A movie quote that resonates with a lot of internet users is Harvey Dent’s line from 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight’ that, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” The idea is that no matter how good of a person you might seem to be, eventually, you’ll fall from grace and end up going against your own supposed principles. The people you respect and adore one day might be whom you detest the next because you learn what they’ve done.

And though life’s certainly not a movie and the quote doesn’t hold true for everyone, it does highlight the fact that dramatic falls from grace really do happen, especially to stars. Suddenly, the scales fall from the adoring crowd’s eyes and they see the person for who they are now… or who they really were deep inside, all along. A villain, definitely not a hero.

The crowd over on r/AskReddit shared their thoughts about the very worst real-life examples of heroes turning out to be villains. Scroll down to read which celebrities and public figures they named and shamed, Pandas. And if you know of any similar examples, you can share them in the comments.

Entertainment and pop culture expert Mike Sington, aka Hollywood’s Ultimate Insider, shared his thoughts with Bored Panda about public figures and stars letting their fans down, as well as whether or not we can definitively tell if someone well-known is being genuine. “You can never tell that a celebrity or public figure is 100% genuine. You just can’t, because you don’t really know that celebrity or public figure. You think you do because they’re famous, but you don’t. In all likelihood, you’ve never even met the person,” he told us.

“In my experience, someone may be hiding who they are if you only see a glossy side of them.” Scroll down for our full interview with Mike.

#1

Harry Harlow. He began his career as a young and unconventional scientist who wanted to prove that humans cannot survive without love and affection. To do so, he needed an animal that was sufficiently humanlike and easy to manage. He settled on rhesus monkeys.

Harlow’s research went in a really dark direction as scholar after scholar refused to acknowledge its validity. While his first wife died a slow, painful demise from cancer, he became depressed and an alcoholic. He decided to deliberately raise monkeys from birth with as little love and affection as possible to see if they could ever recover.

They could not. Clinging to towels with wooden faces (which served as surrogate mothers), the monkeys couldn’t learn about their culture or social skills. Some came out of their shells when introduced to new monkeys to befriend. To “fix” that, he invented the “pit of despair,” an inverted pyramid the monkeys could not climb out of. They were depressed and pretty much became empty shells of living animals.

There’s a lot of stuff I don’t cover here. Some of it I just don’t want to mention, but for a fairly clearheaded summary of Harlow’s work, [here is a link.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEEu1HEtU0)

Image credits: ugagradlady

LA-based celebrity expert Mike told Bored Panda how we can tell if a public figure or a celebrity may be hiding something. 

“If their life seems overly curated, only focusing on the good and positive of what they present to the public, then they may be hiding something. You can usually sense when someone has genuinely let you into their life, and when they haven’t. That applies not just to celebrities, but to the real people in your life as well,” he said.

“We usually look up to celebrities and public figures, but it’s important to remember, despite their accomplishments, they are people just like you and me,” Mike said.

#2

Rudy Giuliani. Dude was “America’s mayor” just 20 years ago. A brilliant, ballsy prosecutor who took down the mob then shepherded NY through 9/11. Now he’s just thought of as the increasingly unhinged trump lackey that sweat hair dye in front of a landscaping company that shoulda been a hotel.

Image credits: justbrowsing987654

#3

Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver, made up a bunch of untested uses for it (treating people having asthma attacks, and drowning victims were the two I remember) that he publicly talked up. Later, he funded an experiment that involved injecting people with Malaria to see if it would treat other conditions. The experiment was found to be unethical by American review boards, so he conducted them in Ethiopia.

Image credits: parlimentery

“Anyone, celebrity or not, is susceptible to making mistakes and doing bad things. When a celebrity does something bad, it’s amplified exponentially because they are in the public eye, and are being watched so closely by so many people. So when a celebrity does bad things, it’s important to keep perspective in mind.

According to entertainment and pop culture expert Mike, the expectations from fans that celebrities ought to be ‘perfect’ is a pressure that fans put on themselves.

“Don’t for a second worry about putting that pressure on stars. They know the pitfalls of being famous, and are very able to step out of the celebrity spotlight if the pressure to be perfect is too much,” he noted.

