# What actors best known for comic/heroic/sympathetic roles would make good villains? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392 "2010-06-24T18:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/21 "2010-06-24T23:01:36Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Kristen Bell - I could see her as a Richard Gloucester type of manipulative villain. She plays smart very well (see “Veronica Mars”), and she’s just plain likeable. She already played a scheming little weasel on Deadwood. Her little plot was actually more than a little disturbing and cemented my fascination with that show. > [@](#): > > I’m speaking of Shakespeare’s character, here - I know the real Richard III was very likely a decent man. Shakespeare aside, he actually _doesn’t_ seem to have been a particularly nice man. More a cold, ambitious climber who seized every opportunity he got. Quite competent and capable, but unpleasant. And I lean to the opinion ( following at least one of his biographers ) that he was much more likely than not responsible for his nephews disposal. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/22 "2010-06-24T23:14:07Z")
Arnold Schwarzenneger will be looking for some film roles after his term as Governor expires . . . and I haven’t seen him play a bad guy since _Terminator._ I bet he could do a great Neo-Nazi or something. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/23 "2010-06-25T06:07:13Z")
Henry Fonda was the epitome of evil in Once Upon a Time in the West. I can’t think of another villain role he’s done and Leone casted him specifically because he was always a good guy. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/24 "2010-06-25T06:35:52Z")
Don Knotts was - if not really a _villain_, quite menacing in Pleasantville. It was quite a difference from the “incompetent, yet essentially good-hearted doofus” roles for which he’s most familiar. (Mr. Furley, Barney Fife) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/25 "2010-06-25T06:54:21Z")
Steve Martin was pretty bad-ass in _The Spanish Prisoner_. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/26 "2010-06-25T07:07:55Z")
I caught part of an old movie featuring Andy Griffith as a villain. I thought he did a good job, but Aunt Bea woulda taken a switch to him if she’d known. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/27 "2010-06-25T07:37:14Z")
Donny Osmond would make a swell sniper or spree killer. He’d take his shot, from the Texas Tower or wherever, and then (with an impenetrable smile) chug down a cold glass of milk. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/28 "2010-06-25T08:18:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Arnold Schwarzenneger will be looking for some film roles after his term as Governor expires . . . and I haven’t seen him play a bad guy since _Terminator._ I bet he could do a great Neo-Nazi or something. How odd, last week we watched both conan movies on cable, and mrAru and I though that he would be good in one of the Conan as the Old King stories. I know he is woefully out of shape now, but I would be willing to bet he could get back into _reasonable_ shape for an ‘old king’ type role fairly fast. All he needs is to tighten up, not really bulk out like he was competeing again. > [@74westy](#): > > Henry Fonda was the epitome of evil in Once Upon a Time in the West. I can’t think of another villain role he’s done and Leone casted him specifically because he was always a good guy. He was amazing in that part, that level stare with those blue eyes is chilling. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/29 "2010-06-25T09:36:10Z")
Patrick Stewart would make for an excellent Bond villain. ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/30 "2010-06-25T12:23:17Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Patrick Stewart would make for an excellent Bond villain. Make it so. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/31 "2010-06-25T12:30:54Z")
Has Ian McKellan ever played a really good villain in a non comic book role? Something about him makes me think he could… I’d love to see him in an Adelai Niska kind of role, that sweet grandfatherly type who’s just pure evil underneath. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/32 "2010-06-25T13:15:48Z")
I remember Leslie Nilsen was great in Creepshow, though I don’t know if he ever played a bad guy before that. Has Mr. Monk ever done a villian? Or Simon Pegg could do crazy very easily, I think. He’s got intense eyes. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/33 "2010-06-25T13:25:03Z")
I’d like to see a perky ingenue – Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Kate Hudson, Reese Witherspoon – make a go at playing a hellbitch femme fatale. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/34 "2010-06-25T13:25:13Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I remember Leslie Nilsen was great in Creepshow, though I don’t know if he ever played a bad guy before that. Not sure about before, but he was a credible bad guy in [Nuts](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093660/). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/35 "2010-06-25T14:16:51Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Patrick Stewart would make for an excellent Bond villain. He already played a villain - Macro in I, Claudius. He was the head of the Praetorian Guard under Tiberius, let Caligula do his wife and purportedly helped Caligula murder Tiberius. Not a nice person. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/36 "2010-06-25T15:46:48Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Patrick Stewart would make for an excellent Bond villain. He was also a bad guy in [\*Conspiracy Theory](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118883/)\*. **Skald the Rhymer** I’ve never seen Scrubs. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen her in anything other than _The Good Wife_. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/37 "2010-06-25T16:06:22Z")
George Clooney would be good in a [Stepfather](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094035/) like role - a character who everyone thinks is a great guy but who is secretly a serial killer. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/38 "2010-06-25T16:09:42Z")
Patrick Stewart’s character on _American Dad_ may not officially be a villain but he certainly is in the nieghbourhood. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/39 "2010-06-25T16:12:46Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Steve Martin was pretty bad-ass in _The Spanish Prisoner_. Not to mention Little Shop of Horrors. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/40 "2010-06-25T16:13:47Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I caught part of an old movie featuring Andy Griffith as a villain. I thought he did a good job, but Aunt Bea woulda taken a switch to him if she’d known. Was it [A Face in the Crowd](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050371/)? Great movie that continues to be relevant today. Or it could have been [Savages](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072116/), a not so great movie but it had the advantage of being right on the heels of a long run of Griffith as the amiable, good hearted hick with country smarts (notably Sheriff Andy Taylor, but reaching back to Private Stockdale in _No Time for Sergeants_). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392.md?page=3)