Red-Headed Hero - Television Tropes & Idioms

Three guesses who has to save the day. The first two don't count.

Some Heroes Want Redheads. Some heroes are redheads.

Considering that of all hair, red is the least common color, it isn't surprising that it is shown when writers want someone to stand out, at least in shows that don't give random extras blue and green hair.

One distinction between red-haired heroes and villainous redheads is that where heroes tend to have bright-colored hair (almost reddish-blond), villains have darker-colored, almost brownish hair. Red is second only to blonde hair for a hero (see Law of Chromatic Superiority).

Frequently, they'll have a fiery personality to go with their hair.

Contrast Evil Redhead, Red-Headed Stepchild.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Shirou from Kazuma Kodaka's Midare Somenishi.
Kyo Sohma, one of two main male leads of Fruits Basket, certainly has the Fiery Redhead part down, as well as being somewhat of a Redheaded Stepchild.
The Japanese definitely like using redheads and the color red in general. Take the Mobile Suit Gundam series, for example: Amuro Ray is a redhead, while Char pilots red mecha (that are three times faster).
Star Driver plays this straight with Tsunashi Takuto.
In One Piece, although a pirate, Red Haired Shanks is Luffy's childhood hero. Also Nami, the resident hot-headed redhead of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Shana in Shakugan no Shana. Although, when in her "human" form she has normal black hair, when she turns into a Flame Haze her picture could be the title image for this trope. It's not just red, it glows and flame-like embers come off of her hair. Did we mention that it glows?
Kenshin Himura.
Ichigo from Bleach, though it's closer to orange. Arguably Orihime as well, considering Ichigo himself once stated her hair to be brown at the beginning, while official colour images have her hair pretty much the same colour as his. This is a case of Hair Color Dissonance, as officially Orihime's hair is brown, whereas Ichigo's orange hair is an actual plot point, and the reason he's such a Jerkass / good student. Renji's is a shade of dark red not generally found in nature.
Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime only; in the manga, she has strawberry blond hair).
Possibly Tres Iqus from Trinity Blood. His hair is actually towards the brown end of the red head spectrum, but most fans consider him to be a redhead and refer to him as such. He's also not the main character, although he is very awesome. Esther Blanchett is the heroine of the series (and a world famous hero as the Lady-Saint in her own canon), she's also a redhead. Her predecessor, Lilith Sahl, the Night Saint, was a redhead too.
Subverted with Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk, who dyes his hair red.
Gene Starwind from Outlaw Star.
Yoko of The Twelve Kingdoms.
Hikaru Shidou in Magic Knight Rayearth.
Mai Tokiha from Mai-HiME has orange reddish hair. Her mischievous opposite, Nao Yuuki, has bright crimson hair.
Half of the time, the hero is a redhead in Ranma ½. And everybody wants her, unless they want him.
The Slayers neatly reverses the gender on this by having the protagonist Lina be a spunky redhead and her love interest Gourry be the dumb as a post and blonde to boot.
While Kinomoto Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura) is mostly considered a brunette in the anime, she is more of a redhead in the few colour pictures of her in the manga. Same goes for her princess alter ego in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, but she goes under Heroes Want Redheads.
Momomiya Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew twists this: her human form has red hair, but post-Transformation Sequence, when she's actually doing heroic things instead of complaining, her hair is pink.
Motomiya Daisuke from Digimon Adventure 02.
Ruki from Digimon Tamers.
Interesting fact about "Digimon": The more Hot Blooded a group leader is, the redder their hair is. Taichi was somewhat hotheaded but had a fairly balanced temperment so he has brown hair with a slight red tint though it's practically not noticible. Daisuke was very Hot Blooded and has reddish-brown hair. Takato is the calmest Digimon leader and has straight brown. Takuya resumes the Hot Blooded pattern and has brown that leans toward reddish-brown. Masuru is the worst of the lot and is as close to Red Hair as you can get and still technically be brunette.
