<P> Atticus Finch is a fictional character in author Harper Lee 's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1960 , To Kill a Mockingbird . A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel Go Set a Watchman , written in the mid 1950s but not published until 2015 . Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County , Alabama , and the father of Jeremy `` Jem '' Finch and Jean Louise `` Scout '' Finch. Lee based the character on her own father , Amasa Coleman Lee , an Alabama lawyer , who , like Atticus , represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial . Book Magazine 's list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the seventh best fictional character of 20th - century literature . In 2003 the American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch , as portrayed in an Academy Award - winning performance by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation , as the greatest hero of all American cinema . </P>
<P> Atticus Finch is a fictional character in author Harper Lee 's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1960 , To Kill a Mockingbird . A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel Go Set a Watchman , written in the mid 1950s but not published until 2015 . Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County , Alabama , and the father of Jeremy `` Jem '' Finch and Jean Louise `` Scout '' Finch. Lee based the character on her own father , Amasa Coleman Lee , an Alabama lawyer , who , like Atticus , represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial . Book Magazine 's list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the seventh best fictional character of 20th - century literature . In 2003 the American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch , as portrayed in an Academy Award - winning performance by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation , as the greatest hero of all American cinema . </P>
what is atticus in to kill a mockingbird
what is atticus in to kill a mockingbird
lawyer represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial
lawyer represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial