[…] The first thing that comes to mind is the so-called “Dollars Trilogy” of ‘spaghetti Westerns’: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). In those movies, Clint Eastwood plays the same character and has come to be known as The Man With No Name. He has such a mysterious, shrouded personal history, even his name is nonexistent. In each movie, Eastwood’s character shows up as a stranger and goes through the …read more […]

Just to add one more example to the "Dollars" trilogy and "Drive," -- "Speed." The only character with backstory is the bad guy, and precious little of that.

Not that it matters, but the info that Ripley had a daughter was only in a deleted scene of Aliens, and I don't know why it was deleted because it makes such a huge difference to the story. Oh, and the backstory to Aliens is a whole other movie - that helps.

For a discussion on what kinds of characters should not have a backstory, see William Goldman's, "Which Lie Did I Tell?" Specifically the chapter on The Ghost and the Darkness.

Anton in 'No Country for Old Men' is the per se protagonist - provided we mean the character whose actions set forth the activity/drama - and we don't know too much about him

I think it's hugely important to know the character even if he/she is supposed to remain a mystery to the audience. How will you predict how he/she will react to certain situations otherwise? Everyone has their own set of internal rules that quite possibly derived from somewhere (Batman = "No killing. No guns." Though torture is just fine.)As a writer, it's important to know where they come from.

Thanks for the comments. Re this subject, I go back to that Tarantino quote: “I need to know where these people [his story's characters] come from. It’s a universe I’m creating, and I have to know my universe backward, forward, and sideways. The audience doesn’t need to know, but they need to know I know.”

[…] Do you italicize words in another language in your stories? Daniel José Older makes a case for NOT italicizing words in another language. Backstory can be a wonderful thing—when used correctly. Leila Austin tells us how to avoid the dread “council of Elrond” scene, while Scott Meyers answers the question: can we write a protagonist with no backstory? […]