Himeno Awayuki from Prétear, nicknamed "Tulip Head" by Hayate (though he stops calling her this after a while).
Ahiru from Princess Tutu—which, incidentally, has the same director as Prétear.
Negi Springfield and his partner Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima!. His father Nagi was one too.
Hot Blooded Kallen Kouzuki, Lelouch Lamperouge's Lancer and bodyguard from Code Geass.
Lavi and General Cross (although Allen might choke on 'hero" for that one) from D. Gray-Man.
Tooya from Ayashi No Ceres, called "Tamahome with hair dye and contact lenses."
Guy Shishioh from GaoGaiGar has reddish-orange hair, it's his cousin Renais Kerdif-Shishioh in FINAL who takes this trope all the way.
- Hell even Genesic has ORANGE HAIR!
  - It's really a set of power batteries.
- Cyborg Guy's hair isn't natural. In flashbacks to before the accident, and after he becomes an Evoluder, his hair is a pretty normal brown. Mikoto, on the other hand...
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Vita and Teana have red hair. Nanoha herself has reddish-brown hair.
Saiyuki has both a hero with bright red hair, Sha Gojyo, and a villain with dark red hair, Kougaiji. This is pointed out when Gojyo's older brother, Dokugakuji, admits that one of the reasons he started working for Kougaiji was because he reminded him of Gojyo. This may actually be playing with the trope a little, since much of the time Punch Clock Villain Kougaiji behaves more like a classical hero than the protagonists.
Daisuke from D.N.Angel, though he lacks the stereotypical temperament (he's very calm most of the time).
In the Sailor Moon manga, Sailor Mars has red hair in many colored images. Sailors ChibiChibi, Kakyuu, and Vesta have red hair as well. Sailors Moon, ChibiMoon, Ceres, Lethe and Mnemosyne all have pink hair at some point and all are eventually good guys.
Yu Yu Hakusho has got two red heads on the Five-Man Band: Kuwabara and Kurama. Kuwabara's hair is sort of a reddish-blond while Kurama's is dark crimson; though Kurama's hair does change color when he assumes his true form.
Tsubomi Hanasaki from Heartcatch Pretty Cure has literal red hair, which contrasts with her Innocent Flower Girl nature. It turns pink as Cure Blossom, though.
Juliet of Romeo X Juliet is a redhead. Red seems to be the theme color for the Capulets, with the Montagues being blue.
Luna, in Mujin Wakusei Survive.
Shirayuki, in Akagami No Shirayukihime. Invoked Trope here, as the author wanted to write a story loosely based on Snow White, with the titular heroine being red-haired. In this manga's universe, this hair color is very rare, making the heroine sought after by various ill-minded people.
Fairy Tail has two redheads in the Five-Man Band
Lieutenant Kate Curtis, the titular red-headed protagonist of the hentai Bondage Queen Kate.
Yoko Littner from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
While Sae from Magic User's Club has a long, winding, pitfall-ridden road to get to the point where she is worthy of the "hero" part of this trope, her dedication and belief in her companions pays off in the end when she frees the world from alien control by turning The Bell into a giant tree. While not the protagonist, resident bishonen Aburatsubo also qualifies as one of the most competent members of the magic user's club who often saves the day when the group gets in trouble.
Anne, the spy and protagonist of the hentai Spy of Darkness.
Naruto's Haruno Sakura. Sure her hair color is pink, but it still counts as a shade of red.
- There's also Gaara (after his Heel Face Turn). And while Naruto might not be a redhead, his mum Kushina definitely was.
Ryoko Mitsurugi from Real Bout High School plays this very straight.
Sun Otonashi who is also (although snarky) The Messiah.
Ibara from Hana No Kishi.
Princess Nakaba from Reimei No Arcana.
Ayano Kannagi from Kaze no Stigma.
Yumeji and Merry from Yumekui Merry both have shades of this.
Played with in the movie Sword Of The Stranger, as No Name has red hair, though we only ever see it once, briefly, because he dyes it black to make himself less conspicuous.

