# Prof. X...first non-villain in a wheelchair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613 "2017-03-20T15:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/21 "2017-03-20T17:12:29Z")
IIRC, Bedivere was a Knight of the Round Table who got by just fine with one hand. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/22 "2017-03-20T17:22:07Z")
Tyr was a Norse god with only a left hand. He put his right hand (“thy SWORD hand, O Tyr!”) into Fenris’ mouth as a pledge that Fenris wasn’t being tricked when being bound by the last chain made by the dwarves, from women’s beards, the sound of a cat’s footsteps, and something else I can’t recall. Samson was blind when he brought down the Philistines’ house at his death, if that counts. > [@](#): > > Going waaay back: the ancient Greek god Hephaestus was born deformed. His mama Hera cast him out bodily from Olympus, and he limped ever since. I thought he was crippled by the fall, when Zeus threw him out for interfering in a domestic dispute between Zeus and Hera. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/23 "2017-03-20T17:24:05Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > [Is Xavier really that good?](http://www.cracked.com/video_20040_why-professor-x-really-villain-x-men-universe.html) > > Stranger [Professor X - Evil Genius?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=240918) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/24 "2017-03-20T17:56:00Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Professor X - Evil Genius?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=240918) Also, [“Wolverine the Most Useless X-Man”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh-ao-lyEww) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/25 "2017-03-20T21:05:50Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > From DC’s _My Greatest Adventure_, June 1963, we have the Doom Patrol with the Chief (Niles Caulder), also in a wheelchair. The Chief turned out to be even more evil than Xavier. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/26 "2017-03-20T21:49:00Z")
In the 1928 film _West of Zanzibar_ (based on the 1926 play _Kongo_) Lon Chaney’s character is a paraplegic. He starts out as a villain, then redeems himself at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/27 "2017-03-20T21:57:46Z")
Does Dr. John H. Watson (1887) count with his gunshot wound? > [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Going waaay back: the ancient Greek god Hephaestus was born deformed. His mama Hera cast him out bodily from Olympus, and he limped ever since. There’s [Pelopes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelops) who was granted an ivory shoulder by the gods after his pop pop served him as food. > [@Shodan](#): > > Tyr was a Norse god with only a left hand. He put his right hand (“thy SWORD hand, O Tyr!”) into Fenris’ mouth as a pledge that Fenris wasn’t being tricked when being bound by the last chain made by the dwarves, from women’s beards, the sound of a cat’s footsteps, and something else I can’t recall. And there’s, of course, Odin with his one eye. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/28 "2017-03-20T22:02:02Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Going waaay back: the ancient Greek god Hephaestus was born deformed. His mama Hera cast him out bodily from Olympus, and he limped ever since. The Romans retconned him into a swole super-stud who totally satisfied Venus. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/29 "2017-03-20T22:18:45Z")
As with anything there’s a [tvtropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HandicappedBadass) page for this (though not all qualify as “good”) There’s Poe’s Hop-Frog (1849) [which I recently read but forgot about] And there’s the Aztec Tezcatlipoca and Inuit Sedna [also forgot] ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/30 "2017-03-20T22:21:51Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > And there’s, of course, Odin with his one eye. Mimir, same mythos, minus his entire body. (After the Aesir/Vanir war he exists as a literal talking head). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/31 "2017-03-21T00:58:33Z")
The two cases in films I can think of where a secondary character is in a wheelchair for no reason essential to the plot are Gina McKee’s character in _Notting Hill_ and Brian Doyle Murray’s character in _Modern Problems_. In both movies, the character’s disability wasn’t used to show that they were good or evil or that the disability was a metaphor for something. They were in wheelchairs just because a certain proportion of people use wheelchairs and the screenwriter decided that the character should be one of those people. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/32 "2017-03-21T01:30:36Z")
I thought the reason why Gina McKee’s character was in a wheelchair in _Notting Hill_ was so Julia Roberts’ character could deliver one of the most embarrassing monologues ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/33 "2017-03-21T08:42:39Z")
What monologue are you talking about? I don’t remember it. In any case, I think that Gina McKee’s character is in a wheelchair for the same reason that David Bower’s character is deaf in _Four Weddings and a Funeral_, which was also written by Richard Curtis. Curtis thinks it’s important to have disabled characters in films, not because they are particularly good or evil or make nice metaphors but because some people are disabled. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/34 "2017-03-21T14:26:23Z")
Douglas Bader in ‘Reach for the sky’ 1956. Certainly not a villain, but not fictional either. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/35 "2017-03-21T14:55:28Z")
I’m surprised no one mentioned Captain Pike in ST:TOS “The Menagerie”. Admittedly he didn’t do much - or indeed anything - in his wheelchair-bound scenes. Just to throw in a modern protagonist in a wheelchair played by an actor in a wheelchair: [Liz Carr](https://lizcarr.co.uk/) who has played Clarissa Mullery on BBC’s _Silent Witness_ since 2013. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/36 "2017-03-21T15:03:05Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Mimir, same mythos, minus his entire body. (After the Aesir/Vanir war he exists as a literal talking head). Also from the Edda, there was the blind god Höðr. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/37 "2017-03-21T17:25:44Z")
Wasn’t Hari Seldon (the Foundation series) in a wheelchair. Or did he just always appear sitting in his holograph message thingys? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/38 "2017-03-21T20:30:28Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > The Romans retconned him into a swole super-stud who totally satisfied Venus. It’s been awhile since I’ve read Roman myths but I was under the impression that Venus was forced to marry what’s his face as punishment for something. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/39 "2017-03-21T21:48:00Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’m surprised no one mentioned Captain Pike in ST:TOS “The Menagerie”. Admittedly he didn’t do much - or indeed anything - in his wheelchair-bound scenes. He beeped with integrity. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613/40 "2017-03-21T22:12:43Z")
And the version I’d heard of the Vulcan-Venus myths was that Venus chose Vulcan as her husband because, as he pointed out, he works nights (and hence, would be easy to cheat on). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prof-x-first-non-villain-in-a-wheelchair/782613.md?page=3)