13 Times Sitcom Stars Played Villains - And Nailed It

On That '70s Show, Kurtwood Smith played Red Foreman, a conservative father known for insulting his son Eric. Despite that quality, he showed a softer, more sympathetic side at times. Smith earned consistent laughs playing up Red's old-school values, which often clashed with those of his children.

A little over a decade before joining the cast of that hit program, he played Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop. Clarence is a Detroit crime lord and gang leader. He's in cahoots with Dick Jones, the senior president of Omni Consumer Products, the evil corporation manufacturing robotic law enforcement officers. He and his group are the ones who shoot officer Alex Murphy, paving the way for him to be turned into the title character. Smith expertly conveys Clarence's harsh nature, making him a villain viewers can't wait to see get his comeuppance. And he does, when RoboCop fatally stabs him in the neck. 

On Cheers, Woody Harrelson played Woody Boyd, the extremely dim-witted - but inherently lovable - bartender at the titular establishment. His skill was in making Woody's lack of intelligence seem charming rather than annoying. And the way he delivered wacky dialogue as though it was the most natural thing in the world was side-splittingly funny.

Director Oliver Stone has said that he saw "darkness" in Harrelson. He was right, having cast him to great effect in his 1994 film, Natural Born Killers. Harrelson plays Mickey, a guy who goes on a cross-country crime spree with his girlfriend, leaving a trail of casualties in their wake. The performance works because he completely sheds everything that would remind viewers of Woody Boyd and dives headfirst into the immorality that defines Mickey. He transforms himself, both physically and vocally.

Harrelson's turn in NBK redefined his career, opening the door to more dramatic roles and showing what a tremendous range he has. 

If there was a hall of fame for sitcom stars, Betty White would have her own room. She was a regular on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, had a recurring role on Mama's Family, and was one of the main stars of Hot in Cleveland. Of course, she also spent years as a member of the central quartet on The Golden Girls. Her work on these programs has elevated her to the level of national treasure.

In the movie Lake Placid, White was tasked with going completely against her kindly image. She took on the role of Dolores Bickerman, a crotchety old lady who has been feeding the giant crocodile that's terrorizing a small community. Despite being well aware that the beast is eating innocent people, she continues to harbor it, even lying to the police about her activities. White magnificently conveys the defiant attitude of Mrs. Bickerman, while giving pitch-perfect delivery of the profane insults the character is prone to dropping. Without her, Lake Placid would have been just an average, ordinary B movie. 

Peter Boyle had a successful film career in both dramas (The Friends of Eddie Coyle) and comedies (Young Frankenstein). To millions, though, he will be best remembered for playing Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. He couldn't have been more perfectly cast to play the irascible father who's perpetually frustrated by his adult sons' inability to manage their lives. His delivery of sarcastic punchlines was masterful.

For Monster's Ball, Boyle dug deep to play Buck Grotowski, the intolerant father of lead character Hank (played by Billy Bob Thornton). What the actor gets is the self-righteousness of racism. He shows how Frank's beliefs are so engrained that he genuinely thinks people of color are beneath him. Boyle turns him into an everyday villain, the kind of person who's frightening because we know men like him exist in real life. We might even know one of them. 

John du Pont is not a villain in the traditional sense. The real-life figure was a multimillionaire who came from a family that owned a chemical company. An eccentric and mercurial person, he was convicted of murdering an Olympic wrestler.

Steve Carell was probably the least likely person to play someone like this, but he proved to be astonishing in Foxcatcher. Carell solidified his fame as Michael Scott, the bungling, desperate-for-approval boss on The Office. There, he made a specialty of earning laughs from Michael's neediness and ineptitude. Rarely has a comic actor so perfectly embodied a character.

For Foxcatcher, Carell put on a prosthetic nose and toned down the silliness in favor of a dark, brooding quality. His du Pont is hard to get a read on, which is precisely the point. There's something unnerving about the blankness of his personality. In fact, du Pont could not be more opposite from Michael Scott. The role earned Carell an Oscar nomination. 

Rhea Perlman is someone we always expect to make us laugh. Her turn as Carla, the sassy bartender on Cheers, brought smiles to millions of viewers every week. When that show ended, she scored another sitcom, Pearl, that ran for one season on CBS.

On the big screen, Perlman had a villainous role in 1996's Matilda, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel. Her Zinnia Wormwood is the neglectful mother of the young title character. She's a vain woman, much more concerned with her appearance than with her daughter. The actress brings a larger-than-life quality to Zinnia that's darkly funny, yet still troubling. It would have been easy to mock the character by making her buffoonish. Instead, she takes the care to emphasize the mean streak inside so that viewers genuinely feel sorry for Matilda.

Many kids who grew up in the '90s have fond memories of being traumatized by Perlman's work in the film.