Comic Books

Red Sonja.
Brenda Starr, from the film and comic book of the same name.
Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, Wolfsbane, Shatterstar, Banshee and Siryn of the X-Men.
Wally West (the third Flash). When he was running around with an open-topped cowl as Kid Flash, he dyed his hair brown (at super-speed), because, for once, red hair was acknowledged as being unusual.
- The Tornado Twins, children of the second Flash.
- The second Impulse, Iris West, daughter to the third Flash, Wally West.
- Apparently DC's colorists have taken to turning Bart Allen's hair color into a reddish-brown color in later issues; it's a flat-out flame-red in some appearances, where initially it was a chocolate-brown shade. Getting lighter with age, maybe?
Rorschach of Watchmen, although he's more of an anti-hero.
Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil. Former Daredevil villain Typhoid Mary also has red hair. As per the trope, she's drawn with significantly brighter hair after making a Heel Face Turn.
Lightning Lad/Live Wire and Lightning Lass/Spark/Light Lass, twins from The Legion Of Superheroes.
Mariah from The Warlord.
If that Gen13 one-off counts, The Authority's Midnighter - though you wouldn't know it, as (on the rare occasions he's seen without his mask), every artist gives him a different colour. Word Of God says he just likes to dye it.
- Caitlin Fairchild of Gen13 is a more consistent example of this, as well as being the resident Green Eyed Redhead.
Jason Blood, human anchor for Etrigan the Demon, red with a white streak.
- Also, for some reason, Jim Corrigan, the Golden Age host of The Spectre.
Cyclone, one of the newest members of the Justice Society of America, and granddaughter of the Golden Age Red Tornado.
- Al Pratt, the Golden Age Atom, was Cagneyesque not only in his short stocky build, but also in his ginger hair.
Though counter intelligence specialist Scarlett is the most well-known, G.I. Joe has never been short on redheads. Examples include Flash, Ace, Wild Bill, Thunder, Deep-Six, Cover Girl, Dusty, Blow Torch, Ripcord, Barbecue, Crankcase, Taurus, Steam-Roller, Cross-Country, Knockdown, Outback, Charbroil, Long Range (the original) and Big Bear. Amusingly, this list includes two out of three G.I. Joe flame weapons specialists and the G.I. Joe firefighter. Odds are good that late-run flamethrower Ice Cream Soldier is also redheaded beneath his masked helmet.
Finny, the Irish co-protagonist in Sinister Dexter. Well, anti-hero.
Vic Sage as The Question, although the special gas he uses to change the colour of his clothes and make his mask stick to his face properly also darkens his hair.
Kate Kane, the modern age Batwoman.
- Also, Barbara Gordon, formerly Oracle, and currently Batgirl.
Link and Zelda in the comic book adaptation of The Legend of Zelda's first two games.
Roy Harper the first Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow.
Guy Gardner: Green Lantern and all around badass ginger.
X-Men villain and Trope Codifier of The Juggernaut, Cain Marko has had a few moments in which he was a hero. He has bright red hair.
Chassis

Fan Fics

Chloe in Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy has literal red hair in civilian form. Hanae is a more believable redhead (having orange hair), but gains literal red hair as well when turned into Cure Tangerine. However, both subvert the Fiery Redhead trope when it comes to personality, as Chloe is described as being a gentle and kind-hearted girl, while Hanae is just a Shrinking Orange. The fiery one of the team happens to be purple-haired Ayameko.
In the LXG parody Just the Best Mary Sue Ever!, the main character, Fellauroralisterinavetta Aanjulle O'Bamfwryter, has spectacularly glossy hair that looks like a halo of copper-colored worms.

Film

Thor And The Amazon Women
BG in The Goddess of 1967
Red Sonja.
Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in the film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The invisible thief Rodney Skinner, though never seen for obvious reasons, was also played by a red-haired actor, leading one to presume that the character was likewise redheaded when visible.
Natasha Romanoff (AKA Black Widow) in Iron Man 2.
Danielle the archer, in The Flight of Dragons.
The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the protagonist of How to Train Your Dragon, has auburn hair.
Danny from Cats Don't Dance.
The title character of Anastasia.
Disney likes redheaded heroes:
- The Disney adaptation of Peter Pan has Peter being a redhead.
- Taran from The Black Cauldron has auburn hair.
- Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas is a subversion of the "heroes-have-bright-red-hair-while-villains-have-dark-hair," as her yarn-like hair is more towards chestnut. Not surprising, though, considering where she lives.
- The Little Mermaid herself has deep red hair.
- The Beast, from Beauty and the Beast, turns into a red-haired Prince.
- Simba and Mufasa from The Lion King, have red manes.
- Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame has red hair as well.
- Hercules has red hair.
- Giselle from Enchanted.
- Princess Mérida from Pixar's Brave.
All of John Wayne's characters (due to the fact that Wayne himself was a redhead in Real Life). Also true with Chuck Norris!!!
Run Lola Run: Lola's hair is fiery red.

