40+ Surprising Fictional Villains Who Are Based on Real People

Believe it or not, but the famed Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz is actually based on a real woman. In fact, she was based on none other than author L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Gage.

While Matilda wasn’t quite the green-skinned menace we know from the classic film, she was an outspoken activist and author at the time. She famously referred to her activist sisters as “witches on trial,” which seemed to have inspired Baum.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s foray into horror with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has had an enduring legacy thanks to the dual personality of its main character. But, it might surprise you to learn he was based on a real person with a double life.

Deacon William Brodie was an esteemed member of Edinburgh’s town council — during the day. At night, however, he put his craftsmanship and locksmithing skills to good use, by breaking into people’s homes and stealing. He managed to lead this double life for 20 years before he was caught and punished.

It’s hardly a secret that many comic book characters have been based on real people, but learning about this one did surprise us. Originally just a one-off character, Harley Quinn — created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm — has gathered quite a dedicated fan base since her debut in 1992.

Did you know, however, that she was based on an actress friend of Dini? Arleen Sorkin, a soap opera star back in the day, appeared on Days of Our Lives in a jester costume for a certain scene. This was all the inspiration Dini needed, apparently. Sorkin later also voiced Harley.

This one won’t come as a shock to the dedicated Disney fans out there, but were you aware that the terrifying and fabulous Ursula from The Little Mermaid was based on Drag legend Divine?

Harris Glenn Milstead rose to fame in the ‘70s, thanks to his acting skills that came through his Drag persona. It’s hard to miss how Ursula was based on the iconic performer. Unfortunately, Divine never got to see her animated version, as Milstead died a year before the film came out.

While he might not be the evilest villain on this list, we can all agree that famed newspaperman J. Jonah Jameson is certainly an antagonistic figure in Spider-Man’s life. But, did you know that he was based on Marvel’s very own Stan Lee?

According to Lee, when he created the editor-in-chief of The Daily Bugle, he “thought if I were a grumpy, irritable man, which I am sometimes, how would I act? And that was it.” You know what? We can totally see it!

Allegedly, the overcompensating Lord Fraquaad from Shrek was based on Disney’s CEO at the time, Michael Eisner. Although this one is still within the realm of rumor, it’s hard not to believe in it when you see the two side by side.

As the story goes, the film in question was made just after DreamWorks split from Disney to create its own studio. Just by looking at the animation of Lord Farquaad, it’s clear that some of the animators who left Disney for DreamWorks had some built-up resentment toward their former boss.

It’s safe to say that back in the late ‘90s, Austin Powers and Mike Myers became quite a cultural phenomenon — not to mention, the well-remembered and much-parodied Dr. Evil. Who knew he was based on a real person?

Apparently, Dr. Evil was a homage to Myers’s old boss on the set of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels. According to SNL cast members at the time, Michael was well-known for his obsessive behavior and weekly tantrums that resembled Dr. Evil’s mannerisms.

Nothing beats a good Bond villain, and who better than the very first one — Le Chiffre? The villain appeared in Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel Casino Royale. He has since been portrayed on screen by Peter Lorre (1954), Orson Welles (1967), and Mads Mikkelsen (2006).

What not many know about this famous villain, though, is that he was based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley. According to the story, Fleming met Crowley in 1941 as the author was investigating persons of interest who were into the occult. Looks like Crowley made quite an impression.

Amazingly enough, one person inspired both the original character, Cruella de Vil written by author Dodie Smith, as well as the animated Disney version from 1961 of the fashionista — legendary actress Tallulah Bankhead.

While we don’t actually know whether or not the hatred for sweet Dalmatian puppies was also inspired by real-life events (we hope not), the design for this character was inspired by Bankhead’s looks. When it came to voicing her, actress Betty Lou Gerson got inspired by Bankhead’s husky vocals.

As much as we wish it wasn’t so, the famed and horrifying Hannibal Lecter from the beloved horror film Silence of the Lambs is based on a real-world serial bad guy. In fact, in 2013, Hannibal’s creator Thomas Harris shared that he based the character on Alfredo Ballí Treviño.

Treviño was a physician who was imprisoned after his horrific crimes in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Also, like in the movie, Harris actually met with him and interviewed him about his misdeeds, just as Clarice Starling does with Hannibal.