#4

Kevin Spacey

Image credits: Patri100ia

#5

Fritz Haber. He revolutionized the ability to fertilize crops and stopped the downfall of our modern agricultural civilization which has allowed the earth’s population to increase by 4 billion since his discovery. He created other technologies that would then be used in WW1 chemical warfare and eventually Zyklon B in WW2 that was used to perpetrate the Holocaust.

Image credits: cooliovonhoolio

#6

J.K. Rowling

Seriously. Hell, she could’ve even kept milking HP for all it’s worth (and then some) if she wanted to stay in the public eye. Instead, she chose to use her platform to spew hate…toward part of a demographic that very much loved her books. It’s baffling (and yes, really upsetting to me as a queer person who grew up with HP).

Image credits: nibo001

“I worry more about the disappointment fans experience when a celebrity lets them down, it can be absolutely crushing to the point of affecting one’s mental health. That’s when it’s important to disassociate yourself from the celebrity with the realization that you never really knew the person after all,” Mike warned.

“There are a few steps stars can take to deal with the pressure of fame better. First, know that it’s part of your job description, and realize the perks of fame almost always far outweigh the negative aspects of it. Second, turn to your family and friends as a support system and to keep you grounded. Third, get off social media completely. And fourth, limit or stop public appearances. Just focus on your work, and let your work speak for itself.”

#7

Joe Paterno

JoePa was the shining beacon of what it meant to be a college coach when I was getting inducted into college football. And then…wow.

For those that don’t know.. he knowingly allowed and covered up for Jerry Sandusky. He saw with his owns eyes Sandusky molesting a 10 year old boy in the Penn State shower facilities and did nothing

Image credits: 3lon_Mu5k

#8

Ellen Degeneres

It’s a shame it took so long. There were stories out there for years about what a horrible person she is. Just now coming main stream.

Image credits: Not_a_local_wanderer

#9

Philippe Petain. In WW1 he led the French to victory at Verdun, one of the worst battles in human history. In WW2, after France was beaten, Petain was the head of state of Vichy France. Guy went from the Lion of Verdun to the biggest Nazi collaborator in France.

Image credits: arthuranymoredonuts

Many fans put certain public figures and beloved celebrities on a pedestal. They expect them to be absolutely ‘perfect’ in everything that they do. Whenever they make a mistake or show that they’re human, some pounce on them, taking pleasure in the fact that they messed up. However, simple mistakes are nowhere near the level of stuff that the people in this list did. ‘Evil’ is a word that might spring to mind when you start learning more about them. Fame doesn’t make individuals immune from hurting others.

Though we don’t agree that heroes necessarily ‘have to’ lose their way, the Reddit thread does draw attention to the fact that it’s dangerous to idolize anyone to a huge extent. It’s incredibly difficult to tell a person’s inner thoughts, feelings, and motivations when you only know about them from the media. It’s hard to see how ‘heroic’ or ‘villainous’ they might actually be without having met them in person.

And even then, many family members and friends could still be shocked to discover how the celebs change, seemingly, overnight. Though these changes rarely happen that quickly: it’s just that, suddenly, everyone learns the truth. Their reputation quickly crumbles and fans are left with the dizzying realization that they’d been loving and praising somebody who wasn’t worthy of that love and praise. It hurts. It feels like a betrayal.

#10

Bill Cosby was once nominated for a Nobel peace prize.

EDIT: Also the EMMYs gave him a humanitarian award. Also the President medal of freedom.

Image credits: shaka_sulu

#11

Jim Jones. He originally stood up for civil rights when it was really unpopular. Was hospitalized and accidentally placed in the black ward. When the doctors found out, they tried to move him, but he refused. Then he became a cult leader and used his power and influence to end the lives of a thousand people.

Image credits: Crvsby

#12

Conor McGregor. He had the whole country behind him here in Ireland at one point bar people who thought combat sport is grotesque. He was witty, original, backing himself up and having a Hollywood like rise to stardom. Now he’s some coke head who the whole country is ashamed of, goes punching old men, clearly sleeps around on his wife while she’s at home with the kids, numerous allegations against him for sexual assault, just a walking caricature of himself. He didn’t listen to his own advice. Get in. Get rich. Get out.

