# Evil albinos in films? (possible spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287 "2005-01-23T20:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/21 "2005-01-23T23:06:47Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Here’s a different way of looking at the issue, though – how many movies are there with _good_ albino characters? I know a student who made a film with an African-American albino protagonist. He’s one of those himself. That may be the whole list. As much as I kidded about this and as much as I generally dislike it when groups complain about their treatment in film, it sounds like NOAH has a point. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/22 "2005-01-23T23:12:59Z")
Didn’t _Me, Myself, and Irene_ have an albino guy? He wasn’t evil, just a random semi-creepy guy. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/23 "2005-01-23T23:25:18Z")
**The Firm** (the movie, at least) featured an assassin who was described as “blonde, almost white hair and bright blue eyes – like an albino.” I think their complaint is just as valid as that from any other group with a distinct visual identity (Arabs, the Irish, Asians) who get thrown into the terrorist/villain mold by Hollywood. After all, there exist Asian, Arab, and Irish groups that commit terrorism… but when was the last time you ever heard of the albinos (or for that matter: blondes or brunettes or tall people or midgets) getting together to blow something up? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/24 "2005-01-23T23:32:49Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > He was Dutch, actually. Vierder still! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/25 "2005-01-23T23:37:20Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > He was Dutch, actually. [Nigel Powers] There are only two things I can’t stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures… and the Dutch. [/Nigel Powers] Sorry…been snowed in and had an Austin Powers triplefeature as a consequence… ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/26 "2005-01-24T00:01:30Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > I found a [list.](http://itsb.ucsf.edu/~vcr/AlbinismList2005.html) Interesting list. While it definitely indicates a one-sided depiction of albinos in film, some of their examples are a stretch. Vampires and space aliens count. Draco and Lucius Malfoy count. Rutger Hauer in **Blade Runner** counts, but not any of his other movies where his hair was bleached. Pale platinum blondes apparently only count as albinos if they’re evil. Marilyn Monroe, for example, didn’t make the list at all, despite being easily as blond as Draco in most of her movies. They’ve got enough examples to easily make their case, without including the ones that’ll make people go “Oh, puleeze.” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/27 "2005-01-24T00:33:45Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > An albino killer in the mediocre ( IMHO, I know some disagree ) Grisham flick _The Firm_. > > - Tamerlane \*Mediocre \* is too high praise for the butchery of a fairly decent novel. Particularly the ending. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/28 "2005-01-24T01:45:30Z")
Not a film but the antagonist in _Blood Oath_, an otherwise outstanding episode of _Deep Space Nine_, was only called “The Albino” during the entire 42 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/29 "2005-01-24T03:36:17Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Interesting list. While it definitely indicates a one-sided depiction of albinos in film, some of their examples are a stretch. Vampires and space aliens count. Draco and Lucius Malfoy count. Rutger Hauer in **Blade Runner** counts, but not any of his other movies where his hair was bleached. Pale platinum blondes apparently only count as albinos if they’re evil. Marilyn Monroe, for example, didn’t make the list at all, despite being easily as blond as Draco in most of her movies. > > They’ve got enough examples to easily make their case, without including the ones that’ll make people go “Oh, puleeze.” I agree. They’ve got too many supernatural critters in there, and so many merely fair characters (some not unusually so, I love Blade Runner, I could quote you Roy’s death speech from memory, but if you asked me what color his eyes were, I couldn’t tell you). And since when is Hamlet evil? I don’t buy it. I can’t trust that list. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/30 "2005-01-24T03:57:31Z")
Mr. White from **The Venture Brothers** is a good-guy albino. Of course, he lives in a sad little trailer in the middle of nowhere with the hydrocephalic Master Billy Quizboy and can’t get a date to save his life, but I think that’s more because he dresses like a member of The Human League and not because he’s an albino. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/31 "2005-01-24T04:00:45Z")
Yeah. I was just about to post about him myself. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/32 "2005-01-24T04:19:55Z")
