5 Real-Life Villains Hiding in the Background of Blockbuster Movies
Working in Hollywood means dealing with some real shady characters: sleazy producers, money-hungry studios, guys who dress up as Jack Sparrow in front of Grauman’s Chinese, etc. But some of them turn out to be real monsters, even — especially — if they were only lurking in the background.
Austin Powers’ ‘Random Task’ Was Convicted of Torture and Manslaughter
Joe Son was an MMA fighter and wrestler who had been featured in a handful of action movies before appearing as Random Task in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and subsequently disappearing from the spotlight, apparently because he had so much crime to do. After being compelled to give a DNA sample when he was arrested for vandalism in 2008, he was convicted of torture for a 1990 incident in which prosecutors maintained he kidnapped, beat and raped a woman. During his time in prison, he was convicted of beating a cellmate to death, presumably not with a shoe.
Bryan Peck Appeared in ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2’
These days, Bryan Peck is best known as the most horrific kind of sexual predator, but back in the day, he was a highly sought-after dialogue coach for Nickelodeon (a position he used to do the sexual predation). He ended up making a number of TV and movie cameos, but perhaps none are less jarring than the X-Men series, in which he’s ready to jump-scare you as a man standing at a hot dog stand in 2000’s X-Men and a news reporter in X2. It’s unclear how he got involved in the series, but, well, that’s Bryan Singer for you.
‘Dances With Wolves’ ‘Smiles a Lot’ Has Been Charged With Running a Sex Cult
The charges against Nathan Chasing Horse, who played a young Sioux warrior in Dances With Wolves, are pending, but they’re also damning. Prosecutors allege that he used his fame from the 1990 film to promote himself as a medicine man and perform “healing ceremonies” for vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, five of whom became his “wives.” They purportedly have video evidence of Chasing Horse abusing a girl under the age of 14, soooo that’s “the worst corner of Netflix’s documentaries category” territory.
Corleone Henchman Luca Brasi Was a Real-Life Mob Enforcer
Francis Ford Coppola had the delicate job of keeping the real Mafia happy while he made his crime family opus, which meant a lot of made men hanging around the Godfather set. He took such a shine to one of them that he cast him in the movie, giving the part of Luca Brasi to Lenny Montana, “a world wrestling champion who moonlighted in various jobs in the Mob.” One of those jobs, he told the cast, was arson. “He’d tie tampons on the tail of a mouse, dip it in kerosene, light it, and let the mouse run through a building,” producer Gray Frederickson said he told them. “Or he’d put a candle in front of a cuckoo clock, and when the cuckoo would pop out, the candle would fall over and start a fire.” Charming!
A (Possibly Serial) Killer Appeared in ‘The Exorcist’
When director William Friedkin went to New York University Medical Center to research the procedures his possessed preteen would undergo in The Exorcist, he liked the radiology staff so much, particularly a young technician named Paul Bateson, that he put them in the movie. In fact, Bateson plays a pivotal role in the scene, walking Linda Blair’s character through the procedure and adding what audiences considered an impressive level of realism. Five years later, Bateson confessed to killing a man and has been connected to a string of murders in New York City.
It turns out the scariest part of that movie wasn’t the demon — it was the medical staff.
