# How many films has J Edgar Hoover been the villain in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889 "2009-12-03T20:43:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/1 "2009-12-03T20:43:34Z")
I just caught the tail end the the film Chaplin wherein Hoover seems to be the main villain. In another film I saw recently, I think it was Public Enemies he was also the villain of the piece. What other films is he the baddie or otherwise represented in a bad light? ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/2 "2009-12-03T21:12:27Z")
There’s Oliver Stone’s _Nixon_. Not only does it make him to be a bad guy, but it also portrays as a flaming homosexual - IIRC there was one scene where he was making out with the pool boy. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/3 "2009-12-03T21:29:07Z")
The 1983 miniseries “Kennedy” shows him poorly. Gardenia’s portrayal is almost funny, though. The mid 70s biopic “The Private Files of J Edgard Hoover”, however, done a couple of years after his death is worth a look-see. Broderick Crawford plays him as somewhat complex. Not really a pure villain, but greatly flawed, not beneath some skulduggery, and in some ways even sympathetic. In recent years, though, the tendency has been toward a more cartoonish version. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/4 "2009-12-03T21:37:01Z")
J. Edgar in a bad light? I’m sure there are plenty that make references to the allegations of cross-dressing but I can’t think of any right now. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/5 "2009-12-03T22:15:04Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > J. Edgar in a bad light? I’m sure there are plenty that make references to the allegations of cross-dressing but I can’t think of any right now. **Sliders** did an episode set where the gang slid into a universe where J. Edgar seized control of the US in a coup and the country remained a reactionary dictatorship well after his death. Amonge other things popular music was based on 50s showtunes and all policemen wore plain black “kilts”. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/6 "2009-12-03T22:17:34Z")
Actually, I’d be hard pressed to think of a movie where he hasn’t been portrayed as a villain and/or light in the loafers. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/7 "2009-12-03T22:19:58Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > J. Edgar in a bad light? I’m sure there are plenty that make references to the allegations of cross-dressing but I can’t think of any right now. One is the the 90’s revival of “Damn Yankees” on Broadway (which I did not see; just remembering a review). In the SNL sketch with Broderick Crawford, he was told by some enemy that the enemy had documentation that he was a “virgin”, which I imagine was code for something or other. I always assumed Smithers from The Simpsons was based on Clyde Tolsom. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/8 "2009-12-03T22:58:11Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Actually, I’d be hard pressed to think of a movie where he hasn’t been portrayed as a villain and/or light in the loafers. He wasn’t portrayed as a bad guy in **Public Enemies**. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/9 "2009-12-04T00:32:21Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Actually, I’d be hard pressed to think of a movie where he hasn’t been portrayed as a villain and/or light in the loafers. Communism… was a Red herring. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-films-has-j-edgar-hoover-been-the-villain-in/519889/10 "2009-12-04T00:41:23Z")
Does it have to be theatrical films? In the A&E adaptation of the Rex Stout mystery _The Doorbell Rang_, detective Nero Wolfe is hired by a woman who was being followed/harassed by the FBI after distributing copies of [Fred J. Cook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_J._Cook)’s exposé, _The FBI Nobody Knows_. Wolfe’s contempt for Hoover and what he sees as abuse of power leads him to accept the case and take on the ‘great man’ himself. Hoover doesn’t personally appear in either the book or the adaptation… Though his appearance at Wolfe’s door is referred to, albeit not shown. After Wolfe bests him, he rings the doorbell to see Wolfe … who refuses to let him in.