# Lead Characters Who Commit Murder **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548 "2011-06-15T11:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/101 "2011-06-21T12:49:27Z")
Ronald Colman won an Oscar for the lead role in the 1948 film _A Double Life_, in which he plays Broadway star Anthony John, a disturbed man who kills Shelley Winters, a waitress he picks up in a coffee shop. He later almost takes the role of Othello too far and comes close to strangling his costar on stage. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/102 "2011-06-21T15:26:06Z")
Pick any gangster movie. All the _Godfather_ movies, _Scarface_, etc. If they just organize the murder do you still count it? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/103 "2011-06-21T22:34:12Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > Pick any gangster movie. All the _Godfather_ movies, _Scarface_, etc. > > If they just organize the murder do you still count it? To be fair, in _The Godfather_, Micheal Corleone did shoot the Turk and Captain McCluskey (in the restaurant, with the revolver) ---
**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:** [June 21, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/104 "2011-06-21T23:50:18Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Ronald Colman won an Oscar for the lead role in the 1948 film _A Double Life_, in which he plays Broadway star Anthony John, a disturbed man who kills Shelley Winters, a waitress he picks up in a coffee shop. Oh, that reminds me! The dashing lead played by Montgomery Clift in [_A Place in the Sun_ (1951)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043924/) does a Scott Peterson number on Shelley Winters - not that she was “the bad guy” in any meaningful sense apart from being dreadfully whiny and annoying and really _unforgivably_ frumpy when contrasted with Elizabeth Taylor. Remember: If you want your audience to retain _some_ sympathy for a protagonist that’s going to commit murder, be sure to cast Shelley Winters as the victim - she’s your girl! (She got the Oscar for this one. Deserved it, too! I would have held her under.) ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/105 "2011-06-22T12:17:40Z")
Shelley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for _A Place in the Sun_, but didn’t win. Her first Oscar didn’t come till 1959, for _The Diary of Anne Frank_, and her second in 1965 for _A Patch of Blue_. She suffered another watery death and Oscar nomination in 1972 in _The Poseidon Adventure_. And the movie version of A Place in the Sun leaves it somewhat ambiguous about the drowning – Clift’s character plans to kill her, but apparently changes his mind – when at the last minute she stands up in the boat. Idiot. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/106 "2011-06-22T14:58:22Z")
In Hunt for Red October, Sean Connery’s character (Ramius) kills the political officer on board in pretty cold blood. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548.md?page=5)