why should it be 'cheesy' to see your dad as a great guy ? my old man really was the greatest - he fought everything to survive and bring us up with honest values - he is my all-time hero, I just wish I had respected him more when he was alive and told him how special he was....why is it we only learn things when it's too late ?

a great list and the great horologist Breguet is in good company where he's laid to rest at Père Lachaise in Paris - I visited the cemetary to see one of my musical 'heros' Jim Morrison only to find it guarded 24 hours a day against vandals ! other notable neighbours in the cemetary of Messers Morrison & Breguet include - Chopin, Bizet, Yves Montand,
Pissarro,Honoré de Balzac, Maria Callas, Sarah Bernhardt, Ferdinand de Lesseps (Suez Canal), Stephane Grappelli, Laurent Fignon (cyclist), Edith Piaf, Paul Dukas (Sorcerers Apprentice etc) and Oscar Wilde !!! and thousands of others...a few 'heros' there don't yout think ?
is this THE most celebrated cemetary in the world ? probably not in the Paris tourist guide but well worth a days viewing with some decent watering holes not too far away...

To reiterate. This thread is NOT going to include further examples of proselytising and kindergarten theology, or arguments against them.

Good. Now back to 'heroes'.

My hero right now is Sir Ranulph Fiennes

When i was a child...soppy but true, My Grandad the only person who was always there for me through thick and thin, watched and supported me in every sport i did be it schools teams or outside.

certainly hope not...

maybe KS has RL 'heroes', depending on his/her era so, someone like the great John Holmes maybe ? or Lewis Jones, Syd Hynes, Barrie Mcdermott or Sinfield and other greats ?

just to name a few, however much it hurts to admit it.....

The "Little Rock Nine" Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford , Jefferson Thomas,Terrence Roberts ,Carlotta Walls LaNier ,Minnijean Brown ,Gloria Ray Karlmark ,Thelma Mothershed , Melba Pattillo Beals

These people who were 15/16 year olds at the time, exhibited immeasurable courage , "hero" is barely adequate.

If we are naming 'RL Heroes' then there is no doubt about the current captain's position. Or Adamson '03.

Matt Adamson was just a big daft lad, really nice bloke to be in the company of but totally obsessed with RL to the extent that he could barely speak of anything else, I played a round of golf with him once and while he was a lovely bloke and the perfect athlete I did get bored with aussie/fake-american college-boy fooling around attitude, he's probably grown up a bit now.

And THAT is probably where some posters are coming from when they mention that they've been let down in later years by their heroes, sportsmen/women in particular tend to be very one dimensional as people, they have to be to succeed in their chosen sport because for all the talk of teamwork they are competing to the death for their jobs every time they step onto the field, it makes them focused to a depth that us mere mortals can't comprehend.

I didn't know much about Shakleton until I saw the Kenneth Branagh dramatisation a few years back, a truly astounding and inspirational story. I've just read the book "South" during my summer holiday how they all survived (from the Endurance crew) is amazing.

As a kid I was fascinated by Scott's Antarctic mission and I used read the Penguin book on a regular basis at school. I was always hoping it would end differently.

In most cases, we shouldn't meet our heroes, because then they revert to being mere mortals. Let them remain the immortal superhero of our imagination, when they are doing what they do at the peak of their powers. I know Neil Armstrong scratched his arrse, sat on the bog, queued for petrol, and went shopping for groceries in Walmart but it isn't how or why I want to remember him.

New one!

Just saw an exhibition of a particular period of the work of Cubist Léopold Survage yesterday. Fascinating stuff.

Actually, should also have mentioned LS Lowry. And probably Max Beckmann. And Fritz Lang and Werner Herzog. And I need a slap on the wrist for forgetting Édith Piaf earlier!

And I haven't even touched on the likes of Patrick Stewart and Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and the late, great Robert Stephens, and Lionel Bart ...