Image credits: StephenPigot2020

But one way or another, the truth is that quite a lot of people enjoy learning about the dark side of humanity. That’s the reason why the true crime genre is so popular. Psychologist Lee Chambers explained to Bored Panda during an earlier interview that “in today’s safe and often sanitized world, we are rarely threatened significantly, and the ability to explore evil, frightening and gruesome entertainment is one of the few ways we can visit this part of humanity while remaining safe and comfortable.”

“There is a level of novelty to it, it removes boredom quickly, and it helps us to discover our emotional limits while understanding the minds of those who go beyond social norms and potentially gaining knowledge of how we might avoid being victims ourselves. They also offer closure, with many stories ending with the mystery being solved, and the criminal being brought to a level of justice,” the expert noted why so many are absolutely fascinated by real-life stories about evil.

#13

Phoenix Jones, that superhero from Seattle. Saved some people over the years then eventually was caught by an undercover cop selling MDMA.

Image credits: moist_kiwi53

#14

Netflix was once THE streaming service. Always had something to watch and the price was worth it.

But now, most of those shows and movies are gone, some of them long before things like Disney+ and other network streaming services came about. It got to the point where it was a joke to say “you wanna watch it? Then it’s not on Netflix” or something along those lines.

Additionally, Netflix once put out a tweet about how “love is sharing your login” but is now charging extra for every additional party using an account. The price for a subscription has also gone up substantially, to the point where there were times my family considered dropping the subscription entirely.

Netflix, how far you’ve fallen…

Image credits: Darth_Destructus

#15

O.J. Simpson

Image credits: ChickenTendy27

“It can take us on an emotional rollercoaster, have us trying to solve the puzzle and test our fear in a controlled way. The permission to explore evil is powerful, as we so rarely get the chance elsewhere, and in itself, it is healthy and normal in moderation,” the psychologist told us, adding that some people find this ‘comforting’ because the evil they see or read about is happening to someone else, not them.

“The challenge we face is the fact that consuming too much of this can desensitize us, and cause us to become less empathetic to the suffering of others, more fearful of our own environment, and potentially be more likely to use aggression ourselves. It can also cause us to be triggered by our own previous adverse experiences, make it harder to manage our own emotional balance, and increase our stress levels, so moderating our consumption is something we should have front of mind, even when we get embroiled in the latest series that is pulling us in,” he warned that moderation is key when consuming stories about real-life evil.

#16

Chris Benoit

This was terrible to see. I was a huge pro wrestling fan back in the day. To my knowledge, Benoit was actually a great person until he suddenly wasn’t. That ‘suddenly wasn’t,’ though, carried a hell of a consequence. It’s actually kind of amazing how people with severe CTE act very similarly. When your job is basically to pound your brain in every night, who knows what will happen? Just look at all the NFL guys who have similar issues, i.e. Steve McNair. I feel bad for everyone involved, which includes Benoit himself. I don’t think he even had the ability to reason anymore. Steroids didn’t help, but I think they only expedited things.

Image credits: DegreeOffWhite

#17

Will smith

#18

Richard Nixon. Won the 1972 election by a landslide, with only Minnesota and DC voting for McGovern, on the back of a strong economy. Two years later resigns in disgrace over Watergate, in the midst of stagflation, and his reputation has never been rehabilitated.

Image credits: nostrademons

#19

Dr. Oz is the perfect example. He started out a legitimate talented accomplished cardiac surgeon. Then he started with his snake-oil peddling on TV and has now completely devolved into a pandering narcissistic Trump-loving politician.

Image credits: rockychunk

#20

Benedict Arnold. Almost died during the revolutionary war, if I recall correctly, and if he had he would have been remembered a huge hero, and a martyr. Instead he lived and changed sides, and is remembered only for his being a traitor.

Image credits: uniqueperson22

#21

Facebook. Last 5 years it turned onto a boomer bigot wasteland

#22

joe rogan – i really like how down to earth he seemed. he usually has ideas that seemed to be very logic based. later he turned into someone who doubts logic. i m not scientist but i simply find anyone who say masks dont work having a serious flaw with their logic.

similarly i used to like jordan peterson. i am not a fan of sjw s**t and pronouns etc. i am NOT going to memorize 1001 different pronouns. but if it makes anyone’s day a little brighter. i will call you he or she on your preference as well as your preferred name.

his insistence on deadnaming ellen page is really… salty. how different is it from someone going to the gov and asking for their name to be officially changed? name changes happen.

people who i liked a lot. turned into people who i dont like. not necessarily villains but thats for me.

