# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/41 "2010-06-25T16:14:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I could see Ashton Kutcher as a serial killer. You mean he isn’t?? ---
**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, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/42 "2010-06-25T16:29:09Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > Was it [A Face in the Crowd](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050371/)? Great movie that continues to be relevant today. I think so. If I remember right, the movie was done in black and white, and “Lonesome Rhodes” rings a bell as the character name. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/43 "2010-06-25T17:15:55Z")
[Paul Rudd](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0748620/) usually plays low-key nice-guy characters, but there always seems to be something going on beneath the surface. I think he’d be chillingly convincing as a calculating killer. ---
**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, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/44 "2010-06-25T17:17:59Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > 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. No, Patrick Stewart played **Sejanus** in _I, Claudius._ Different villain. Macro was played by John Rhys-Davies. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/45 "2010-06-25T17:36:07Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Has Ian McKellan ever played a really good villain in a non comic book role? He played a Nazi war criminal turned serial killer in _Apt Pupil_. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/46 "2010-06-25T17:40:53Z")
Alan Tudyk, known normally for playing comic relief and sympathetic nice guy types (or, in some cases, [both](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoban_Washburne#Hoban_Washburne)), was terrifying as Alpha in “Dollhouse.” ---
**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, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/47 "2010-06-25T17:42:00Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > He played a Nazi war criminal turned serial killer in _Apt Pupil_. Was he a bad guy about it, or was it a story of his remorse and redemption? I remember when it came out, but I don’t think I ever saw it. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/48 "2010-06-25T17:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Has Ian McKellan ever played a really good villain in a non comic book role? [/QUOTE] > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > He played a Nazi war criminal turned serial killer in _Apt Pupil_. McKellan also played Richard III in the film adaptation of the play set in fascist 1930s Europe. ---
**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, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/49 "2010-06-25T17:59:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Was it A Face in the Crowd? Great movie that continues to be relevant today. > > Or it could have been Savages, 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). Or it could have been the more recent _Rustler’s Rhapsody_, where Griffith played the main villain, Colonel Ticonderoga. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/50 "2010-06-26T01:48:09Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Was he a bad guy about it, or was it a story of his remorse and redemption? I remember when it came out, but I don’t think I ever saw it. I never saw it either, but it’s based on a Stephen King short of the same name, in I’m thinking _Different Seasons_. Anyway the protagonist/antagonist is a teenager who figures out who the McKellan is a former Nazi and then proceeds to force him ack into his Nazi persona for his personal amusement. Its a character driven type story as you watch both descend into evil. I hear the movie makes some changes though. Funny I can’t remember how it ends. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/51 "2010-06-26T02:53:04Z")
Dan Goodman as a corrupt Tammany Hall type city boss. Someone who doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, just sit back and smoke his cigars while others do his dirty work, but who you’d definitely NOT want to have to fight mano-a-mano. Another vote for Patrick Stewart. That same grandfatherly, friendly, warm kind of approach, but in persuit of really nasty stuff. I could go for seeing Ian Holm play a a nice-on-the-outside kind of guy who turns out to be a real bad dude or a psycho or some such. ---
**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:** [June 26, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392/52 "2010-06-26T12:00:36Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Another vote for Patrick Stewart. That same grandfatherly, friendly, warm kind of approach, but in persuit of really nasty stuff. He recently played Claudius opposite David Tennant in HAMLET, and pretty much did it as you suggest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-best-known-for-comic-heroic-sympathetic-roles-would-make-good-villains/544392.md?page=2)