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->''"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."''
-->--'''Literature/PhilipMarlowe''', ''Farewell My Lovely''

A tough, [[DeadpanSnarker cynical]] guy with a gun and a lot of {{Street Smart}}s, who solves mysteries with [[{{Determinator}} dogged persistence]] rather than astounding insight, the Hardboiled Detective was America's DarkerAndEdgier response to the classic ideal of the GreatDetective.

The hardboiled detective is generally a KnightInSourArmor or even an AntiHero who lives in a world of BlackAndGreyMorality. He's a PrivateDetective or AmateurSleuth--usually the former. His services are required because PoliceAreUseless, so he'll never be a cop, though he may be a [[RetiredBadass retired]] one. Expect him to keep a [[INeedAFreakingDrink bottle of scotch]] in his desk, which is probably located in an office in the [[TheCityNarrows low rent district]]. Recent depictions typically include the trademark [[BadassLongcoat trenchcoat]] and [[NiceHat fedora]] made popular by HumphreyBogart.


Originating in the early part of the twentieth century, hardboiled detective stories quickly became a major subgenre of MysteryFiction. Later, they became strongly associated with FilmNoir. Creator/RaymondChandler is considered the master of the genre, but it was HumphreyBogart's depiction of detective Sam Spade in the 1941 film, ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' (based on a novel by Creator/DashiellHammett), that became the TropeCodifier.

By the [[TheSixties 1960s]], the hardboiled detective had nearly become a DeadHorseTrope, but continuing interest in FilmNoir kept it from the brink of extinction. Today it is most often seen in parodies and [[FantasticNoir genre crossovers]] (the Hardboiled Detective [[RecycledInSpace In SPACE!!]]), but can still be played straight in Noir revival or homage. The style, language and fashion of the hard-boiled detective tends to remain solidly anchored in the [[TheThirties 1930s]] and [[TheForties 1940s]], though, no matter where he appears. Expect him to call his gun a "gat", to refer to women as "dames" and their legs as "gams".

See also: PrivateDetective, AmateurSleuth, FilmNoir and FantasticNoir. Contrast with GreatDetective, KidDetective, and LittleOldLadyInvestigates. If the character simply provides first-person narration the way detectives in FilmNoir often do, that's PrivateEyeMonologue.
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!!Examples

