Hollywood loves a good true-life story but it's rarely been known to let accuracy get in the way of a jolly good yarn. Here are the characters who played significant roles in "based on a true story" movies despite never having even existed.

We've omitted the likes of Jack and Rose from Titanic because no-one ever pretended they did exist, and also "fourth orderly on the left" from anything because, well, we're not as crazy pedantic as that.

Here are seven movies containing sneaky imposters.

1. Dr Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) in The Last King of Scotland

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James McAvoy plays the young physician who becomes a friend and confidant of Ugandan President Idi Amin in the '70s. In reality, he didn't exist. The character is based in part on Bob Astles, who was a British soldier and associate of Amin. Astles spent six years in a Ugandan jail after Amin's reign ended, unlike McAvoy's doctor in the movie.

2. Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) in The Social Network

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Rooney Mara's character is Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend at the start of the movie, who dumps him – inspiring him to invent FaceMash, which in turn led to Facebook. Her lack of interest at the end of the film in his success is a measure of his moral failure despite stupendous financial rewards.

Only she's made up. Writer Aaron Sorkin says he invented her name and her character, though it seems the creation of FaceMash was inspired by someone. There is much speculation but no confirmation as to exactly who this girl might have been.

3. Rayon (Jared Leto) and Dr Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) in Dallas Buyers Club

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There was quite a bit of artistic licence in Jean-Marc Vallée's tale of Ron Woodroof the rodeo rider (he wasn't actually a rodeo rider in real life) who contracted AIDS and developed a system to help distribute non-FDA-approved drugs to fellow patients.

That licence includes the characters of both transgender woman Rayon, played by Jared Leto (who won an Oscar for his performance), and Dr Eve Saks, played by Jennifer Garner. The two characters did not, in fact, exist, but were assembled from a whole range of patients, activists and doctors the writers had interviewed.

4. Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) in Eddie the Eagle

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Hugh Jackman's former champion ski-jumper turned washed-up alcoholic and mentor to Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) is a complete fabrication. Of course he is – the story arc is far too good to be true, with his old coach played by Christopher Walken (also made up) arriving at the end to offer redemption. Who cares though, when Eddie's own actual real story is crazy enough to sound made up anyway?

5. Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) in Argo

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The movie producer who's charged with convincing the Iranian government that he and Ben Affleck's CIA officer are over there scouting movie locations isn't a real person.

Alan Arkin says he is a composite of four different people – one being Jack Warner, founder of Warner Bros. "It was out of my imagination, but I used Jack Warner as a basis," Arkin told THR. "He's someone who is very comfortable in his own skin, someone who knew the ins and outs of the business, backwards and forwards."

6. Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) in Lawrence of Arabia

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Omar Sharif's revolutionary Arab leader, who is at first an antagonist of Peter O'Toole's TE Lawrence and later becomes his ally, was a combination of numerous Arab leaders Lawrence served with (because he didn't really work with any one leader throughout the war).

The career-making part almost didn't go to Omar Sharif, with French actor Alain Delon an earlier pick – but he turned it down because he didn't want to wear brown contact lenses.

7. Hans (Matthias Schoenaerts ) and Henrik (Ben Whishaw) in The Danish Girl

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Though very much marketed as a true story, there are a range of elements in Tom Hooper's movie that are fiction – in fact, Lili, Gerda and Ulla are the only vaguely accurate representations of the truth.

Most of the other characters originated from the book by author David Ebershoff, who has said he did not try to tell a wholly true story. This includes Hans and Henrik, played by Matthias Schoenaerts and Ben Whishaw, partners of Gerda and Lili respectively, based extremely loosely on real life partners Fernando Porta and Claude Lejeune.

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