French Belgian Comic Books

Spirou from Spirou and Fantasio.
Obelix from Astérix.
Tintin was sometimes represented as a redhead (when he wasn't blonde or light chestnut).
- The animated series decided on an orangey hair color, as did the 2011 CGI film (Haddock even refers to him as ginger at one point).
Mélusine.
Boule et Bill.
Jeannette Pointu.
Soda.
Lanfeust.

Legend And Mythology

Claims are that the Apostle Peter was a redhead. What is the provenance of this? In most traditional European deoictions, Peter had gray or white hair that formed a natural "crown-of-thorns" tonsure, along with a rather short beard. Judas, on the other hand, was traditionally red-haired, as referenced in Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Odysseus of The Iliad and The Odyssey: His hair was described as "crisping red-golden."
- Menelaus of the same definitely was; "red-haired king" was among his epithets. Which is odd, because his name, Menelaus Xanthus, means "Menelaus the Blond"; he's called a red-head because, apparently, scholars never met any blond Greeks (they do exist). But something strange was going on originally because "Xanthus" also referred to slaves (foreigners, mostly). There's something metatextual going on there.
Thor, before Marvel Comics turned him blond.
Older Than Feudalism: In some versions of the Trojan War, Achilles has red hair to denote his fiery temper and badassery (and matches his common epithet as "blazing Achilles"). Menelaus and Agamemnon may have had red hair as well. Neoptolemus definitely was a redhead, even if his father Achilles wasn't. He was also known as Pyrrhos, which is Greek for "Fiery red."
- Achilles himself, when he hid out in king Lycomedes' palace disguised as a girl (and in the process fathered Pyrrhos with Lycomedes' daughter Deidameia), called himself Pyrrha. Some think that Neoptolemos' alternative name may derive from his father's alias (he only got his name Neoptolemos, "young warrior," when he joined the Greek army before Troy).
In many retellings, Arthurian legend's Sir Gawain. Occasionally, Arthur himself is portrayed as a redhead.
Red hair is seen as the mark of Gilgamesh.

