In my opinion, Doctor Who is a great dudely example. The Doctor is a space dude from a far off planet roaming time and space. He often runs, abides, and defuses aggressors with a sonic screwdriver and looking for the no harm route.
Depending on which generation is being nominated. I'm no Whovian like my ex-girlfriend was so I can't tell you the generation that was the pretty uptight, stiff Doctor, but Tom Baker's iteration of The Doctor was very Dude.
I'll second the nomination. Anyone who holds the life of an entire race in his hands, (and even though that race are methodical, ruthless killers) and decides the right thing to do is NOT wipe them out is pretty Dude in my book.
The third regeneration of the Doctor was not so much dude, but 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11-12 were for sure in my opinion.
DB's favorite...
(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQQxTWkmYtE8HJIK4WVY0U6jFQ7SYD8GT1e0QUPfFBllkfybH2Z)
Slackin with the Pyramids of Mars as I type this... (//)
I do like the way they got the scarf, gave a knitter a bunch of yarn and told her to make a scarf. She went on until she ran out of the yarn they gave her.
Or so the story goes.
I actually went so far as to learn knitting to make myself a Tom Baker-esque scarf. Well... I sucked at it, so I got someone else to finish. Sucker's twice as tall as me, but OMG I love wearing it. I also got a few figures for Christmas once -- got a TARDIS, K9, a few Daleks, and so on. I had a buddy say if I purchased two of his art prints, he'd throw in the 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I told him I had already planned on buying some of his prints. He said he *did* promise me, so I got it. :)
Now are you using the BBC version of generations or are you adding in the the Peter Cushing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Who_%28Dalek_films%29) Doctor Who films (Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.) as well?
No, not adding the 2 movies by Peter Cushing. Those were remakes of original... I am using from the first draft, dude. Have a good new year. 8)
2 was very Dude, and 4 especially. I think 9 deserves mention as well. He's all gloomy and mopey, but only because he's been through some serious shit, and he's got Eccleston's scowly face. But his whole life cycle is basically the Doctor's equivalent of the Dude at Donnie's funeral. He needs time to come out of that. And when it comes right down to it, he'd rather be a fool than a killer any day. That's pretty Dude in my book.
Ten is my favorite, but... he's all footloose and fancy free, but he'll also kill your ass. His inner Walter is not nearly as deeply buried as Nine's is.
Sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause what's a hero?.. but sometimes there's a man... and I'm talkin' about the Doctor here... Sometimes there's a man, well, he's the man for his Time and Space, he fits right in the TARDIS.
Oh yeah, I, too, always thought of him as a great example of dudeness, in any time & place. I think, though, that it's impossible to say just which incarnations were the dudest or least dude - I think the whole concept, the idea, of a man who ran away from his home planet to abide in the great cosmos, just looking out his TARDIS' back door, travelin' around like a tumblin' tumbleweed, overall, is a very dude one indeed. Oh, and refusing to be called anything rather than a made-up name? 'This Time Lord, he called himself the Doctor. Now, Doctor, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Doctor that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me'. Hint hint. And oh yeah, sometimes Walter pushes through as well (especially in the latest incarnations), and big time - but I'm sure no one could say that doesn't happen to his own self from time to time. The Doctor is a struggling dude... But a dude nonetheless. Aren't we all?
P.S.: does far too much running around for a dude, though. :)