#23

English engineer and writer [James P. Hogan.](https://ift.tt/el268qw)

He wrote several really solid Sci-fi books that were hugely influential to me when I was growing up, and then towards the end of his life he became a Holocaust/AIDS/climate change denier.

#24

The current mexican president. He ran for the presidency 3 straight times on a no-corruption, atheist, liberal, feminist, leftist platform, once he finally won the election and 4 years into his presidency it’s clear he’s not just an evangelical conservative but he may be the most corrupt mexican president ever (and that’s quite an accomplishment in Mexico!) openly working for the Sinaloa Cartel and turning his back on the minorities that got him elected and openly mocking the victims of Mexico’s rampant gender violence.

#25

Erdogan is the perfect example. Believe it or not, when he was the mayor of Istanbul in the late 90s to early 2000s we was actually pretty progressive and had the general support of the people. Then his election to prime minister happened, he became power hungry, his policies became much more right wing and less secular and everyone hates him now.

Image credits: TheBk_1er

#26

Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church started out as an attorney defending civil rights.

#27

The creators of reddit. Was supposed to be a free speech platform, now it’s a corporatized hive mind.

#28

My parents used to tell me about how I should be careful with strangers, and steer clear of anything on the net, because it’s ‘fake news and stuff designed to make you do bad things’.

In the last 1 2 years my mom has been sending me links about cancers, diseases, and all types of news coming from tabloid, and tells me that if it’s on the net it must be true.

#29

H3h3, he use to call out the b******t on youtube, all the click baiting and harmful videos. Now he is the ultimate click baiter and drama youtuber. Super sad to see cause I loved his content as a kid, but ever since the podcast it hasn’t been the same.

#30

Amazon, for sure. About 22 years ago, it was a little known place where you could buy books online for cheaper than brick-and-mortar retail. To watch it gradually grow and transform into an economic power that makes Omni Consumer Products seem less like satire and more like a prediction… It’s been interesting, to say the least. Can’t say I don’t love the convenience, though.

#31

R Kelly. Grew up with The Worlds Greatest, Ignition, Ignition (remix), plus other songs. We all voted for The Worlds Greatest to be our graduation song in ‘07. Then we find out he’s minor league Jeffery Epstein.

#32

Baby boomers that used to be hippies but are now Capitalist thralls who can’t tell freedom from fascism.

#33

My dad used to annoy me by calling my Pokemon cards “Pokey-Mans”. Now my kids have them and I do the same thing and it annoys the s**t out of them.

Image credits: rumpel4skinOU

#34

Working in resturant kitchens. You either burn out young, or become the boss that everyone hates. (There’s exceptions, but that’s the rule.

#35

Richard Jewel.

Security guard at the Atlanta Olympics who saved a bunch of people from getting killed by a bomb (could have been killed himself) only to be falsely accused and harassed relentlessly by the FBI and media when an FBI agent leaked to a local reporter that he was a prime suspect.

They even tried to convince him that they thought he was a hero and trick him into doing a ‘bomb threat video’ where he was the bomber. The idea was to later use that as evidence against him.

Poor guy and his family suffered for months while the FBI basically fabricated evidence, raided his home and kept him under surveillance 24 hours a day. He was eventually cleared as a suspect but only after pressure from his lawyer to basically charge him or provide him a statement saying he wasn’t a suspect any longer.

#36

Every organ until it gets cancer

#37

Linus Pauling is an intresting one. He was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century – won the Nobel Prize twice. Later in life he went off the deep end and became convinced that Vitamin C could cure cancer and maje him immortal – an idea that lives on in various forms today.

#38

I feel like mine has to be Elon Musk. He seemed like he was this good guy and now he is just an asshat

#39

Charles Romley Alder Wright: The inventor of Heroin.

