# This actor is GUILTY AS SIN **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137 "2005-11-29T00:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/1 "2005-11-29T00:09:27Z")
I’m talking about the one actor who, in whatever movie, is guilty as sin from the get-go. Its not a “shock” that he turns out to be the bad guy all along! Take your pick from Sean Bean, Gary Sinese, Peter Saarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon… whenever I see these guys I’m just waiting for them to double-cross the hero. They just scream guilty! I wouldnt be suprised if, during CSI:NY, Gary Sinese turned out to be the murderer, week after week. Am i missing anyone? There doesnt seem to be any actresses that fit this bracket though. Anyone else with a really guilty look on their face? ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/2 "2005-11-29T00:12:56Z")
Michael Gross (formerly the dad from _Family Ties_) is always the-one-who-did-it. Especially if its an episode of _Law and Order_, or\* Murder She Wrote \* or some made-for-TV movie. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/3 "2005-11-29T00:34:54Z")
> [@bubastis](#): > > I’m talking about the one actor who, in whatever movie, is guilty as sin from the get-go. Its not a “shock” that he turns out to be the bad guy all along! Take your pick from Sean Bean, Gary Sinese, Peter Saarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon… whenever I see these guys I’m just waiting for them to double-cross the hero. They just scream guilty! I wouldnt be suprised if, during CSI:NY, Gary Sinese turned out to be the murderer, week after week. Am i missing anyone? There doesnt seem to be any actresses that fit this bracket though. Anyone else with a really guilty look on their face? But… but… Kiefer Sutherland is Jack Bauer! The only guy who could take Batman, Deathstroke, Captain America, or a pissed-off Buffy Summers in a fair fight! He can’t be the bad guy! ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/4 "2005-11-29T00:38:32Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > But… but… Kiefer Sutherland is Jack Bauer! The only guy who could take Batman, Deathstroke, Captain America, or a pissed-off Buffy Summers in a fair fight! He can’t be the bad guy! That’s what he **wants** you to think. The other 364 days of the year, he’s plotting his bloody takeover bid. ---
**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:** [November 29, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/5 "2005-11-29T00:39:42Z")
And Gary Sinise is _Stu Redman_, man! He’s East Texas integrity incarnate. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/6 "2005-11-29T00:42:48Z")
Sean Bean. The poor son of a bitch; he’s typecast as the bad guy for life. His face says “I did it.” If he could have any other career, he’d be a butler. If Sean Bean starred in a movie as Jesus Christ, somehow things would go so wrong that, by the end of the movie, Jesus would murder Moses. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/7 "2005-11-29T00:51:17Z")
Alan Rickman. It’s the voice. ---
**Author:** ![Mapache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@Mapache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mapache)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/8 "2005-11-29T00:51:23Z")
How about the Swedish actor Peter Stormare, of whose acting I am kind of a fan. Never seems to get to play anything but creeps: (I don’t know what his Swedish roles were like before he got to Hollywood.) A mostly wordless psycopath in Fargo (at the end he grinds up his ex-partner in a wood chipper); producer of snuff pornography in 8mm; sadistic zapper of, and eventually eaten by) little dinosaurs in The Lost World; imbecile “nihilist” in The Big Lebowski; drunken wife-beater in Chocolat…does he ever get a good guy part? ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/9 "2005-11-29T00:59:54Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > But… but… Kiefer Sutherland is Jack Bauer! The only guy who could take Batman, Deathstroke, Captain America, or a pissed-off Buffy Summers in a fair fight! He can’t be the bad guy! Ok, maybe Kiefer has mellowed abit, but there was a day when he was the most untrustable hoodlum ever seen… He seems to have handled this mantle down to his son, Peter Saarsgard. Peter stars in a recent movie, I’m sure you know which one, and from his first appearance, he may as well have a t-shirt on saying “Yep. It was me. Guilty party, right here.” Please note, Peter Saarsgard is no relation to Kiefer Sutherland, well, not that I know of. Just a freaky resemblence. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/10 "2005-11-29T01:11:31Z")
How could anyone not have yet mentioned [Michael Ironside](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000461/) yet? If you ever see his face and he’s not presented as the obvious villain, he will undoubtedly be a “surprise” villain later in the movie, guaranteed. D ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/11 "2005-11-29T01:22:17Z")
[Michael Madsen](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000514/)! OK, so he was surprising as the dad in the “Free Willy” movies, but besides that, he’s scaring the crap out of people in films like Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/12 "2005-11-29T01:28:23Z")
Speaking as John Voight, I’d just like to say how very much I agree with **bubastis** ’ OP, and that I have no hesitation about throwing my support wholeheartedly behind this worthy endeavor. **smiles tightly and moves up to stand about a pace behind bubastis** ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/13 "2005-11-29T01:33:48Z")
Everything I can think of that I’ve seen [Christopher Walken](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000686/) in has had him as The Bad Guy. Count me in on the Sean Bean pity party. Even Boromir looked shifty! ☹ And I _like_ Bean. ---
**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:** [November 29, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/14 "2005-11-29T01:40:56Z")
> [@lizardling](#): > > Everything I can think of that I’ve seen [Christopher Walken](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000686/) in has had him as The Bad Guy. Check out _Scotland, PA_. It’s _MacBeth_ set in a 1970’s fast-food franchise. Walken plays the MacDuff role. He was also the hero in the _Dead Zone_ movie. I like him better as a good guy, but maybe that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/15 "2005-11-29T02:17:09Z")
Before _That 70s Show_, **Kurtwood Smith** was always a bad guy, sometimes a real nasty one too. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/16 "2005-11-29T02:24:39Z")
Joaquin Phoenix. Beginning with “Parenthood” he just look like he’s about to do bad things to people. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/17 "2005-11-29T02:27:04Z")
I beg to disagree on two actors mentioned. Gary Sinese was definitely NOT the bad guy in _Of Mice and Men_. And Alan Rickman was the \*\*Voice of God \*\* in _Dogma_. Assuredly NOT a bad guy. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/18 "2005-11-29T02:40:08Z")
Have to agree with Sarsgaard. How can someone who seems so laid back be so evil time and time again? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/19 "2005-11-29T02:48:10Z")
Christopher Lee James Cromwell A friend of mine can’t watch any movies with Damon/Affleck because “they look a fratboy date rape waiting to happen”. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137/20 "2005-11-29T03:02:26Z")
How about Amanda Plummer and Miranda Richardson? They’re basically walking spoilers for any whodunnit they appear in. Kevin Spacey. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-actor-is-guilty-as-sin/333137.md?page=2)