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Gai Kurasawa, a minor character in ''DarkerThanBlack'' is an affectionate parody of the hardboiled detective.
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[[folder:Audio Play]]
* In Creator/TheFiresignTheater's "AudioPlay/TheFurtherAdventuresOfNickDanger", from the album, ''How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?'', the character Nick Danger, Third Eye is a surrealist take on the trope.
* Decoder Ring Theatre's ''Podcast/BlackJackJustice'' follows the adventures of two hardboiled detectives, occasionally switching between their often-conflicting narratives.
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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Hannibal King from MarvelComics is a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampiric]] hardboiled detective.
* Rorschach from ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' has some elements that seem like a shout-out to the trope, including the trenchcoat and fedora and the PrivateEyeMonologue (which is actually excerpts from his journal).
* Dr. Occult from TheDCU is a hardboiled OccultDetective.
* From the {{Batman}} universe, Harvey Bullock is usually one of these. As was late 1980s supporting character Joe Potato.
* The nameless protagonist of ''Potter's Field'' by MarkWaid is another.
* ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} is an otherworldly version of the noir classic model, a heavy-drinking, chain-smoking, cynical demon with BadassLongcoat who sticks his nose where it doesn't belong, takes a beating, etc. etc. He's often referred to as "The World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator".
* The DC comic character ''MsTree'', created by Max Allan Collins, is a relatively rare female hardboiled detective.
* Steve Ditko loved Hardboiled Detectives, and his two (very similar) characters MrA and TheQuestion are objectivist takes on the Trope.
* The title character of the Spanish comic ''{{Blacksad}}'' is a hardboiled detective in the 1950s -- and a cat.
* Nightbeat from ''Comicbook/TheTransformers'', ''TransformersClassics'', and IDW's "-ations" is a HumongousMecha homage to the genre, up to and including sporting a [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:MarvelUK-230.jpg fedora and trenchcoat]] and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bird_of_Prey! "Bird of Prey!"]] in particular being almost a retelling of ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''. Whether he's an AmateurSleuth, a "consulting detective" for the Autobots, or a PrivateDetective varies depending on the continuity, but he always has the same general hardboiled, noir-ish personality.
* The two ''NathanielDusk'' mini-series from DCComics in the mid 1980s were a loving homage to the genre.
* The titular character from ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'s'' short lived gamebook/comic hybrid ''Diceman'', Rick Fortune was a variation on this trope, being a hard boiled ''psychic'' investigator with a pair of magical dice that could summon a demon amongst other powers.
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[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' features HumphreyBogart as Sam Spade, one of the most iconic hardboiled detectives of all time, seeking revenge for the death of his partner and hunting for a [[MacGuffin missing statuette]].
* ''Film/TheBigSleep'' features Bogart again as detective Philip Marlowe, probably the second best known example.
* Another HumphreyBogart example is ''Film/TheEnforcer'', where Bogie plays a hardboiled district attorney chasing gangsters. As a lawyer, he's more the AmateurSleuth version in this one.
* A lesser known example would be the Bogart film ''Film/DeadReckoning''. He's actually an army man, so it's again more of an AmateurSleuth type, but Bogart had a cool PrivateEyeMonologue, which he didn't have in the more iconic Bogart films.
* ''Out of the Past'' is a classic FilmNoir starring Robert Mitchum as a hardboiled detective trying to escape his past (no spoiler to say [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin he's unsuccessful]]).
* Jake Gittes in RomanPolanski's ''{{Chinatown}}'' is an homage to the archetype.
* Parodied with hapless detective Rigby Reardon in the SteveMartin film, ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'', which features lots of actual footage from classic FilmNoir to add to the atmosphere.
* ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'': "The Detective's Story" stars a hardboiled detective.
* Eddie Valiant, the protagonist of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', which used appropriately parodic FilmNoir atmospheric touches.
* Creator/HPLovecraft in ''Film/CastADeadlySpell'' is an OccultDetective who is also a perfect example of a Chandlerian detective.
* Hoyle from the surreal and cerebral Noir/SF crossover ''Film/YesterdayWasALie'' is a distaff version, with fedora, trenchcoat and all, trying to find a missing scientist.
* Louis Simo from ''Film/{{Hollywoodland}}'' is a deconstruction loosely based on a real detective, Milo Speriglio.
* The 1971 film ''Gumshoe'', starring Albert Finney, features a London man who decides to adopt a Sam Spade-like persona to escape his boring life, and quickly becomes embroiled in a plot involving drugs, gun smuggling, and gangsters.
* Deckard (Creator/HarrisonFord) from ''Film/BladeRunner'' is more of a deconstruction, being an Antihero with [[DefectiveDetective some serious psychological conflicts]].
* Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) in ''MurderByDeath'' is a parody.
* Brendan Frye of ''{{Film/Brick}}'' is this despite only being in high school.

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[[folder:Literature]]

