12 Famous Movie Villains We Can’t Remember at Their Younger Age

Actors who are extremely nice and sweet in real life are often being asked to play the villain in a movie or TV series. There is something about being asked to play the exact opposite of what you are that feels very intriguing. Maybe it’s because you are already presented as a bad person, so you don’t have to worry about whether others will like you or not. The point is that we get used to seeing someone as the villain and we just have no idea what they used to look like or how they are now.

1. Tim Curry

On the big screen, Tim Curry mostly played bad guys. Because of how great his job as Pennywise was, some easily-impressed viewers still can’t sleep well.

Aside from his movie career, Tim Curry was quite successful on the theater stage, and also as a voice actor. An interesting fact is that thanks to a very specific tone in his voice, the actor mostly voiced villains. His voice also has appeared in video games. In 2012, he had a massive stroke, and is now disabled.

2. Willem Dafoe

Actor Willem Dafoe brought one of the most characteristic villains that Spider-Man had to face to the big screen. Thanks to his incredible ability to interpret the personality of the Green Goblin, Willem managed to characterize all the gestures that represent a purely evil personality. In the second picture, you can see what he looked like at the beginning of his career, when he was only 26 years old and appeared in the film The Loveless.

3. Robert Englund

Freddy Krueger became the biggest childhood nightmare for many of us. The cunning villain with scary scars all over his body who didn’t understand the meaning of “mercy” was named iconic by many movie critics. Freddy was portrayed by actor Robert Englund. He has done quite a few roles in horror films like Wishmaster, The Midnight Man, Lake Placid, and others.

Englund started his acting career in 1973 and he’s still an actor. However, he decided to turn down the opportunity to play Freddie again. He thinks that he’s too old for a role like that. He’s portrayed Freddie in 8 movies.

4. Ralph Fiennes

When Ralph Fiennes brought Voldemort to the big screen for the blockbuster saga Harry Potter, he pretty much had to undergo a complete change of appearance. He started playing the role of “He Who Must Not Be Named” at age 42, and changed his appearance to look more evil. The difference with the second image in our collage is more than obvious: we can see the same actor in the TV series Prime Suspect when he was only 28 years old.

5. Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin is not the only actor that played Thanos in Marvel films. Before Brolin, it was Damion Poitier who had the role. But it was Brolin that made the antagonist appealing to so many viewers.

The Avengers was not the first successful film that Josh appeared in. Before that, he took part in the iconic No Country for Old Men. But his acting career started back in 1985. One of the first movies he appeared in was the TV series, The Young Riders, where Brolin played the main role.

6. Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter is one of the most popular names that comes to mind when it comes to versatility on stage. She has played many different roles, each of which is completely different from the next. One of the most popular ones is, of course, Bellatrix Lestrange, from the Harry Potter saga. In this series, she is one of the most feared villains and she looks like a dark magic wizard. But Bonham Carter can also look like an innocent girl. At the age of 19, when she appeared in A Room with a View compared with Bellatrix Lestrange... That’s the diversity we were talking about before!

7. Michael Sheen

In the second installment of the Twilight saga, we were able to get to know the evil Aro, who has the gift of reading a person’s mind and memories just by touching them. This strange and fearful character was played by actor Michael Sheen, who had to get a complete makeover to bring the pale-skinned character to the big screen. In the picture on the right, you can see how he looked when he appeared in the miniseries Gallowglass at the age of 24.

8. Anjelica Huston

Morticia Addams, portrayed by Anjelica Huston, was such a bright character, that she still inspires thousands of fans to dress as her on Halloween. Granted, Morticia isn’t exactly a villain, but she’s the type of delightfully dark character who’d probably be flattered by the comparison. Throughout her career, Huston has often been cast as fairytale villains and witches: the wicked stepmother in Ever After: A Cinderella Story, the witch Gothel in Barbie as Rapunzel, the Grand High Witch in The Witches, and she even appeared in Faerie Tale Theatre as one of the wicked sisters in its version of Beauty and the Beast.

At the moment, Anjelica Huston continues to appear in movies. One of her latest roles was in John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.

9. Jeffrey Dean Morgan

When you talk about a successful series, there’s no way you can avoid mentioning the feared villain of The Walking Dead, Negan, played by actor Jeffrey Dean. Despite being an enemy that stands out for his evil personality, he managed to attract a large part of his audience with his wit and pretty looks. However, in his first role in the movie Uncaged, he managed to capture the audience thanks to his beauty when he was barely 24 years old.

10. Bill Nighy

Pirates of the Caribbean has given us a whole crowd of memorable characters, and one of the most amazing ones is the evil Davy Jones. However, the actor behind this villain’s mask, Bill Nighy, actually looks completely different from what we’re used to seeing in the movie, as you can clearly see in the second picture. Bill appeared in the film Eye of the Needle when he was 31 years old.

11. Hugo Weaving

The role of the mysterious Agent Smith in The Matrix franchise that Weaving played made him famous worldwide. The actor continued to play this role in the sequels. His other famous work is his role as the elf Elrond, in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. And he also had a great role in V for Vendetta.

12. Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton delivered a perfect performance as the evil ice queen in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The queen’s cold and fearsome look suited Swinton to a tee. Still, the actress has a great career to support her amazing performance in Narnia. At the age of 25 she looked beautiful, but her role in the first film she appeared in, Caravaggio, was totally different, and so were her looks.

Have you ever sympathized with a villain in a movie and, if so, which one made you feel sorry for them?