Literature

Madeline
Pippi Longstocking.
Several Robert A. Heinlein protagonists, most notably Lazarus Long (ne Woodrow Wilson Smith) (biggest role was in Time Enough for Love, he did appear in later Heinlein works) and his mother Maureen Johnson Smith (most prominent in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, she plays a minor role in several earlier Heinlein novels). And many were redheaded twins; The Rolling Stones, Time for the Stars, Laz and Lor from Time Enough for Love. Other adventurous or heroic redheads include Podkayne of Mars, one of his more popular Juvenile characters, "Slipstick" Libby, Hazel Stone, and a long list of others.
Sir Apropos Of Nothing, though he'd be more of a red-headed anti-hero...
Several from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, four from the Skywalker family/bloodline alone: Mara Jade Skywalker (Luke's wife, and the reason there's redheads in the bloodline at all) (green-eyed), Ben Skywalker (her son, and the kid in the former article image) (this is lampshaded at one point) (blue-eyed), Kol Skywalker (her great-grandson, green-eyed, again), Tenel Ka (Jacen's wife and current ruler of Hapes) and Allana (Jacen and Tenel's daughter) (gray-eyed).
Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson in Discworld. And Mort.
Anne of Green Gables.
Howard Roark from The Fountainhead. Again, depends on your definition of hero.
Alanna of Trebond, from the Tamora Pierce universe, combines red hair with purple technicolour eyes. Arguably also a case of Heroes Want Redheads: despite the fact that the text repeatedly points out that she isn't particularly good looking, she does end up with proposals from the Crown Prince and the King of the Rogue. Also Tris from the Circle of Magic books by the same author. She is certainly a Fiery Redhead, but also a grouch who sometimes borders on Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
Cordelia Vorkosigan is a redhead. In fact, it's one of her character markers; whenever a woman with "roan-red" hair shows up, it's her. Justified, though, since no one else in the books has red hair.
J. K. Rowling loves redheads, and includes several of them in the Harry Potter books:
- The entire Weasley family.
- Dumbledore, too, before it turned white.
- Lily, Harry's Missing Mom (from whom he gets his Green Eyes).
Dairine Callahan from Young Wizards.
Kvothe, of The Name of the Wind, is known for his bright, flame-red hair. Good for attracting both women and unwanted attention.
In Robert Graves' King Jesus, Jesus has red hair, this being one of the eight "signs of royalty."
Cord from Douglas Hill's ColSec Trilogy. He's at least something of a Fiery Redhead...but, interestingly enough, his hair is specifically described as dark auburn.
Rand Al'Thor from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time has reddish-blonde hair. This is because he's half Aiel. Elaine also has red-gold hair, whatever that means. When it's not referred to as red-gold, it's consistantly just described as blonde, with Aviendha as the redhead of the Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trio. That sounds like a jazzed-up description of strawberry blonde hair.
Bill Denbrough and Beverly Marsh, two of the original seven Losers from Stephen King's IT.
Both major POV characters of the Doctrine of Labyrinths series are redheads, this is actually a major plot point as in the city they grew up in, no one else is, thus providing easy proof that Felix and Mildmay are brothers.
In E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, red hair is specifically the genetic marker of ancestry from Atlantis. Many in the human Lensman breeding program are redheads including Clarissa MacDougal.
Maria from The Little White Horse.
Princess Eilonwy of the Prydain Chronicles is often referred to by the narrator as "Eilonwy of the red-gold hair."
Most of the protagonists in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover universe. Justified, since in this setting redheads are special.
We can't forget Karen in The Three Worlds Cycle. She's arguably one of the major heroes of the first part of the cycle, being instrumental in the main changes to Santhenar over the course of the books. Oh, and she just happens to be a redhead.
John Tardy, also known as the "Half-pint Posted" (really, though, he's just grateful to get a nickname other than "Red") of the Gordon R. Dickson novel Spatial Delivery.
The title character of J.R.R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham. The whole story in a way subverts Mediaeval hero-tales, as the king and his knights are worse than useless, and the only person who can effectively deal with the dragon is a fat, red-headed farmer who doesn't like tresspassers, especially destructive ones.
The 39 Clues: Amy Cahill - although hers is more "reddish-brown."
Pumuckl (the kobold protagonist of a German children's series)
The titular character of The Adventures of Blue Avenger is ironically a redhead.
Red-headed twins Isabeau and Iseult, the two leading characters of Kate Forsyth's "The Witches of Eileanan" series (fantasy).
Time Scout: Margo Smith. A Red-Headed Heroine to die for. Or because of.
In the later Nancy Drew mysteries, Nancy is described as being a redhead.
Lord John Roxton in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is repeatedly described has having red hair, and his various adventures and heroic exploits in South America (like killing slavers) have earned him the nickname "Red Chief" amongst the Amazonian natives.
Tarl Cabot of the Gor series. Notably, while he has a Heroic BSOD and becomes Bosk, his hair becomes sandy; but then when he goes back to being Tarl it gets red again. In the first book he mentions that he often had to defend his honor as a schoolboy just for having red hair.

Live-Action TV

Doctor Who: Liz, Leela, Turlough, Mel, Donna, and Amy. The Doctor wishes he was (once again unfulfilled◊).
Dune:
- Paul Atreides from the Dune Miniseries produced in 2000 is a redhead.
- This is in contrast to Paul in the 1983 movie of the same name who had black hair.
Star Trek: Voyager:
- Captain Janeway.
- Janeway's hair is more sort of auburn-brown than out-and-out red.
- If flashbacks and time travel are to be believed, Picard in his younger days.
Agent Scully from The X-Files
Dexter is a villain protagonists and heroic sociopaths variant.
Chip and Udonna from Power Rangers Mystic Force
Charlie Crews on Life. Also, Dick Winters in Band Of Brothers: they're both played by redhead Damien Lewis.
Eric 'E' Murphy on Entourage.
Elizabeth I: Elizabeth herself, which of course is Truth in Television.
CSI: Miami's Horatio Caine.
Super Sentai: Jan Kandou (Geki Red) of Juken Sentai Gekiranger and Sosuke Esumi (Go-on Red) of Engine Sentai Go-onger, resulting from hair bleach's effect on Asian hair. Gosei Black and Shinken Green are somewhere between brown and red, likely for the same reason.
Rebecca Fogg from The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.

