Courtesy HBO
In honor of Halloween, I thought I’d pay tribute to one of my favorite on-screen villains, Sean Bean. The English actor often plays the baddie (remember the IRA assassin in Harrison Ford’s “Patriot Games,” the psychopathic hitchhiker in “The Hitcher,” or the morally questionable but ultimately redeemed Boromir in “The Lord of the Rings”?) with so much panache that sometimes it’s jarring to see him portray someone noble like the righteous Ned Stark in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Whether he’s decent or eeeevil, Bean is always so, so good.
- Name: Sean Bean
- Age: 52
- Hometown: He’s an Englishman through and through, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- Marital Status: Currently single, but he’s been married *four* times
- You Know Him From: His 25-year career includes roles in everything from “Patriot Games” to “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” to the HBO hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones.”
- Why Him: Because there’s something about a ruggedly handsome man who can be either frighteningly nefarious or unquestionably good, and Bean manages to be both with equal ease. It’s wonderful when he plays against type to depict a good character, but I’ve got to admit, I love it when he’s bad. Other awesome-at-being-bad actors I adore include Ian McShane, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Gary Oldman, and Alan Rickman.
