Was there a certain character or actor who defined what it meant to be cool to you as a kid? Somebody you looked up to or wanted to be like? For me it was Tommy, the Green/White Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He could fight, he had (in my opinion) the coolest Zords and the best costume, he eventually got to lead the team, and he was romantically involved with the Pink Ranger, a huge crush of mine at the time. All of these things added up to a really cool guy who I wanted to emulate.

That would have been He-Man for me. Though He-Man was not necessarily my favorite character in the show. I really liked Roboto, but he was used very little in the cartoon. 

Garfield. 

Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, and Bruce Lee.

When I was a young kid, it was Peter Pan/Jim Hawkins. I just wanted to hang around pirates. When I was a bit older but still not quite a teenager, it was Indiana Jones. Then I saw the Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name" trilogy and he's been my go-to ever since.

Mr Magic wrote :

As far as real people goes, I would say Clint Eastwood.

When you watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, it always seems like he's so calm, cool, and collected. He always has control over tough situations. The guy is just fearless.

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The last 20 minutes or so of TGTBTU (from the part where The Ecstasy of Gold starts playing to the end credits) is probably my favorite sequence in any movie, ever. Everything that happened previously leads up to the climactic standoff, but Sergio Leone still manages to sneak in some humor. And the music? Perfection.