Some actors have a unique skill when it comes to playing convincing (and beloved) villains. Whether it’s Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal or Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa, sometimes, you can’t help but cheer for the bad guys – unless said bad guy acts behind the cameras. These are the stories of 10 actors who ended up becoming real-life villains.
10. Joe Son
Son’s filmography is brimming with henchman roles, like Austin Powers’s Random Task. Turns out that he tapped into his real-life bloodlust for the roles, as Son was convicted of felony torture for his role in a 1990 gang rape, and would later murder his cellmate in 2011.
9. Victor Salva
Victor Salva, director of Jeepers Creepers, served only 15 months for filming the abuse of 12-year-old Nathan Forrest Winters on Clownhouse. Despite the conviction, Hollywood inexplicably welcomed him back—a decision that says far more about the industry than the man behind the camera.
8. Bill Cosby
The man who used to be “America’s Dad” had a massive fall from grace after decades of alleged sexual assaults shattered his reputation. He was convicted in 2018 but was later released after a legal technicality, his “nice guy” persona forever shattered.
7. Michael Jace
Best known for his role as Officer Julien Lowe on the FX police drama The Shield, Jace’s acting career came to a screeching halt in 2014, when he was arrested for murdering his wife and later sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
6. Mark Salling
Salling was yet another victim of the “Glee Curse.” He was found guilty of possessing CP: his computer contained tens of thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse material. He pleaded guilty, but Salling would commit suicide in 2018, before his sentence was finalized.
5. Danny Masterson
Not even Masterson’s ties to Scientology could spare him from his 2023 conviction, when he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in 2003.
4. Ryan Grantham
The young actor, who played Rodney in Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2010, shocked the public when he murdered his mother in 2020. In 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years, making him eligible in 2036.
3. Isaiah Stokes
Isaiah Stokes, familiar from Blue Bloods and Law & Order: SVU, turned his crime roles into reality when he murdered Tyrone Jones in 2021. Prosecutors said he tracked Jones with a GPS and fired 11 shots in revenge over a birthday party brawl—a plotline too dark even for primetime.
2. Jared Fogle
Though many will surely remember Jared as the “guy from Subway,” he briefly delved into acting in movies like Jack & Jill and Sharknado; pure Oscar material. Jared was found convicted of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors in what has to be one of the most revolting celebrity downfalls ever.
1. O.J. Simpson
O.J. was one of the lead contenders to play the Terminator in 1984, but was rejected because everyone saw him as too much of a “nice guy.” Things changed in 1994, when he was the central suspect in the killing of his wife and Ronald Goldman. Though acquitted, he was later found liable in civil court, and in the eyes of the public as well.
