"Duke Nukem is a fictional character and action hero who has been the protagonist in over a dozen video games, comic books, the fictional universe in which they take place and a proposed upcoming live action science fiction and horror or action feature film. Numerous figurines of the character have been produced, as has a pinball machine.

The character first appeared in the 1991 video game Duke Nukem (also temporarily known as "Duke Nukum") which was developed by Apogee Software, now 3D Realms. The character was created by video game developers Todd Replogle and Scott Miller of Apogee Software. The character was redesigned into the present tough guy incarnation by George Broussard, Allen Blum, Jim Norwood for the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D. In the dozen or so Duke Nukem games since Duke Nukem 3D, this incarnation of the character has been constant, and voiced by voice actor Jon St. John. The next video game in the series, Duke Nukem Forever, has been in development hell since at least 1997."

Source: Wikipedia, "Duke_Nukem_(character)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.