History Main / GreatWhiteHunter

* Congo Bill in Franchise/TheDCU (who later gained the ability to swap his mind with that of a giant golden gorilla because EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys).
** Congo Bill was also featured in a 15 chapter movie serial in 1948.

The Great White Hunter is something of a DeadHorseTrope. When he still appears, it will be in a period piece or he will be leading expeditions to capture animals alive. His spiritual descendants the Safari Guide, Wildlife Conservationist or Game Warden may still appear unironically. May wear an AdventurerOutfit.

* [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] had a one-shot imaginary personality named Safari Al who was this trope. He got captured by a gorilla (his mom) inquiring why his room hand't been cleaned.

DeliberateValuesDissonance might come up if the story is trying to impart AnAesop about respecting the lives of wild animals. Often, however, this character ''does'' admire animals even as he kills them, considering them a WorthyOpponent of sorts. Some may even consider hunting something that doesn't have a chance of fighting back to be unsportsmanlike. Sometimes he does it merely out of necessity: there is a dangerous predator with [[ToServeMan taste on human flesh]] at the wild, and native hunters have failed at neutralizing the threat, so he is called to do the job.

* Subverted (and somewhat superceded) by Great White Photographers, who may travel anywhere in the world and pay atrocious fees to even get a chance of ''photographing'' wildlife in their natural habitats. Photography is colloquially called "shooting"... so, you do the math.

* A player character archetype in ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition''.

* Franklin Payne, one of the possible party members in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura''. He joins your quest to save the world solely because you are going to visit a jungle-covered island and he always wanted to go for a safari there.

* Franklin Payne, one of the possible party members in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura''.

* Not-so-great (but still important) white hunters are a thing in most European countries, for the simple fact that they enact a control on animal populations such as deer, so these do not go out of control for simple lack of predator species like wolves or bears (that were driven away over the centuries) who would otherwise curb them. They are usually seen as "great" by their rural communities for keeping nature's balance.

* ''Series/CrocodileHunter'': Ecological awareness need not be a hindrance to the trope. The late Steve Irwin ran around in khaki shorts, and when he captured crocodiles to relocate them, he got to jump and wrestle them, which was both more ethical and [[RuleOfFun far more exciting]] than to have him [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shoot them]].

->''"Peter, if you want me to run your little camping trip, there are two conditions: firstly, I'm in charge, and when I'm not around, Dieter is. All you need to do is sign the checks, tell us we're doing a good job and open your case of scotch when we have a good day. Second condition, my fee. You can keep it. All I want in exchange for my services is the right to hunt one of the [[TyrannosaurusRex Tyrannosaurs]]. A male, a buck, only. How and why are my business. Now if you don't like either of those two conditions, you're on your own. So go ahead, set up basecamp right here, or in a swamp or in the middle of a Rex nest for all I care. But I've been on too many safaris with rich dentists, to listen to any more suicidal ideas. Okay?"''

* Maston Thrust in ''Film/TheLastDinosaur''. He's a world famous hunter and wants to hunt the eponymous last dinosaur, a ''TyrannosaurusRex''. Interestingly he considers himself the last of his kind too as he says so at the end of the movie.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Professor Peter Port, Beacon Academy's professor of Grimm Studies, evokes this with his character design and mannerisms, though rather than exotic animals he hunted the [[TheHeartless Creatures Of Grimm]]. He's [[RetiredBadass semi-retired]] by the time the audience meets him and spends most of his time telling grandiose stories to his students about the monsters he's fought, and occasionally dolling out some pretty good life advice, but when the chips are down, he can and ''will'' prove that that [[BFG blunderbuss]] on his wall isn't just for show.

* Creator/BuffaloBill was a famous buffalo hunter in his life time and cultivated himself as some sort of a mythological [[TheWildWest Wild West]] hero when he got his famous ''Wild West'' show on the road.

* Not-so-great (but still important) white hunters are a thing in most European countries, for the simple fact that they enact a control on animal populations such as deers, so these do not go out of control for simple lack of predator species like wolves or bears (that were driven away over the centuries) who would otherwise curb them. They are usually seen as "great" by their rural communities for keeping nature's balance.

** Muldoon in ''Film/JurassicPark'' is about as close as you'll get to this trope being played straight in the modern day. He was technically a game warden, though, but the look and the 'tude were there; close enough. Muldoon was really something of a subversion in that he leaned more toward the ''anti''-heroic end of the scale. He is not portrayed in a particularly romantic manner, and is in fact an embittered, highly cynical man who hates the raptors and wishes he could kill them all - and considering what happens throughout the course of the film, it's hard to blame him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': In his younger days, Charles Muntz was Great White Hunter and BoldExplorer whose exploits inspired Carl, and especially Ellie. [[spoiler:However, by the time Carl meets him, Muntz has been become an EgomaniacHunter: hiding from the world in Paradise Falls and obsessively stalking the "Beast of Paradise Falls".]]

->''"Peter, if you want me to run your little camping trip, there are two conditions: firstly, I'm in charge, and when I'm not around, Dieter is. All you need to do is sign the cheques, tell us we're doing a good job and open your case of scotch when we have a good day. Second condition, my fee. You can keep it. All I want in exchange for my services is the right to hunt one of the [[TyrannosaurusRex Tyrannosaurs]]. A male, a buck, only. How and why are my business. Now if you don't like either of those two conditions, you're on your own. So go ahead, set up basecamp right here, or in a swamp or in the middle of a Rex nest for all I care. But I've been on too many safaris with rich dentists, to listen to any more suicidal ideas. Okay?"''

