There are two possible answers to this question. The first is a simple NO. A character created by another writer belongs to that writer, and they could sue you for using their character in your book or story.
The second answer is: only if you make absolutely no money by using this character, and make it absolutely obvious who invented the character in the first place. Fanfiction is a type of writing done only for personal pleasure, where people write about the characters and setting already published in another writer's work (books, movies, comics, etc). In fanfiction, no money is made and you always include a phrase in everything you write stating "These characters are the property of ____ author and I make no claims on either the characters nor the works written by that author."
You can still be sued by the author for writing fanfiction - most authors won't do more than send you a legal notice telling you to stop using their characters, or to post a note stating that the characters are theirs, but some authors will diligently pursue their copyright and take you all the way to court over it.
Anna Sewell
Roman Polanski
The fictional character of Reginald Jeeves was a creation of writer P. G. Wodehouse .
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character created by writer Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001.) Zaphod is a character in Adams' "trilogy" of five books, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
The fictional character known as Cthulhu, who is best known for its first and original appearance in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu," was created by writer H. P. Lovecraft.
The fictional Marvel Comic character Gambit was created by Chris Claremont the writer and Jim Lee the artist. He was first brought in the comic in 1990.
story of black beauty is written by Anna Sewell.
A character's country of origin can vary depending on the story or context in which they exist. Characters can come from any country or be fictional and created by a writer or artist.
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill_Finger.The Batman series of books is published by DC Comics.
Spanish writer Cervantes
Tomahawk is a fictional superhero character that first appeared in "Star-Spangled Comics" #69 in 1947. He was created by writer Joe Samachson and artist Edmond Good.
Although JK Rowling does occasionally refer to Harry as her "son", he is a fictional character.