman named Martin Blank who attends his high school reunion in the comedy film Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American Black comedy film, directed by George Armitage, and starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver.In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Grosse Pointe Blank the 21st greatest comedy film of all time. The film's soundtrack features mainly independent music hits...

.
Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...

portrayed an African American hitman influenced by Bushidō
Bushido
, meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...

in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 American crime action film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker stars as the title character, the mysterious "Ghost Dog", a hitman in the employ of the Mafia, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto...

. *In addition Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...

, in Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition is a 2002 American crime film directed by Sam Mendes. The screenplay was adapted by David Self, from the graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins. The film stars Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig...

, played a hitman with a strong interest in photography.
Chuck Norris made an appearance in the 1991 movie The Hitman.
Loosely based on actual events, Edward Fox
Edward Fox (actor)
Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...

methodically plans a hit on Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, President of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, in the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal (film)
The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 Anglo-French film, set in August 1963 and based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it stars Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "the Jackal" who is hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.- Synopsis :The film opens...

.
In a similarly named 1997 film, Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...

also portrays an assassin using the codename The Jackal.

In the 2005 black comedy The Matador
The Matador
The Matador is a 2005 American dark comedy film written and directed by Richard Shepard and starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear.As of February 12, 2006, the film grossed a total of $10.5 million in the American box office...

, Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...

portrays the fictional hitman Julian Noble, an experienced hitman who suffers a mental breakdown, causing him to freeze during the last seconds of the job.

Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...

's 2007 movie, Hitman
Hitman (2007 film)
Hitman is a 2007 film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. He is hired by a group, 'The Organization' and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by...

, is based on the eponymous game.
2011's The Mechanic
The Mechanic
The Mechanic is a 1972 American action-thriller film directed by Michael Winner. It stars Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent.The film is noted for its opening...

, starring Jason Statham
Jason Statham
Jason Statham born 12 September1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...

, is the latest film portraying a hitman.
The film Killer Elite staring Jason Statham
Jason Statham
Jason Statham born 12 September1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...

, Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...

and Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

is based on a group of hitmen with Statham and De Niro portraying the main hitmen.

A few portrayals of hitmen have earned nominations or awards.

In 1985, Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...

was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

for playing a hitman named Charley Partanna in Prizzi's Honor
Prizzi's Honor
Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by John Huston. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.The film was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel of the same name...

.
Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem
Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...

played a ruthless assassin in search of a lost cache of money in the Coen Brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...

' 2008 Academy Award-winning film, No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men (film)
No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American crime thriller directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name...

.
In 1994, both John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

and Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...

were both nominated for academy awards for Best actor
Best Actor
Best Actor may refer to:* Academy Award for Best Actor* BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role* Best Actor Award * Empire Award for Best Actor* Empire Award for Best British Actor* Filmfare Best Actor Award...

and Best Actor in a Supporting Role respectivaly for their portrayals of two hitmen in the award winning film Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...

.
In the film Collateral
Collateral (film)
Collateral is a 2004 crime thriller film starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It was directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie. It was Mann's first feature film to be shot mostly with high-definition cameras. Mann had previously used the format for portions of Ali and for his CBS drama...

, actor Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....

takes his turn as a hitman named Vincent who takes a cabbie (Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...

) hostage and is taken to five stops to assassinate five witnesses going to trial for a man who hired Vincent.

In other countries the vision of the hitman is often one of tragic, individual with a solitary existence.

In the 1967 French film, Le Samouraï
Le Samouraï
Le Samouraï is a 1967 French crime film directed by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville, starring Alain Delon.- Plot :The story follows a perfectionist free-agent hitman, Jef Costello , who religiously adheres to a strict code of duty...

, Jef Costello is an example of this.
Furthermore, the film Ghost Dog takes inspiration from it.
In the aforementioned Léon: The Professional his existence outside of hits revolves around his houseplant and watching old films.
In the 1989 film, The Killer, the main character, Ah Jong, attempts to perform one last hit as a means of setting right an injustice that he had previously caused.

Video games

The main character of the video game series Hitman
Hitman (series)
Hitman is a stealth game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. The series is available on PC as well as several video game consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The game series has since expanded into a novel, Hitman: Enemy Within written by...

was genetically engineered by a man called Dr. Ort-Meyer in an insane asylum in Romania. He is known only as Agent 47
Agent 47
Agent 47 is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Hitman video-game series. Created by IO Interactive, the character was developed around David Bateson, who also provided the in-game voice...

. 47 is highly regarded in the criminal underworld, so much so that many consider him to be a myth. The gameplay revolves around infiltrating an area, executing a target (or targets) and escaping without apprehension. Although it isn't compulsory, the Hitman games encourage the player to use stealth and cunning maneuvers to eliminate targets, as opposed to making use of pure firepower. A film adaption
Hitman (2007 film)
Hitman is a 2007 film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. He is hired by a group, 'The Organization' and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by...

which deviated widely from its source material was released in 2007. It was confirmed that a fifth game would be in production.

In some videogames, such as the Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...

series, the main character is given tasks akin to acting as a Hitman. This is most obviously shown in Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

with Niko Bellic
Niko Bellic
Niko Bellic is the main protagonist and playable character in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. He is a 30-year-old former soldier from Eastern Europe who moved to Liberty City to escape his troubled past and pursue the "American Dream"...

, who is frequently hired as a hitman in the game.