# How many hollywood stars known for their good looks intentionally played ugly people **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040 "2005-05-23T03:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/21 "2005-05-23T09:15:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > most notably in _[Edward Scissorhands](http://www.justmarystuff.com/filterfrenzy/edward.jpg)_. Obviously you’re not a Goth 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/22 "2005-05-23T09:18:31Z")
I’m more of a Vandal. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/23 "2005-05-23T12:16:51Z")
Eric Stoltz in “Mask” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/24 "2005-05-23T12:52:32Z")
Robert DeNiro in **Raging Bull** – especially in the scenes as the older, fat Marciano. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/25 "2005-05-23T12:55:01Z")
Joan Crawford in _A Woman’s Face_ (1941) Norma Shearer, makeup-less in the amusingly titled _Let Us Be Gay_ (1930) Mary Pickford as a crippled Cockney in _Stella Maris_ (1918) ---
**Author:** ![Fringe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b5a626/32.png) [@Fringe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fringe)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/26 "2005-05-23T13:56:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m more of a Vandal. Touche. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/27 "2005-05-23T14:06:09Z")
Laurie Mitchell in **Queen of Outer Space** (“Men! Men did this to me!”) Marlene Dietrich (when all is said and done) in **Witness for the Prosecution** One of the women in **The Brain/Head that Wouldn’t Die** You couldn’t cal him beautiful, I’ll grant you, but John Hurt in **The Elephant Man**. Not to mention Anthony Parker as Merrick in **From Hell**. And all those women of whom they say – “Why, Miss Jones, without your glasses you’re _beautiful!_” Hollywood has a different standard of ugly (and fat) than the rest of us. Just for once I want to hear: “Why, Miss Jones, without _my_ glasses you’re _beautiful!_” ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/28 "2005-05-23T14:10:38Z")
**Raging Bull** was about Jake La Motta, not Rocky Marciano. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Robert DeNiro in **Raging Bull** – especially in the scenes as the older, fat Marciano. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/29 "2005-05-23T14:40:11Z")
Ralph Fiennes as Dolarhyde in _Red Dragon_. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/30 "2005-05-23T15:09:12Z")
> [@UrbanChic](#): > > Ralph Fiennes as Dolarhyde in _Red Dragon_. :dubious: I tought he looked as good as ever. Unless you think that little scar from the cleft palate was as horribly disfiguing as Dolarhyde did. Not to say he was all that _attractive_ in the movie but he was unattractive as a character. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/31 "2005-05-23T15:52:04Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Michelle Pfeiffer starred in [Frankie & Johnny](http://imdb.com/title/tt0101912/) as a “plain jane” waitress. It was based on a Terrance McNally play about a love affair between two decidedly unglamorous people and, of course, was Californicated into… well, a role for Michelle Pfeiffer. Wasn’t it originally supposed to be Kathy Bates or someone like that? > [@](#): > > Jeffrey Hunter’s only action-figure role was as the horribly deformed Jeremy Pike in _Star Trek_. That episode (the pilot rewritten and adapted into a two-parter) Hunter appeared only as the handsome Pike in the scenes taken from the original pilot episode. The uglified Pike was played by Sean Kenney. _But_, the Vina character, played by Susan Oliver, was horribly deformed; however, in most of the scenes, she appeared as the beautiful Oliver, because Pike was under the influence of the Talosians’ mind powers. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/32 "2005-05-23T15:55:14Z")
Lily Taylor may not be known as a true Hollywood Beauty, but I think she’s pretty hot. She was uglified in Dogfight, a movie that would have been more convincing had they cast a truly ugly woman in the lead role. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/33 "2005-05-23T16:00:25Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Mickey Rourke in _Johnny Handsome_ and _Sin City_. > > (Okay, he’s not my idea of a really handsome guy, especially since he went in for pro boxing. I was shocked at his appearance on a recent David Letterman. It looked like he still had some of his Marv makeup on.) Not really a handsome guy? Okay, he was handsome back in the _9 1/2 Weeks_ days. But today, my god, he’s just as ugly as Marv in _Sin City_. They hardly had to do anything to him. If anything, the stylised visuals of the movie somewhat hid the true horror that is Mickey Rourke’s [monstrous visage](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000620/). As our antipodean friends might say, he’s as ugly as a hatful of monkey’s arseholes. He’s continually bothered by swarms of spinster toads trying to kiss him in search of their cursed princes. After Rourke got beaten ugly, the ugly stick had to be sent back to the factory for mending. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/34 "2005-05-23T16:01:10Z")
Raymond Massey (not a hunk, I’ll grant, but not ugly) as the scarred older brotherpsycho killer in _Arsenic and Old Lace_ ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/35 "2005-05-23T16:48:52Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Count me as another who only noticed Cameron Diaz was actually attractive in _Being John Malkovich_. I will 3rd that. Her hair frizz thing was different and although she was a nut, she was a hot not. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/36 "2005-05-23T17:45:34Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Bette Davis (never a glamourpuss, but IMHO strikingly attractive), _Mr Skeffington_ (for later scenes so may not count) and _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_ (although she was past her best days she certainly wasn’t as hideous as Jane Hudson) Don’t forget the dowdy, frumpy wallflower she played in _Now, Voyager_ (although this is another role in which the actress merely takes off her glasses to become Beautiful.) Pretty boy Jared Leto got his face bashed in (literally) and stayed that way for the last half of _Fight Club_. Cher went from frumpy to knockout in _Moonstruck_. This was, of course, before she became a human waxwork and perennial “awful plastic [surgery.com](http://surgery.com)” featurette. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/37 "2005-05-23T17:58:21Z")
Jeri Ryan didn’t have much going for her as a Borg. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/38 "2005-05-23T18:06:18Z")
Nicole Kidman playing Virginia Woolf in **The Hours**. Prosthetic nose and everything. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/39 "2005-05-23T18:11:51Z")
Farrah Fawcett was decidely unglamorous in _The Burning Bed_. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/40 "2005-05-23T18:29:17Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Nicole Kidman playing Virginia Woolf in **The Hours**. Prosthetic nose and everything. I hate to cry “not ugly” more than once, but Virginia Woolf, in her prime, was [_smokin’_](http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/rarebook/exhibitions/images/penandpress/large/4c_woolf_1902.jpg) – and although the years weren’t any kinder to her than they are to anyone, _The Hours_ was _much_ kinder. In the film, she was still beautiful when she went wading. Grrr. Don’t be talkin’ sh\*t about Ginny. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040.md?page=3)