* Subverted by Colonel Brock in the horror/comedy ''Film/{{Alligator}}''; he wears a safari suit and pith-helmet even though the film is set in ''Chicago''.

* In ''Film/BrotherhoodOfTheWolf'', Frosnac is sent to investigate the beast because of his skill as a naturalist and a hunter.

* In the movie adaptation of ''Film/{{Congo}}'', Captain Munro Kelly introduces himself to the team with the line "I'm your Great White Hunter for this trip, though I happen to be black." This is, of course, because the book Munroe was a more-or-less straight example, who the movie then made black in order to add diversity to the cast. In an interview, the director claimed he cast Ernie Hudson as the hunter because he disliked this trope. In the book, Munro was less a Great White Hunter and more along the lines of all the other white mercenaries running around in Africa at the time of writing, also he was half Indian.
* [[Film/CrocodileDundee Mick "Crocodile" Dundee]]

* Sean Mercer (Creator/JohnWayne) in the movie ''Film/{{Hatari}}''.
** Which is an interesting variation on the trope, since he heads up a RagTagBunchOfMisfits who capture animals alive for zoos, instead of hunting them.

** Roland Tembo in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' is even closer, and has made his goal to turn over captured dinos to the BigBad in exchange for getting to hunt a bull male ''T. rex''. He's more or less responsible for the fact that anyone managed to survive the expedition [[NiceJobBreakingItHero despite the efforts]] of the "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]". [[spoiler:Not only does he survive to the end of the film, ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome he actually manages to bag the]] ''T. Rex.'']]

* Sidestepped by Allan Quatermain (Creator/SeanConnery) in ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''. He has all the characteristics, but Connery plays him as a very world weary man, in a company that only just barely needs his skills. Bonus points for the fact that the BigBad actually calls him "the great white hunter."

* In ''Film/{{Mowgli}}'' John Lockwood is initially seen as this, becoming Mowgli's mentor in the Man-Village. He's also the only white man in the movie, helping an Indian village get rid of the local man-eating tiger.

DeliberateValuesDissonance might come up if the story is trying to impart AnAesop about respecting the lives of wild animals. Often, however, this character ''does'' admire animals even as he kills them, considering them a WorthyOpponent of sorts. Some may even consider hunting something that doesn't have a chance of fighting back to be unsportsmanlike. Sometimes he does it merely out of necessity: there is a dangerous predator with [[IAmAHumanitarian taste on human flesh]] at the wild, and native hunters have failed at neutralizing the threat, so he is called to do the job.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Paddington}}''. The Explorer is about to shoot on the bears, but then one of them approaches him and knocks a scorpion of his jacket. He then sees they are intelligent enough to build bamboo technology and even learn English he befriends them and lets them live. [[spoiler:Played straight however with the other members of the Geographer's Guild, however]].

* Deconstructed in ''[[Franchise/Tarzan Tarzan's Revenge]]'' way back in 1938, in which the heroine's fiance is presented as a wannabe Great White Hunter who is a coward for shooting animals from a great distance where they cannot possibly hurt him, while her father is trying to capture live specimens and is angry at the man for killing them.

* Creator/BuffaloBill was a famous buffalo hunter in his life time and cultivated himself as some sort of a mythological TheWildWest hero when he got his famous ''Wild West'' show on the road.

* Minnesotan Dentist Walter James Palmer killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe in the summer of 2015 sparking international outrage on social media forcing him to shut down his practice for several weeks. He reportedly paid $50,000 to a safari company which allegedly lured the beloved cat off his protected reserve where he was killed with an arrow and beheaded. The animal was wearing a tracking collar at the time.

* Not-so-great (but still important) white hunters are a thing in most European countries, for the simple fact that they enact a control on animal populations such as deers, so these do not go out of control for simple lack of predator species like wolves or bears (that were driven away over the centuries) who would otherwise curb them. They are usually seen as "great" by their rural communities for keeping nature's balance in check.

DeliberateValuesDissonance might come up if the story is trying to impart AnAesop about respecting the lives of wild animals. Often, however, this character ''does'' admire animals even as he kills them, considering them a WorthyOpponent of sorts. Some may even consider hunting something that doesn't have a chance of fighting back to be unsportsmanlike. Sometimes he does it merely out of necessity: there is a dangerous predator with [[IAmAHumanitarian taste on human flesh]] at the wild, and native hunters have failed neutralizing the threat, so he is called to do the job.

[[folder:Videogames]]

◦ To a lesser extent, the leader of every expedition that relies on hunting will inevitably turn into one.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': In his younger days, Charles Muntz was Great White Hunter and BoldExporer whose exploits inspired Carl, and especially Ellie. [[spoiler:However, by the time Carl meets him, Muntz has been become an EgomaniacHunter: hiding from the world in Paradise Falls and obsessively stalking the "Beast of Paradise Falls".]]

* Creator/ErnestHemingway himself was an active big game hunter.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]]]

* John Wilson (Creator/ClintEastwood) in ''Film/WhiteHunterBlackHeart''.

* In ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerRogerAckroyd'', Sheppard says of Major Blunt that "He has shot more wild animals in unlikely places than any man living, I suppose." A gigantic animal head mounted on the wall of Ackroyd's house was a present from Blunt.