* Creator/RaymondChandler's Literature/PhilipMarlowe, protagonist of ''Literature/TheBigSleep'', ''Farewell, My Lovely'', and other novels, is an iconic and much-copied example. Even the introduction to Marlowe in recent prints sums this trope up pretty well:
-->''I'm a licensed private investigator and have been a while. I'm a lone wolf, unmarried, getting middle aged, and not rich. I've been in jail more than once and don't do divorce business. I like liquor and women and chess and a few other things. The cops don't like me too well, but I know a couple I get along with. I'm a native son, born in Santa Rosa, both parents dead, no brothers and sisters, and when I get knocked off in a dark alley sometime, if it happens, at it could to anyone in my business, nobody will feel the bottom has dropped out his or her life.''
* Creator/DashiellHammett has several, most notably, Sam Spade in ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon'', as well as the recurring, nameless character called "Literature/TheContinentalOp", as seen in ''Literature/RedHarvest''.
* Carroll John Daly's "Three Gun" Terry Mack is possibly the UrExample of this trope, predating Hammett's Continental Op by several months. Daly's Race Williams is also an example.
* Rex Stout:
** Archie Goodwin, in the NeroWolfe series, was a partial deconstruction. Created during the trope's peak years, Goodwin had many of the classic elements, but he worked for Wolfe, the fat, home-bound GreatDetective. Archie did all the footwork and fighting, but tended to avoid the cynicism and world-weariness of the true hardboiled detective.
** Stout had another, much smaller and less popular series starring Tecumseh Fox, who was much more the straight hard-boiled type.
* Mickey Spillane's ''MikeHammer'' was an early, over-the-top, ultraviolent, KnightTemplar example who is often credited with helping turn the genre into a parody of itself.
* ''Literature/GarrettPI'' is the Hardboiled Detective [[RecycledInSpace recycled in]] a StandardFantasySetting.
* NeilGaiman wrote some short stories featuring LawrenceTalbot, the Wolfman, as a hardboiled private investigator. "Only the End of the World Again" is one.
* The ''Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco'' series starts out as the hardboiled detective [[RecycledInSpace Recycled In]] AncientRome (though he mellows as the series goes on). Living centuries before Noir was invented makes him amusingly GenreBlind.
* Harry Dresden from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is part this, part SherlockHolmes (showing surprising deductive skills on occasion, to nigh SherlockScan levels), part [[LordOfTheRings Gandalf]]. With emphasis on the world weariness by around book 3. The snark continues unabated.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Vincent Rubio in ''Literature/AnonymousRex''. He's a detective -- and a velociraptor! He claims he's not ''really'' hard-boiled, but he acts like he is because that's what the customers expect. He even uses the "[[HumphreyBogart Bogart]]" persona to pick up female dinos.
* Sara Paretsky's VIWarshawski is a distaff version of the (usually) male hardboiled detective.
* Lazlo Woodbine, from the FarFetchedFiction of RobertRankin, is a blatant parody. He insists on using the first person, getting knocked unconscious at his first appearance and can only appear in four scenes (his office, a bar, an alleyway and a rooftop). Considering the outlandish nature of his books, often involving things such as [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] Elvis doing battle with EldritchAbominations out to unmake existence, this makes things awkward.
* Eddie Valiant from ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' is an homage.
* Conrad Metcalf, the protagonist of Creator/JonathanLethem's ''Gun, With Occasional Music''. is a hard-boiled detective in a world that doesn't really have a use for them anymore.
* Kinsey Milhone from Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Mysteries" is another example of a female hard-boiled detective.
* Rosie Lavine from Creator/MelisaMichaels' ''Cold Iron'' and ''Sister to the Rain'' is a Chandleresque hardboiled detective RecycledIn UrbanFantasy. (Though she prefers gin to scotch.)
* Patrick Kenzie from the ''Literature/KenzieAndGennaroSeries'' is an updated version set in Boston; a sort of homage to the classics, with all the style, but without many of the stereotypes found in parodies.
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[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The 1980s TV adaption of ''MikeHammer'' is either a straight example or a parody, depending on who you ask.
* ''Series/SpenserForHire'' was a rarity; a Hardboiled Detective with an even harder-boiled partner.
* Michael Garibaldi of ''Series/BabylonFive'' has flashes of this from time to time. Picked up, bizarrely enough, by G'Kar of all people.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Dixon Hill is a hardboiled detective holodeck character that Captain Picard is fond of playing.
* Parodied in the Creator/PBSKids' show, ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', which had a recurring skit featuring "Sam Spud, [[IncrediblyLamePun parboiled potato]] detective".
* ''TheElectricCompany'''s [[PunnyName Fargo North, Decoder]] was as hard boiled as a kid's show could show.
* In a StorybookEpisode of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', Walter casts Olivia as this.
