My first D&D character was a sneaky rogue (more of a scout than a thief) who routinely ranged around, behind, and in front of the party, armed with a bow and a dagger. On more than a few occasions he took out ambushes before the rest of the party even knew it was there. That first character has informed some version of a character in every game since. It's one of the more popular Skyrim archetypes (if that can be a thing in a single-player game). But my version dates long before most people working on Skyrim were even born.
I get more inspiration from books than other games though. I've based several characters on various people from Peter Beagle's
The Folk of the Air, which is a genuinely original and fascinating book if you ignore one big flaw. Atypically, I have never used
The Lord of the Rings characters though. It's one of my favorites books, but doesn't seem right to me to mine it for character fodder.
Usually though, I'll use these previous characters only as starting points. I don't like to replicate a character completely. I'll start the same character, but it's not often long before they have taken their own traits and diverged from the source, becoming unique on the way, even if the name be the same. There's always one little thread though that ties them together, all the way back to the origin; a battle cry, a piece of clothing, a choice weapon, a quirky sense of humor. All told, there's no child alive who can compete with me for the stable of imaginary friends I've made for myself over the years