Lee Van Cleef had a long and varied career in Hollywood, although most films he is best known for were Westerns. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a classic "spaghetti western" starring Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood. In the film, Van Cleef plays a character named "Angel Eyes," also referred to as "The Bad" in the title.

At various points in the film, Angel Eyes can be seen puffing on his distinctive Petersen Dutch Billiard briar pipe. People involved in making the film confirmed that Van Cleef used real pipes (not prop pipes), and they further believed the pipes were from his collection.

Hans Landa: Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino always manages to develop compelling characters for his films, and 2009's Inglorious Basterds is no exception. The main antagonist of the film is a Nazi SS officer named Hans Landa, whose job is to hunt down Jews wherever they may be hiding in occupied France. Played to cold-blooded perfection by Christoph Waltz, Landa has a particular affinity for his Calabash meerschaum pipe, which Tarantino chose specifically for its association with Sherlock Holmes (who we'll get to shortly). When Landa fires up his Calabash in the film's opening scene, you know the low-income family he's interrogating is in hot water.

Granny Clampett: The Beverly Hillbillies

Okay, so technically, The Beverly Hillbillies was not a movie. But Irene Ryan's over-the-top portrayal of the corn cob pipe-smoking Granny Clampett deserves a place on this list. Ryan had a long and noteworthy career in radio, B-movies, and TV before finally landing the role that made her famous. And though she doesn't do it often, when you see her chewing on her corn cob, you feel she's living the role.

If you've never seen Robert Eggers' 2019 film "The Lighthouse," you're missing something. Exactly what we're not sure. But we're sure it's something. The Lighthouse is a kind of surreal fever dream about a 19th century "wicky," or lighthouse keeper, in training whose boss is a domineering control freak who forces the trainee to perform countless demeaning tasks while continually berating him.

The boss, Thomas Wake, always keeps his humble and seemingly handmade clay pipe ready. There's often nothing in the bowl, and Wake carries it upside down between clenched teeth, almost as a stress reliever. In many ways, the pipe is a metaphor for the film itself: simple, gray, bleak and unadorned.

Davy Jones

If you want to get a little freaky, Davy Jones and his pipe are fully unforgettable. Becoming one of the main characters in Dead Man's Chest, the second movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, his pipe was extremely detailed and extravagant, almost like a meerschaum pipe. Apparently, the pipe was carved from whalebone, while the shark and mouthpiece were made from silver mined from the ocean. Ten crab legs surround the bowl, appearing to eerily hold it up. As if it couldn't get any stranger, the pipe is filled with a mixture that can be smoked underwater. This is fitting for a ship that is nearly always submerged!

Popeye single-handedly created an archetype with his Corn Cob pipe.

Cartoons are rarely translated to live action in a manner that maintains the original show's magic. However, Popeye found a middle ground between sincere and wacky. It was delivered with such grace, a talent that almost no one possesses more than Robin Williams.

The pipe is so integral to the rugged pirate that even the 1980s cartoon adaptation, The All-New Popeye Hour, kept the pipe. But of course, Popeye told his nephews that it's only used to whistle!

Popeye isn't Popeye without his pipe. The most recent iterations have switched out the pipe for a whistle... a true shame. All regrets aside, this specific pipe is integral to many pipe-smoking characters. Nothing is more down-to-earth and simplistic than a trusty Corn Cob pipe. And that's what's so important about Popeye's character. He's not sophisticated- he's realistic.

Williams completely knocks it out of the park in the 1980 musical, although it wasn't easy. Some of his lines were even voiceovers inserted later; the difficulty of balancing Popeye's raspy mumble while holding a pipe in the mouth resulted in some pretty hard-to-understand lines. But the pipe was worth it!