Holly Golightly, James Bond and Michael Corleone top movie icons list

Actress Audrey Hepburn poses as Holly Golightly in the 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's"(AP)

Holly Golightly, the Breakfast at Tiffany's character played by Audrey Hepburn, came out top in a poll of UK cinema audiences' favourite movie icons of all time.

The top 20 list includes the action heroes, villains and good guys who left an unforgettable impression on generations of cinemagoers.

The poll was conducted for the Film Distributors' Association (FDA) by Show Film First Ltd which asked movie fans to nominate the characters they felt had come to personify essential qualities of the cinema itself.

Here is the full chart:

1 Holly Golightly as played by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
2 James Bond 007 in the series of 23 films from Dr No (1962) to date
3 Michael Corleone as played by Al Pacino in The Godfather trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990)
4 Hannibal Lecter as played by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and subsequent films
5 Captain Jack Sparrow as played by Johnny Depp in The Pirates of the Caribbean films from 2003
6 Darth Vader in the Star Wars episodes (from 1977)
7 Tony Montana as played by Al Pacino in Scarface (1983)
8 The Joker as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008)
9 Forrest Gump as played by Tom Hanks (1994)
10 Rick Blaine as played by Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
11 Sugar Kane as played by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959)
12 The Terminator as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (from 1984)
13 Indiana Jones as played by Harrison Ford (from 1981)
14 RP McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
15 George Bailey as played by James Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
16 Don Vito Corleone as played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972)
17 The Man With No Name as played by Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
18 John McClane as played by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series (from 1988)
19 'Red' Redding as played by Martin Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
20 Johnny Castle as played by Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (1987)