# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/41 "2005-05-23T18:46:16Z")
The spectacularly handsome Laurence Olivier wore a fake nose, prosthetic warts, and a very unbecoming wig in _Richard III_. ---
**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, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/42 "2005-05-23T19:04:51Z")
Whereas when Gerard Depardieu put on a fake nose for Cyrano de Bergerac … … he looked pretty much the same. ---
**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, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/43 "2005-05-23T19:30:32Z")
How about Jose Ferrer as Cyrano? Or Steve Martin, for that matter? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/44 "2005-05-23T22:49:04Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Jeri Ryan didn’t have much going for her as a Borg. About 60,000 star trek fans with restraining orders would beg to differ. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/45 "2005-05-24T01:22:11Z")
Nastassja Kinski was supposed to be ugly as Susie the Bear in **The Hotel New Hampshire**. She wasn’t, of course. A really bizarre casting choice. ---
**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 24, 2005, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/46 "2005-05-24T11:53:12Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > About 60,000 star trek fans with restraining orders would beg to differ. You like baldheaded women with Borg implants and clunky armor? :eek: ---
**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 24, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/47 "2005-05-24T13:27:34Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > You like baldheaded women with Borg implants and clunky armor? :eek: And a grey, splotchy complexion? ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/48 "2005-05-24T16:33:26Z")
Regarding Johnny Depp - He may try to hide his extreme good looks, but I don’t think he succeeds. and re Jeri Ryan, she pretty much had to get a restraining order against her husband, if I recall. (He was caught out trying to sell her “services”, without her consent. Apparently he thought there was a demand.) ---
**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 24, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/49 "2005-05-24T17:44:04Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > and re Jeri Ryan, she pretty much had to get a restraining order against her husband, if I recall. (He was caught out trying to sell her “services”, without her consent. Apparently he thought there was a demand.) As much as I might celebrate the victory of Barack Obama, I would like to nip this one in the bud. So far as I know, Tim Ryan did express an interest in swinging, but Jeri Ryan said he never forced her to do anything she didn’t agree to and when she said she didn’t like it, it stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/50 "2005-05-24T18:00:31Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > 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. Also, Pike’s first name was Christopher, not Jeremy. And I believe Jeffrey Hunter was already dead when they made that episode, so it’s almost a shame they didn’t hire him to reprise the role. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/51 "2005-05-24T18:09:01Z")
Elizabeth Taylor in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/52 "2005-05-24T18:59:54Z")
> [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > Tangentially related, but [Janeane Garofalo](http://www.sergioleone.net/mm-14.jpg) was supposed to be the ugly one in _The Truth About Cats and Dogs_. What? She’s adorable. She only thought of herself as the ugly one. She thought she was fat, short, dark and not as beautiful as the leggy blonde model (Uma Thurman). Kevin Spacey (not a hunk, but pretty good looking) in the awful “Pay it Forward”. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/53 "2005-05-24T20:59:23Z")
Thanks for the correction, Ascenray. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/54 "2005-05-25T00:56:01Z")
How about [Benicio Del Toro](http://cine.eldiariomontanes.es/datos/protagonistas/fotos/protagonista300104f1.jpg) as [Dr. Gonzo](http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0120669/fllv1.jpg) in Fear and Loathing? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040/55 "2005-06-15T10:58:20Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > 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.** I disagree with the bolded statement. I thought the idea was that to a bunch of horny Marines in 1963, anyone who didn’t fit the mold was automatically ugly. The middle ground was far narrower in those days, and the kind of people who would host a “dogfight” would be pretty darn superficial to begin with. Daryl Hannah was originally turned down for her role in **Steel Magnolias** , but showed up for an audition anyway, so thoroughly deglammed no one recognized her. Makes one wonder how a lot of famous beauties would look if they let themselves go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-hollywood-stars-known-for-their-good-looks-intentionally-played-ugly-people/305040.md?page=2)