While this may seem like a unique situation for someone who existed for only entertainment purposes, Heisenberg is actually the second fictional character to get such a real-world honor. A dapper Belgian detective pioneered that meta niche nearly 40 years ago.
Hercule Poirot was one of crime writer Agatha Christie's most famous characters. The short, bald, mustachioed detective first popped up in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. He went on to appear in more than 40 of the English author's novels, short stories, and compilations. Though Christie quickly grew tired of her main character — even calling him a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep" — she continued his storyline because the public adored him so.
But, finally, in 1975, the detective met the inevitable. Christie actually wrote Poirot's final case in the 1940s, but reportedly had the manuscript locked away for when the time was right. Curtains: Poirot's Last Case wasn't released in the U.S. until October, 1975, but The New York Times ran the character's obituary a few months earlier, on the front page of its August 6 paper:
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Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective who became internationally famous, has died in England. His age was unknown. Mr. Poirot achieved fame as a private investigator after he retired as a member of the Belgian police force in 1904… At the end of his life, he was arthritic and had a bad heart. He was in a wheelchair often, and was carried from his bedroom to the public lounge at Styles Court, a nursing home in Essex, wearing a wig and false mustaches to mask the sings of age that offended his vanity. In his active days, he was always impeccably dressed. (New York Times)
Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
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