10 Actors Who Died As Heroes (& Then Lived To Become Villains)

2. John Hurt

Died A Hero - The Elephant Man

John Merrick is one of the most notorious movie characters ever and the ultimate poster boy for not judging people by their looks. His is a tragedy in which he is the hero and society itself is the villain and the real grotesque monster. The sting in it is of course that Merrick dies because of his condition, but for a little while, he did get to experience some sort of acceptance.

The performance is so good that it barely matters that Hurt is so hidden under prosthetics - a true mark of genius - and he comes across as the most human of all of the characters.

But Became The Villain - Rob Roy

As one member of a particular school of British actors, John Hurt was always widely considered a classical actor capable of incredible range and complex character work. To Americans, he probably also stood apart as an ideal villain simply because of what he sounded like.

That he resisted only doing villains on screen was impressive, but he did take to it rather brilliantly in King Ralph as a snooty, conniving aristocrat, Rob Roy as a snooty, conniving English Lord. It's the latter that really sticks out, even with Tim Roth's more showy bad guy performance to contend with and is a million miles away from the gripping empathy of John Merrick.