storyteller0910, I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your “Deconstructing Musical Theatre” newsletter… 
RL example is Bruno Hauptmann, convicted in the Lindberg Kidnapping.
Wow, definitely.
Sort of. I won’t spoil the film, but while there’s a definate menace to Williams’ character, he’s not, strictly speaking, evil.
pokepoke Check the OP 
Also, dentists and surgeons, I wouldn’t quite call tradesmen, since they’re “Professionals”. Not sure where the fuzzy line is, but the difference is probably that certification as a professional usually requires some lengthy time in school, while it might merely help to have gone to college if you want to be a tradesman.
An interesting argument could be made for computer programmers though.
Probably not really a “tradesman”, but the first character to come to mind on reading the thread title was Pete Dexter’s Paris Trout, who owned and ran a small town general store.
But, the film developer in Red Dragon was… :eek:
In Superman’s world, Prankster was a TV show host and Toyman made truck mudflaps with naked-lady silhouettes. No, wait a minute…he made something else…what the heck did he make? (scratching head)
The Fantastic Four’s enemy Pupper Master made high-quality leather jackets. No, wait a minute, I’m getting confused again…
In World of Warcraft, one of the earliest Alliance instance villains, Edwin Van Cleef, was a stonemason who became a villain because he got screwed over by the corrupt Stormwind government (who refused to pay him for all the work he and his fellow masons did rebuilding the city).
Frankly, I sympathize with him. I felt almost bad when I had to chop his head off.
Jigsaw, from the Saw franchise, was some kind of puppet/toy maker.
Christ, name me a toymaker (besides Santa Claus, mkay?) who ISN’T evil.
Oh, another puppet-maker who went bad - Cameron Diaz’s husband from Being John Malkovich. I forgot his name.
In the miserable The Postman, the head bad guy says he used to be a copier repairer before the end of the world.
Hmm maybe it was copier salesman, I’ve tried to scrub the memories from my brain.
Petter the toymaker in The Book of Silence is actually something of a hero. He has the ability to build mechanical toys imbued with magic so that they do things that should be impossible, like a wind up brass seagull that can actually fly.
His home, the valley of Orgul used to be inhabited by an enormous dragon; one capable of destroying armies and killing all the would be-heros that went against it. Until, that is, the local peasants got tired of it and simply fed the thing some poisoned sheep; peasant practicality > St George . However, they were then in danger from their ambitious neghbors, who would likely conquer them if they didn’t need to worry about a dragon cooking their army. So, they went to Petter, and with their help he built an enormous wind-up “toy” dragon, one that flew and even had coal-fueled flaming breath. It takes all day to wind the thing, and ten people inside to fly it. When any would-be heros or invaders show up, they get buzzed by the flaming dragon until they panic and run away.
Xerox salesman. I love that movie.
The Toymaker in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
Brian
Well there are the three guys from Office Space who steal pennies from the crippled children…or something like that.
Jim Carrey in “The Cable Guy.”
Jerry Lundegard (William H. Macy) in “Fargo.”
Marvel antivillain The Walrus (framed; click on link “Guys Who Should’ve, Ought’ve Known Better . . .” and then scroll down middle frame and click on “The Walrus”) was a cab driver, given superhuman powers of Mass Destruction by his mad-scientist uncle, who was a janitor.
His mad scientist/janitor uncle also has superhuman powers; I remember the scene when he gave Walrus his powers; from memory :
Uncle : “See what happens when I ram this huge beam into you ? Not even a scratch !”
< smashes a several foot wide wooden beam into the Walrus; it splinters >
Walrus : “Uhhhh . . . Uncle, how did you pick up that huge beam ?”
Unlce : “Never mind that !”