I know there are plenty of exceptions to this rule but I couldn’t help but notice that there is a strong correlation between being a villain or a thug and being bald in movies and tv.
I can’t be the only one who has noticed this tendency and I’d like to ask:
What’s up with that?
Confirmation bias on your part, plus the requirement for the Good Guys to be attractive. Both villains and heroes come with hair, without and in between, but when a good guy has a fringe of hair it’s the sidekick (as well as having a high probability of being married with children) or some sort of “funny” and whether the hero has a head full of hair or no hair (fringes of hair are unacceptable in heroes per current “Hollywood” standards), he’s considered good looking like that.
It’s just Hollywood shorthand. Just like the way all bad guys have English accents these days.
Erland van Lidthe de Jeude (he was the Big Bald Geek in The Wanderers and Stir Crazy turned down a part as the Big Bald Bad Guy in the Bo Derek Tarzan because he got tired of playing Big Bald Geeks (ironically, in his last movie role, as a Big Geek in The Running Man, he wears a helmet, so you can’t tell he isn’t bald).
I knew Erland, and he wasn’t bald (although he conspicuously lacked hair on most of his body. But he had a good mop on his head). Philip Kaufman had him shave for The Wanderers because he was playing a member of a gang based on the real-life “Fordham Baldies”. But subsequent directors had him shave because it pretty obviously madfe him look like a badass. But it wasn’t him, and he declined after a while.
Assuming the OP is correct, this is probably better covered in Cafe Society. Moved from General Questions
samclem Moderator
I loved the bit where Erland van Lidth de Jeude sings in The Wanderers. It’s one of the only scenes I remember, since it’s been so long since I’ve seen it. In my imperfect memory my impression is that he went from a Bad Guy to, if not a ‘Good Bad Guy’, at least a ‘Not-So-Bad Bad Guy’.
Asking, not asserting:
In Tee Vee commercials, aren’t the “bad guys”, the saps using the inferior product, and other wrong choice symbols typically bald(ing)?
Or is this also Confirmation Bias on my part?
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It also makes it easy for a casual viewer to distinguish between the Good Guy (flowing locks) and Bad Guy (chrome dome) with just a glance. It annoys people when the two leads are two similar looking. Just like how one female actor has to be blond and one brunette.
Bald people are evil. People who shave their heads for effect are Eeeeevil.
And bad or evil woman have their hair pulled back into a tight bun
Except of course for Wilma Flintstone who was only occasionally a bitch, but then it was because Fred deserved it 
They’re less human. They’re, like, machines. Big phallic weaponheads. Hair is sensual and they have no sensuality. They might pet a kitty cat (another eeevil symbol) but will crush a human life without remorse.
What about all of the sexy librarians out there who merely need to let their hair down (and ditch their glasses) to activate their incredible hotness?
Yes, please!
Isn’t it more that Lex Luthor was bald, so characters like Dr Evil are imitating him? It’s not a general characteristic of bad guys - actually, they’re the only two that spring to mind for me. Having a shaven head is common in movie thugs, because it’s common in real life thugs too. (Not that all guys with shaven heads are thugs, obviously).
Yul Brunner, Kojak, Picard, Jason Statham. Perhaps there’s one exception allowed per decade?
Because movie makers are libruls and Dick Cheney personifies evil?
Sadly, that’s not his voice. I was in the Musical Theater Guild with Erland, and have heard his sing pretty often. When that alien voice came out of his mouth on-screen, I did a double-take. Definitely not his voice.
It turns out that there was some sort of union regulation about this – Erland wasn’t registered as a singer, or something. In any event, they couldn’t use his real voice.
Years later, he got to sing for real in The Running Man. Unfortunately, there are explosions going on at the same time, so you can’t really hear it. (Surprising, in a way – Erland’s voice was powerful. When he sand on the first floor of Building 10 – to publicize the musical being put on – you could hear him on the third floor)
TVTropes has more answers and examples than you could ever want.
This. Bad guys with hipster ponytails used to be evil incarnate.
