Name at birth: Clark Savage, Jr.

Doc Savage first appeared in 1933, his adventure stories told every month in a magazine. Handsome, tall and tanned -- he was nicknamed the Man of Bronze -- Savage was also a brilliant surgeon with limitless wealth who had a thing about fighting crime and dispensing justice. His main office was in New York's Empire State Building, though he would periodically retreat to his hidden "Fortress of Solitude" to chill out and get even stronger and smarter. He was assisted by five brilliant pals and a female cousin, and they appeared in Doc Savage Magazine until 1949. The stories were redistributed as novels starting in 1964, with the last one published in 1990. In 1975 there was a movie version starring Ron Ely (of TV's Tarzan), and in 1999 rumors circulated that another film version was in the works.