9 Movie Heroes Who Lived Long Enough To Become The Villain

1. Bruce Willis - The Prince

Tom Cruise Collateral
Lionsgate

Bruce Willis has spent almost the entire length of his Hollywood career avoiding villainous roles, presumably because he's terrified that he'll come over as even more unlikeable than he already does. There was a brief turn as a comic villain in Planet Terror, but that was such a tiny part that it doesn't really count.

Times are tough, however, and so the actor best known for once starring in classic films (oh, how the mighty have fallen) was apparently forced to go bad when he agreed to feature as the villain in critically-hated action flick The Prince.

Willis assumedly thought that giving over to a villain role would spark interest in his career of late, but sadly The Prince is a terrible movie and Willis does nothing of interest to recommend that anybody pay money to see it. Ever.

Given that it's his first proper bad guy role after decades of work, it should have been something of a landmark moment, which makes it even sadder to watch it fall flat. As crime boss "Omar," a guy who sets out to get revenge on a former employe who killed his family, he's merely channeling Bruce Willis (oh, but he has a beard ).

On the basis of this, he's certainly a villain as far as "quality cinema" is concerned.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.