Actually, some well-known cartoon characters were inspired by real people. Take Popeye. The spinach-munching-fist-fighting-sailor man from our childhood is no doubt an ever-famous cartoon character, but he was based on someone from Chester, Illinois (the creator's hometown). Frank “Rocky” Fiegel, a small and wiry, but tough guy. Fiegel smoked a pipe, was toothless, and participated in many fights, just like the character. It is said that he'd been kind to children, although died childlessly and was buried in a lot that's marked by an engraving of the iconic character on the headstone.

Also, most of us are definitely familiar with the near-sighted, gullible and socially-awkward Milhouse Van Houten from The Simpsons. Although Bart's friend was named after US President Nixon (whose middle name was Milhous), the boy's character was based on Josh Saviano's Paul Pfeiffer, whom the show creators aimed to caricature. And dare I say, they did quite a nice job!

So who knows, maybe some of the people in this list really have inspired our beloved cartoon characters. After all, the number of celebrities is finite.