| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger to host heroes and villains special
Monday April 14, 2003LOS ANGELES (AP) Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has played robots both killer and kindly, has agreed to host an upcoming TV special about the top 100 heroes and villains of the screen.
An American Film Institute poll asked voters to choose among 400 nominated characters from American film history and decide which should be considered wicked or virtuous.
Schwarzenegger's T-800 killer robot is nominated twice, once for the attacking character he played in 1984's original ``The Terminator,'' and again for 1991's ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day,'' in which the android he played was a protector.
The show is scheduled for June 3 on CBS and will feature interviews with actors including Kirk Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper and Christopher Reeve.
AFI has sent ballots to nearly 1,500 directors, actors, studio executives, critics and others involved in the entertainment industry.
Some characters are nominated en masse, such as the zombies from 1968's ``Night of the Living Dead'' and ``The Wild Bunch'' cowboys from director Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western.
Previous AFI lists included the 100 best American films, led by ``Citizen Kane'' and the 100 funniest movies, with ``Some Like It Hot'' at No. 1.
Jean Picker Firstenberg, the institute's director, said the contests are designed to ``excite Americans to see movies they haven't seen for a while or see movies they've never seen.''
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