Music

Ziggy Stardust's final, iconic look included vibrantly red hair.
The Spin Doctors claimed three brunette members and one member with red-gold curls. Guess which one was the Face of the Band.
Party Poison. (otherwise known as Gerard Way).

Video Games

Crono from Chrono Trigger.
Adell from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories.
Roy and his father Eliwood of Fire Emblem 6 and 7, respectively, which is a notable exception for the series, given that nearly every other main protagonist in the series traditionally had blue hair. To make up for it, Eliwood's best friend Hector from FE7 did have blue hair. And the same goes to his daughter and Roy's potential girlfriend, the mage Lilina.
Nariko from Heavenly Sword.
Joanna from Perfect Dark.
Adol Christin from Ys, also called "Adol the Red." They don't mean blood. Popful Mail, from Ys developer Nihon Falcom, has the red-haired Mail, a female Bounty Hunter with "a nice chest" who doesn't wear pants for whatever reason.
Silly Axel Almer in Super Robot Wars Advance. If he's not silly, he's no hero (either a villain or... a neutral force). Other straightforward examples from Super Robot Wars include Fiona Gureden (Reversal) and Rand Travis (Z)
Joe from Viewtiful Joe.
Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog is a red-furred hero.
Though he gradually turned into more of a wheat blond, Link was depicted as having either brown or reddish-brown hair in the official artwork for the first three games in The Legend of Zelda series, and was an outright redhead in the Valiant comic book series based on the two NES games in the series. (Interestingly, so was Zelda, whose sprite for the first two games was likewise red-haired.) Also, Midna from Twilight Princess when she starts getting more friendly towards Link. And Shad of the Resistance Group, from the same game.
Sarah Kerrigan from StarCraft, until she gets infested.
The Fighter / Warrior sprite from the Final Fantasy I. The Warrior of Light has an alternate costume based on him in the Dissidia prequel game, confirming it.
Possibly because of this trope, Ritz from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance dyes her hair red (it's white normally), and in the dream-Ivalice, it * is* red. However, she stops dyeing it after the events of the game, accepting her appearance.
If the player chooses the standard look for a female Shepard in Mass Effect, she turns out to be a redhead. Oddly enough, except for the player character, the only redhead on your team in any BioWare game since Baldur's Gate was Leliana. Perhaps the designers were trying to tell us something?
- Don't forget Oghren.
- Dragon Age II - Aveline.
Agent J from Elite Beat Agents.
Kasumi from Dead or Alive.
Simon Belmont, Jack of All Stats in the Castlevania series, constantly switched from brown to blond and back again between his countless incarnations. Possibly in frustration, Ayami Kojima went completely off-model and drew him with bright red hair, and his official depiction has been redheaded ever since.
Spike, Jimmy and Yumi from Ape Escape. Kei averts this with his blue hair.
Heart Aino of Arcana Heart.
Kou from Azure Dreams. Bit of a troublemaker.
Regina from the first two Dino Crisis games.
The protagonists of all three Lufia games (i.e. Maxim and his descendants), which was carried over into the Nintendo DS remake of the second game.
The Priestess class in the PC game Darkstone.
Luke fon Fabre from Tales Of The Abyss. As well as Mao from Tales Of Rebirth, Reid Herschel from Tales Of Eternia, Caius Qualls from Tales of the Tempest. Asbel from Tales Of Graces is looking to qualify.
From the Dawn of War series - Farseer Macha in the original, and Taldeer in Winter Assault (although hers is literally red rather than auburn). After that long hair seems to go out of fashion so you can't tell for the helmets, but the trope makes a return in Dawn of War II where the Eldar farseers again have red hair. As much as anyone in Warhammer 40k can be considered a hero, anyway.
Raz from Psychonauts.
Justin from Grandia. And yes, he's quite fiery to match.
In the Tokimeki Memorial series, all games of the Standard Branch, save for the 4th one, have red-haired main heroines (albeit each of them having a different shade of red) :
- Shiori Fujisaki in Tokimeki Memorial 1.
- Hikari Hinomoto in Tokimeki Memorial 2.
- Yukiko Makihara in Tokimeki Memorial 3.
Monica from Dark Cloud 2.
Hilde from Soul Calibur 4.
Garlot of Blaze Union.
The titular Bloodrayne.
The eponymous Raidy from the H-game Lightning Warrior Raidy.
The default hero Aluxes in RPG Maker XP
- And Ralph, the default hero in RPG Maker VX.
This may be a bit of a stretch, but Tsubaki Yayoi can count. She's a redhead and has been living in favoriting heroes and styled herself to fight for justice. If it wasn't for some hindrances, she'd be a clear-cut heroine, as proven with her decent and just personality for those she cared about. Alas ...

