Travis Bickle played by Robert De Niro

Travis Bickle the complex taxi driver, of whom Scorsese introduces us into the world.

He is an endearing character to begin with, but then his deterioration kicks in, the character enters depression, sick of society around him and wants revenge for all the trouble.
He develops an obsession with a female character and when she rejects him, his deterioration begins. He is a loner doing a job which introduces him to all this scum.
“ The man who stood up for all the filth in society. The man who couldn't take it no more. An everyday man turned into a monster by his job and the filth that came with it. 

Luke Jackson played by Paul Newman

'This hear is a failure to communicate', the line from the prison guard who intends to break 'Cool Hand' Luke Jackson.

The anti-hero proves doubters wrong by escaping from jail time and time again. Yet anti-hero in the sense that he has no future and cannot fashion a future for himself. The ironic smile when arrested for chopping heads of parking meters. He is willful and tough, the complete anti-authoritarian figure and a christ-like figure amongst inmates. Luke however is ultimately a tragic character, a man who has hit rock bottom 'with nothin better to do', his mother on her deathbed, and Luke in the tin.

Detective Virgil Tibbs as played by Sidney Poitier

At a time when race relations and tensions were running high, civil rights had got going in America.  'They call me Mister Tibbs!' shouts the first black policeman in mainstream cinema. Audacious and humble, this African-American from the North refused to be intimidated by the Mississippi racism that enveloped the South at that time. 
Best Bit: When he slaps the white plantation owner. Take that prejudice! ” 

Mr Tibbs represents the changing point in attitudes towards African Americans in America. 

Johnny Boy played by Robert De Niro

The entrance scene captures the heart of the movie 'Mean Streets' and at the movie's centrepiece, Johnny Boy, played by Robert De Niro, appears with a blond and brunette on each shoulder. Rolling Stones' 'Jumpin Jack Flash' plays out, capturing the volatile and unpredictable nature of the character. Not only is he a comic relief to a film which plays around the darkness of the Italian Mafia in Philadelphia, but he is also the linking and separating device between 'Charlie' played by Harvey Keital and his cousin Teresa. He is self-destructive but also destructive of others around him and this reaches a climax at the end of the film.