Funny semi-related thing. The day I caught part of the thriller _The Osterman Weekend_. Rutger Hauer (with his icy blue eyes) plays the husband of Meg Foster (with her almost freakishy absolute-zero icy blue eyes). Chrstopher Starr (Foster’s real-life son, it turns out) plays their son, and I’d expect the offspring of these two to have eyes that were completely white, but no dice. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/33 "2005-01-24T04:48:14Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > And since when is Hamlet evil? I don’t buy it. I can’t trust that list. Wait, Hamlet? Not only isn’t he a villain, there’s nothing about his skin in the text and it’s a black-and-white movie. There are some very stupid items on that list. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/34 "2005-01-24T07:51:45Z")
I got you all beat. Duffman is thrusting in the direction of Bad Bob, the Wild Albino, as played by Stacey Keach in **The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean**. Stay cool, hopeless drunks! Oh yeah! ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/35 "2005-01-24T08:30:55Z")
There’s a movie I vaguely recall possibly called **Iger Sanction** (sp? it’s named after some mountain) where a former agent is called out of retirement by his albino boss to kill another agent. I don’t remember much about the plot other then the main character falls in love with a black woman (pretty progressive because that movie is fairly old) and he has to climb a mountain with a team any one of which could be the agent he’s supposed to kill. Anyway back to the albino he’s pretty amoral and when everyone dies on the team but for the main character he congratulates the main character for being so thorough (after all if they can’t figure out who’s the bad guy might as well get everyone just to be sure) he’s also pretty creepy spending his whole time in a dark room hooked to machines that change out his blood. I don’t remember enough to call him evil but he definitely wasn’t a positive portrayal of albinos. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/36 "2005-01-24T10:16:38Z")
I think whoever made up that list is confusing “albino” with “pasty.” The only albino character I can remember is Griffin, H.G. Wells’s Invisible Man. In the book, his albinism was integral to the science of the plot; he’s not evil _because_ he’s an albino, but if he wasn’t an albino, the opportunity to become evil wouldn’t have been available to him (and I’m not going to say any more because if you haven’t read the book, you should, goshdarnit). But when they made the movie (all together, now: _Claude Rains was the Invisible Man!_) they skipped all that. And I don’t remember that orc from TTT being that pale and red-eyed. Maybe I need to adjust the contrast on my T.V.? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/37 "2005-01-24T15:18:49Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > I think whoever made up that list is confusing “albino” with “pasty.” It may be worth pointing out that the linked to list was not compiled by [NOAH](http://www.albinism.org/), but by a dermatologist with an interest in film. In fairness, it looks like he tried to distinguish between “albinism” and “albinism-like”. And since albinism is diagnosed with an eye examination (the lack of pigment in the eye affects retinal development and impairs vision) and not simply how pale a person looks, it’s not always possible to be certain whether a film character is meant to have albinism or just be “pasty”. I think it’s rather silly to include characters like the vampire in **Nosferatu** , who’s pale because he’s _dead_, but many on the list obviously are meant to be people with albinism. Quite a few are even named “The Albino”. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/38 "2005-01-24T17:53:05Z")
Not a movie, but there are the mutant “Autumn Brothers” in the Jonah Hex comic, which made news because the characters were based on Johnny and Edgar Winter, who objected. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/39 "2005-01-24T22:48:57Z")
Well, there was the exchange student who was actually a spy, collecting information about the Springfield nuclear power plant… Oh, wait… he was Albanian. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287/40 "2005-01-24T23:18:14Z")
Does anime count? They have a lot of creepily pale people who are a lot more than they seem. Unfortunately, my mind is drawing a rather large blank at the moment, so I’ll just nominate two from Neon Genesis Evangelion: Kaworu Nagisa. He’s the 17th Angel, revealed as such when he hijacks Unit 02 and tries to end the world. He talks Shinji into killing him, though. Ayanami Rei, sort of. She’s the clone of Shinji’s mother, mixed with cells from Lillith. At the end of the series, she merges with Lillith and becomes a gigantic version of herself, creating a massive field of energy that causes humanity to turn into Orange Tang. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-albinos-in-films-possible-spoilers/286287.md?page=1)