While we don’t usually think of villains when it comes to “chick flicks,” the notoriously difficult editor of the fictional Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly, certainly fits the bill. The film was based on a novel by Lauren Weisberger.

Though the author never confirmed this, it’s widely believed that Miranda’s character was based on Vogue’s infamous Ice Queen editor, Anna Wintour. This seems especially likely since Weisberger was inspired to write her novel after her time working as Wintour’s assistant.

Unfortunately, life can be a whole lot worse than what’s depicted in art. Such is the case of Ed Gein, whose horrific crimes inspired not just one but several horror movie villains. Most notably, he was the basis for Psycho’s, Norman Bates.

He was also the inspiration behind Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, Ezra Cobb in Deranged, Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and several other nightmare-inducing bad guys.

Severus Snape, played by the wonderfully talented Alan Rickman, has become quite the controversial character among fans of the Harry Potter franchise. While some see him as an outright villain, others believe that he has been a secret hero all along.

Regardless, he was originally written with elements inspired by the famed author’s former chemistry teacher, John Nettleship. To this somewhat unflattering description, Nettleship gracefully responded, “There are ways of pupils getting their revenge, but this is a much more sophisticated retaliation.”

This one’s pretty on the nose, or at least on the name… You see, Pixar’s Up famed explorer-turned-villain, Charles Muntz, is heavily rumored to be inspired by filmmaker Charles Mintz. Now, this one gets personal. Apparently, in the ‘20s, Walt Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Then, in 1928, Mintz managed to snatch up the rights to the character and made him the mascot for Universal Pictures. In the film, just like in real life, Muntz has to steal to gain his fame. In the end, though, Muntz got a more satisfying punishment for his crime.

This character has surely induced a nightmare or two in anyone who watched the movie Misery. Did you know that Stephen King’s terrifying Annie Wilkes (played by Kathy Bates) was based on a real-life woman?

Genene Jones is even more frightening than Annie Wilkes. She worked as a nurse in the Pediatric ICU of several hospitals in the early ‘80s, where there seemed to be a higher rate of fatalities. Thankfully, she was caught in 1984 and punished for her crimes.

All right, this one’s a little convoluted, so pay attention. Everyone’s favorite Batman villain, the Joker, is visually inspired by a real person but in a rather roundabout way. You see, the original creators based the Joker’s scarred smile on a silent film, The Man Who Laughs.

That film is based on a novel by Victor Hugo, who created the original character Gwynplaine after reading the account of journalist Edmond Brabier — who described a man with a scarred grin walking the streets of Paris. Did you get all that?

Looks like the filmmakers of Tomorrow Never Dies (the 18th James Bond film) decided to follow Ian Fleming’s lead and base their villain — the evil media mogul Elliot Carver — on a real man.

While many believe him to be based on Rupert Murdoch due to his entertainment empire, Carver was actually inspired by a different media mogul named Robert Maxwell. Interestingly, beyond having a similar view on the power of media, the two shared the same fate, with Carver meeting his demise after falling overboard from a yacht.

Seeing Jabba the Hutt for the first time in Star Wars, there’s no way anyone thought he was based on a real person, but shockingly enough, he is! Well, sort of. Jabba is heavily inspired by actor Sydney Greenstreet’s acting in Casablanca.

Just like Greenstreet’s Signor Ferrari, Jabba runs the criminal underbelly of Mos Eisley. It also can’t be denied that the Cantina reminds us of Café Americain. Early drafts even had Jabba wear a fez! Apparently, George Lucas asked that Jubba look “alien and grotesque… just like Sydney Greenstreet.”

With Branden Frasier’s well-deserved return to acting, we had to include a fan-favorite villain from one of his most famous franchises — The Mummy. That’s right, we couldn’t believe it either when we learned that Imhotep was a real Egyptian dude.

Unlike how he’s portrayed in the film, the real Imhotep was an unusually skilled physician at the time. Apparently, he had such a gift for healing people from sicknesses that would have been otherwise fatal that they made him into a god.

Probably best known to younger readers as the cunning Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, British actress Diana Rigg had a long and impressive career. One of her most famous roles was as Emma Peel in the show The Avengers in the ‘60s.

In fact, her portrayal was so influential that she became the basis for many different characters — including the X-Men: First Class villain, Emma Frost. Even more specifically, Frost was inspired by Peel’s “Queen of Sin” outfit.

Sliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers was met with quite a bit of criticism. Though some praised the plot and acting from Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downy Jr., and Tommy Lee Jones, others found it to be extremely graphic and violent.

It’s why it’s so horrifying to learn that the film (among other movies) was inspired by two actual criminals, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Fugate was also one of the youngest women in US history to be convicted of homicide.

Not to be confused with the 2004 romantic comedy of the same name, The Girl Next Door (2007) is a terrifying horror film that’s actually based on a real person and real events.

The film’s villain, Ruth Chandler, was inspired by the very real Gertrude Baniszewski. In fact, the movie is dedicated to her victim, young Sylvia Likens. Although the movie amplified the horror for shock value, Chandler’s tortuous signature was based on Baniszewski MO.

American Horror Story is no stranger to having real criminals depicted in the show, going so far as to flat-out have them as characters in the series. James Patrick March, however, is more heavily inspired by than fully based on.

In fact, March and his fetal hotel are based on the actions of one of the first serial killers, the notorious H.H. Holmes. Holmes was active in Chicago in the 1890s. He built his own homicidal hotel where he claimed over 10 victims.

While almost every character on South Park gets to be bad on occasion, it’s hard to argue that the real villain of the show is horrible Eric Cartman. So, how unfortunate would it be to have been the inspiration behind the character?

That’s right — Cartman is based on a childhood friend of the show creators. We totally hear the resemblance. Thankfully for Matt, the real-life version might have been a bit of a bully as a kid, but grew up to be an incredibly sweet and kind friend.

Interestingly enough, the famous villain Patrick Bateman from American Psycho is actually based on two people. Firstly, the character in the book by author Bret Easton Ellis was apparently based on his own father (how terrible is that?).

Christian Bale’s portrayal of the character in the film, however, took inspiration from a different source. In an interview in 2000, Bate explained that he saw Tom Cruise on Oprah, and despite looking very friendly, there seemed to be “nothing behind his eyes.”

So, fans of the Netflix show Lucifer will tell you that while the titular character might be devilishly handsome, he’s far from being a villain. In fact, by the end, he’s practically a hero. His comic origins, however, are somewhat more morally conflicted.

This bad guy version of the Lightbringer first appeared in Neil Gaiman’s beloved comics The Sandman. There, at the request of Gaiman himself, Lucifer was drawn to look like David Bowie! Fun fact — as a homage to this, Tom Eliis covers Bowie’s songs in Lucifer on more than one occasion.

It looks like the horrible Jabba isn’t the only iconic bad guy who drew inspiration from Sydney Greenstreet. Despite passing away in 1954, Greenstreet was such an inspiring actor that in 1967 he became the basis for Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.’s Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. Kingpin).

Greenstreet often portrayed authoritative large men with such skill and, as such, became the blueprint for a successful and fear-inducing shady businessman character. Beyond the physical similarity to Greenstreet, Wilson Fisk also deals in the shadier parts of commerce.

Although nowadays we mostly sneaker at the idea of vampires being scary (thanks a million, Twilight), when they first became a part of the culture they were truly feared, and none more so than Bram Stoker’s famed Dracula. It’s no secret that the author based his bestselling character on the real historical figure of Vlad the Impaler.

Unfortunately, the Irish author wasn’t very worldly and didn’t actually do any research, so there really is no Historical accuracy there. Also, fun fact, Stocker never actually visited Transylvania, which he wrote so much about. He used an atlas from the library for all his geographical descriptions.

There have been countless adaptations for the screen of Herman Melville’s literary masterpiece Moby Dick. So, you’d think we’d know this little tidbit by now. But did you know that the famous Moby Dick the Whale was actually based on fact?

Amazingly, the whale that Captain Ahab and his crew chase through the story is based on a real monstrous animal — Mocha Dick. Apparently, the real mighty creature took down quite a few harpooners, becoming a scary story told to young whalers.

One of the most famous and influential pirates in literary and cinema history is, without a doubt, Treasure Island’s Long John Silver. Now he, unlike a certain Jack Sparrow, was a proper bad guy pirate.