Visual Novels

Shirou Emiya of Fate/stay night. His Future Badass is a Dark Skinned White-Haired Pretty Boy whom *every* 4channer (guys included) lust after.
Not a hero but a "good guy," Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
The sequel, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, stars Fiery Redhead Battler Ushiromiya. His sister Ange also counts, having the same shade of dark red hair (though a rather different personality).

Webcomics

Antimony Carver in Gunnerkrigg Court.
Haley Starshine.
Rikk Oberf in Fans!.
Anne Onymous in The Wotch.
Ash in Misfile.
Agatha Heterodyne from Girl Genius has strawberry-blonde hair.
Zoe of Venus Envy.
Princess Voluptua of The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!.
Nanase from El Goonish Shive. formerly.
Samantha from Molten Blade
Todo from City of Reality.
Lil' Ragamuffin from Guttersnipe.
The eponymous Hanna, of Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name, has hair which in certain lights is almost fire-truck red. He's not especially heroic, but he's the hero of the story and he does try. Interestingly, as seen here, he apparently Looked Like Cesare as a teenager, which came with a hair-colour change to a more villainly brownish colour.
Alexander Hamilton from The Dreamer.
Monica of Wapsi Square.
Shelley Winters from Scary Go Round.
Rocky from Our Little Adventure.

Web Original

Obscurus Lupa
Ryana 'Ri' Taylor of Last Secret and other Kostemetsiverse arcs. Hasn't been updated in a while. Apparently Taylor also subverts all the other tropes about redheads, being an intelligence operative with no public personality and no romantic involvement.

Western Animation

Kim Possible.
Kappa Mikey.
Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls.
Elena Potato in Monster Allergy.
Will Vandom from WITCH.
Bloom from Winx Club.
- Amore has also gotten the pixies out of some trouble, including saving their group from wolves.
Hawkgirl, Flash, Elongated Man, Orion and Question (though it's black when he's in costume) from Justice League Unlimited.
Starfire from Teen Titans. Also Kid Flash, though he's a more minor character.
Fry from Futurama.
Jane from Jane and the Dragon.
Atomic Betty.
Theresa and Atlanta from Class Of The Titans.
Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory. And his mother.
Gewn Tennysonm from the Ben 10 franchise.
Izzy from Total Drama Island.
Prince Nestor from World Of Quest.
Niko from Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers.
Jessie Bannon from The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest
The Venture Bros.: Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture as a boy. Now he has only the red beard, and not much heroism. Hank and Dean are blond and brown, respectively.
In Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, redheaded Kris (Santa) is the hero.
Kyle Broflovski from South Park has a flame red Jewfro, though it's usually hidden beneath his hat. Antagonist Cartman, notably, believes all gingers are soulless monsters.
The entire Flynn side of the family in Phineas and Ferb.
Sari in Transformers Animated.
Scarlett from G.I. Joe.
Aerrow from Storm Hawks.
Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Speedy / Red Arrow in Young Justice.
Quentin MacLeod from Highlander: The Animated Series.

Real Life

Conquerors and/or Rulers

Everybody loved Cyrus the Great. Can you dig it?
Tamerlane was less adored...
The Plantagenet and Tudor dynasties put many redheads on the throne of England, including Richard The Lionheart and Elizabeth I.
Boudicca.
Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa, his name doesn't mean "red beard" in Italian for nothing.
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Isabella I.
Winston Churchill.
Oliver Cromwell.
Ulysses S. Grant.
Vladimir Lenin.
Rameses II, a.k.a. Rameses the Great — a red-headed Egyptian Pharoah, supposedly.
King David of Israel.
George Washington. Although when he wanted to impress people Washington would put white powder on his hair. Typical practice in the 18th century involved securing the powder flakes by first applying a liberal coating of oil to one's hair. Yuck!
Thomas Jefferson.
Bernardo O'Higgins.
Genghis Khan.