Back in the 1890’s, Morphine Addiction was bad. But it was still a pain reliever and general anesthetic. Considering this was a time when surgeons just started using drugs to put patients under instead of holding them down and hoping your assistants were strong enough to pin a thrashing patient still, they couldn’t just get rid of it from the market. So Wright wanted to make an non-habit forming alternative. Something so patients wouldn’t be in pain, surgeons could work calmly and efficiently, and no patient would get addicted.

Before Mr. Wright found out about how terrible of a drug he had made, he died. Bayer (the pharmaceutical company) further developed the drug until the Treaty of Versailles first banned it.

If Mr. Wright were still alive, he’d be branded a monster and there would be calls to get him locked up. But when he died, people probably thought he was a hero for making a non-addictive morphine alternative.

#40

Neil Degrasse Tyson. Though he became less of a “villain” and more “buzzkill”. At first he seemed like the next Carl Sagan, celebrating the wonders of science and the universe. But somewhere along the line he turned into this smug, pseudo-nihilistic wet blanket who poo-pooed on anyone getting excited over solar eclipses and stuff. As someone who grew out of that mentality back in middle school, it’s honestly kind of embarrassing to witness the same attitude being showcased by an actual astrophysicist who’s old enough to be my dad.

#41

As of now, mark cuban is in the hero stage for making medications affordable. My fear is that once it really catches on, he’ll increase the prices and we’ll be back to where we started.

Mr Cuban, please stay the hero we need.

#42

The company apple

#43

Any famous scientist who starts thinking they’re god’s gift to intelligence and spouting s**t about topics they didn’t study.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a talented physicist and astronomer. Nothing else. I’ve literally seen him ranting about medieval history on Twitter and blatantly getting details wrong.

#44

Just watched a video on Fritz Haber. He was one of the two German chemists to create the Haber-Bosch process in early 1900s which is credited with supporting the life of 4 billion people. He became an instant hero for the world and is the main reason world hunger is no longer a production problem but a logistical one. He ended up winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918, but between creating the Haber-Bosch process and winning his prize in 1918 he was a major player in WWI.

During WWI the allied powers put a trade blockade on Chilean saltpeter which was a major source of ammonia for the production of explosives. So he used his plants to turn from making ammonia for crops to making ammonia for weapons. Not only this he was instrumental in creating one of the first used chemical weapons in WWI, Chlorine gas. He became known as the father of Chemical warfare.

If that was not bad enough in the 1920s scientists at his institute developed a cyanide gas we now know today as Zyklon B, the chemical used in Concentration camp gas chambers.

Despite creating the process which would theoretically end world hunger he is more know today with creating chemical weapons and supplying the Nazis with the chemical they would use to kill over 10 million people.

#45

Ghandi

#46

JFK. Had so much potential to get drug down into corruption, nepotism, and such between his family’s power, ties to the mafia, and womizing.

But he was assassinated before that could happen and died the hero.

#47

I had a longtime coworker that I earnestly thought was a great guy. Extremely funny, super charismatic, generally kind. Nice shoulder to lean on, exceptionally conversationalist. I absolutely thought he was one of the best people I had ever met, and did for several years.

At the start of a shift, I found out from a girl that had dated him that he was physically and verbally abusive. He had dated several coworkers and multiple coworkers came out and said that it was something that had happened with multiple women, all of whom were scared to speak up about it because they didn’t think anyone would believe that *he* of all people was a domestic abuser.

I spent the rest of the shift nauseous and sick, unable to focus on work at all. On one hand it felt like a betrayal, and on the other I felt selfish as f**k for putting myself in any sort of “victimhood” in such a situation when there were genuine victims of his assault. I didn’t really know what to do or say and at one point was walking by multiple coworkers, himself included. Just kept my head down and tried to walk by, but one of my coworkers called me back.

Turns out, they were roasting the f**k out of him because he had just admitted to being a flat earther. I absolutely deflated, because his intelligence had been one of the things I really admired about him. In the course of a single shift, I found out one of the smartest and kindest people I knew was a physically abusive flat earther.

He never faced any repercussions for his actions to my knowledge. I quit a couple weeks later, every shift was miserable after that.