He was also based on a real guy — Author Robert Louis Stevenson’s friend, William Ernest Henley. Like Long John, Henley was a pretty hefty individual who only had one leg. Unlike the villain, Henley was reportedly quite sweet and gentle.

She’s been played by tons of actresses over the years in the different Batman films (and in one of her own, but we won’t mention the travesty that was done to Halle Berry), but this villainess was actually based on a real person.

According to Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, they based the fantastically bad Catwoman on seductive ‘30s actress Jean Harlow. It’s also reported that Kane based the feline lady on the looks of his cousin, Ruth Steel.

M. Night Shaymalan’s Split showed audiences a particularly nightmare-inducing villain with multiple personalities (Kevin Wendell Crumb). According to the film, Crumb has 24 separate identities, with some perfectly safe and others terrifying and violent.

Many people live with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), but most aren’t as dangerous as the inspiration behind Crumb — Billy Milligan, who also had several “undesirable” personalities. Milligan was arrested in 1977 for his crimes, but due to his condition, was sent to a mental facility.

Steven King isn’t called the King of Horror for nothing (and no, it’s not just about his name). The terrifying Pennywise the Clown from his massive novel It has been adapted multiple times and is probably the reason we all now have a phobia of clowns.

But, it’s all the more horrifying when you learn that Pennywise was inspired by the notorious criminal John Wayne Gacy who used to perform in front of children as Pogo the Clown and Patches the Clown.

If you thought the horrible hill people from The Hills Have Eyes were simply a figment of director Wes Craven’s mind, we’ve got a pretty unpleasant surprise for you. Apparently, he based them on historical people.

Back in the 16th century, a clan of hill people reportedly terrorized the Scottish hills. The family was led by Sawney Bean, who apparently married a woman with a unique diet that he also adopted for the whole family. They’re said to have had around 1000 victims. Fact or fiction, nobody really knows.

While it might be hard to imagine from her more modern iterations, beloved Batman villain (and occasional Harley Quinn lover) Poison Ivy was modeled after the Queen of Pin-ups herself.

Bettie Page became an incredibly popular pin-up model in the ‘50s. Due to her unique and seductive look, she became something of a muse for many artists. Clearly, even in 1966, when Poison Ivy was introduced in the comics, Bettie Page was still relevant.

“C’mon, babe,” sing the two leading ladies of Chicago, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. But, we bet the women they were inspired by weren’t as much in a singin’ mood. The two were based on two real cases that rocked Chicago in the 1920s.

The real women, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, both stood accused of offing their own lovers but were then acquitted. Apparently, this was quite a trend at the time, with many owing this to the fact that the women were attractive and were being tried by a male jury.

Alright, so this one is flat-out known to be based on a true story. We do have it here through because the movie did apparently take a few creative liberties to make this already fun story even more entertaining.

So, charming Leo DiCaprio plays in Catch Me if You Can the role of Frank William Abagnale Jr., a witty con man (that’s a kind of villain, right?). Though the real Frank Abagnale said that Spielberg was very accurate, records show that there are quite a few inconsistencies.

One of the most chill-inducing fictional villains of all time is, without a doubt, Kevin Spacey’s Keyser Söze in Christopher McQuarrie’s The Usual Suspects. This little factoid, however, will truly keep you up at night — he was based on a real person!

John List was a true, real-life villain. After disposing of his mother, wife, and three children in 1971, List disappeared and evaded capture for 18 years. We can certainly see how Keyser Söze’s brutality and ability to stay hidden were inspired by List.

While turning something cute and fluffy into a monstrous horror is quite a feat (well done, Donnie Darko, on the bunny nightmares), it’s pretty easy to take a terrifying animal and create a horror film around it.

That’s exactly what Promeval did in 2007. What does make this horrifying croc even scarier is the fact that he’s based on a real animal. That’s right, Gustave the Nile Crocodile actually lives in Burundi and has allegedly claimed the lives of as many as 200 people.

Who can forget the fear-inducing soundtrack that accompanies this villain? While this might not be your typical bad guy, we can all agree that this animal from Jaws puts the “killer” in killer shark (yes, we know Bruce is actually a great white shark, but that wouldn’t be as funny).

The character was created by author Peter Benchley after he read in 1964 about a fisherman who managed to harpoon a massive great white shark in the Long Island area. This got him thinking about what would happen if the shark decided to terrifyingly fight back.