* ''KamenRiderDouble'' uses this concept as its main motif.
** Protagonist Shotaro Hidari very much wants to be hard-boiled but is too emotional, leading his friends to dub him "half-boiled"; eventually he realizes that [[TheHeart this is a strength]]. Each two-episode StoryArc [[BookEnds begins and ends]] with him doing a PrivateEyeMonologue, and the second half starts with [[StringTheory a corkboard diagram showing the character relationships]].
** His [[MentorOccupationalHazard late mentor]] Sokichi "Boss" Narumi, on the other hand, had [[EnsembleDarkhorse much more]] [[MemeticBadass success]] modeling himself on the Chandler-esque ideal of manliness. Chandler is name-dropped in TheMovie, and Sokichi named the young man who would become Shotaro's partner after Literature/PhilipMarlowe.
** Ryu Terui, although a police detective rather than a private eye, comes rather closer to the trope than Shotaro, with comparison explicitly drawn to his being the kind of person Shotaro aspires to be.
* ''MagnumPI'' has the [[PrivateEyeMonologue voice over]] and cynicism, but wears loud hawaiian shirts instead of a trenchcoat.
* ''RichardDiamondPrivateDetective''
* In the noir-esque South African Sci-Fi thriller, ''Series/CharlieJade'', Charlie is an homage to the older Chandler/Hammett style of hardboiled detective. He even sports the classic trenchcoat (though no fedora), and uses the PrivateEyeMonologue.
* ''PeterGunn'' made from 1958-60, was a Hardboiled Detective with a [[TheFifties 50s]] Jazz cool to him.
* The main cast from the supernatural neo-noir series ''Series/{{Angel}}'' act as a general deconstruction of the trope, although play some parts to a T.
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[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Calvin's imaginary alter-ego, Tracer Bullet, is a pure parody of the hardboiled detective.
-->"I have two magnums in my desk. One is a gun, and I keep it loaded. One is a bottle, and it keeps me loaded. My name is Tracer Bullet. I'm a professional snoop."
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[[folder:Radio]]
* On ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'', the character of Guy Noir is a parodic example.
* [[RadioDrama The Golden Age of Radio]] had dozens of hardboiled detective series, including
** Sam Spade
** Phillip Marlowe
** Pat Novak
** Jeff Regan
** Harry Lime
** Box 13
** Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
** Richard Diamond
** Bold Venture
** Big Town
** Michael Shayne
** Nightbeat
** That Hammer Guy
** Rogue's Gallery
** The Falcon
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[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Detective Bogart in Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG.
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[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* A ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' scenario included "Artie Gumshoe - Tough Private Investigator" as a pregenerated character, packing a .45 Automatic and with an illustration showing him with a cigarette wearing a fedora and trench coat, inviting him to be played like this trope.
* Joe Diamond in ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror''. He was even given this assignment by a [[FilmNoir classic]] [[FemmeFatale dame]].
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In addition to the NeilGaiman example above, LawrenceTalbot also headined a short-lived webcomic in this vein, complete with trenchcoat, fedora, and PrivateEyeMonologue.
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', where the main characters think they are this, and occasionally do things like practice their hardboiled monologues or are drawn in {{Chiaroscuro}}. From the reader's perspective, they act more like unspeakably, unspeakably silly EasternRPG characters.
* ''MuktukWolfsbreathHardBoiledShaman'' is based on "the realization that shamans were kind of like detectives".
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* Richmond from ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'' is an homage to the classic noir version.
* Tex Murphy from the ''VideoGame/TexMurphy''/''Mean Streets'' series of noir/thriller video games is an AffectionateParody of the genre.
* Scott Shelby from the game ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' is an aging, asthmatic retired-cop-turned-PI who's on the edge of hardboiled. (Softboiled?)'
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' Tyrell Badd's appearance and demeanor are intended to evoke the hardboiled detective image. He has a bullethole-riddled trenchcoat, PermaStubble, a gruff and cynical attitude, and his color scheme is DeliberatelyMonochrome. However, he works for the actual police [[spoiler: when he's not moonlighting as a PhantomThief.]]
* Lewton in ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'' both embodies and parodies this trope, due to the Disc's TheoryOfNarrativeCausality; he doesn't know why being a private investigator means he has to wear a trenchcoat and fedora, but he's quite sure it does.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' in ''Where's Wanda''; Timmy wishes to become such a detective after the disappearance of Wanda, and ends up spoofing Sam Spade and Rick Blaine.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Hank gets a fedora and affects a classic hardboiled detective personality whenever he's wearing it. It gets him laid for the first time.
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