#48

Charles Lindbergh

#49

Rudy Giuliani was “America’s Mayor” after 9/11, and now…

#50

We had the rent raised and this pushed us into owning a home. Had a huge chip on my shoulder about the landlord squeezing me for more money and enough was enough so we bought a house. Fast forward a few years and we move towns for work and rent out the house. ( 6months before COVID )

I quickly became that landlord who only saw dollar signs when the rent came late or wasn’t paid in full.

Sold the house after COVID caused the tenets to just stop paying and I had to shoulder my mortgage and the rental we had in town.

#51

My dad. I used to think he was great, but as I got older I realized he’s no better than the rest of my shitty family.

#52

Google.

#53

Subway’s Jared Fogle. A formerly fat guy who lost weight by chasing kids. He started and ended his career the same way – getting into smaller pants.

#54

For me, Dennis Miller. He was my favorite comedian in the 80s and 90s. I watched *Dennis Miller Live* on HBO religiously and I listened to *The Off-White Album* so many times I could quote it front to back from memory.

He came off as a “progressive centrist” who by today’s standards would seem like a leftist comedian even though he had some definite right-leaning views. (He was famously pro-death penalty, for example.) I didn’t agree with his every stance but he always came off as educated, funny, and reasonable, with a dry and cynical wit that I plugged into immediately and honestly informed my own sense of humor a lot.

Then 9/11 happened and he went f*****g insane. Went immediately into the right-wing grift circuit, where he’s been ever since, and took all of his old material out of print. He’s utterly insufferable now.

ETA: I remember a really pathetic instance of this back around 2010 I think? where I was googling to see if I could find a copy of Off-White and got steered to a video clip of his right-wing radio show where a caller was asking about his “old commie material” and he disavowed it vehemently, claiming “I don’t even remember a single one of those jokes”.

Just a few months later he was trying to stage some kind of comeback and got a spot on Leno. After a minute or two of his right-wing b******t not getting one single laugh, he panicked and launched into some of his best bits from Off-White, a 20+-year-old album of jokes he “didn’t even remember”, and it absolutely *killed* the room. And you could see on his face in real time just how much it grated on him that that was the Dennis Miller people actually liked and wanted more of.

He used to be one of the funniest people alive. Oh well.

#55

I’m a full-on atheist but: Protestantism. It was intended as a reaction to the Catholic Church’s excesses and corruption, contributed to people having access to their religion’s central text in a language they ubderstood and wrested power from the clergy.

Now there are American mega churches and rich televangelists making money hand over fist from the gullible masses, Amish and Jehovah’s Witnesses shielding sexual abusers among their ranks and blaming and shunning the victims much like paedophile catholic priests are shielded by the church.

This is in addition to the many attempts at theocratic states and horribly abusive societies birthed by the reformation. It was intended to be a cure for corruption and the gross accumulation of temporal power and ended up just as corrupted and power hungry.

To be clear, in my opinion, all religions are dangerous and an abuser’s wet dream but this is a very obvious example of a full-circle revolution.

#56

Probably Elon Musk. I used to think “Well, the government is doing f**k-all to advance manned space exploration, so if private investors have to do it, I guess that’s how it has to be.” He seemed like he was genuinely invested in that, too. There was a lot of good will toward him in the public eye.

Then he found Twitter, and everything went to s**t pretty quickly. Now he’s just that weirdo who pushes crypto scams and pays his employees to shut up about the kids he had with them.

#57

[Specialist John “Stebby” Stebbins](https://ift.tt/ygBrlqD) portrayed in *Black Hawk Down* by Ewan MacGregor.

Dude was a desk jockey in the US Army Rangers, deployed to Mogadishu in an administrative capacity. For one reason or another was pulled from his cushy position to fight on the ground with infantry and became a total natural, going berserk on the enemy and receiving commendations from numerous squadmates. Dude was nothing short of heroic in a nightmare scenario.

Years later he was court marshalled and sentenced to several years in prison. He’d raped his daughter, a toddler. Total fall from grace if I ever saw one.

#58

Blizzard Entertainment (now Activision/Blizzard)

Used to be the darlings of the PC world with everything they creating being solid gold classics on launch

Now nothing but recycled trash, cash grabs, micro transactions, and sexual assault scandals

How the mighty have fallen

#59

Tony Blair. He was such a popular figure at one point. But it went so badly for him!

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