13 Real-Life Heroes Who Lived Long Enough To Turn Into Villains

Article created by: Greta Jaruševičiūtė

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.

• Read More: 13 Real-Life Heroes Who Lived Long Enough To Turn Into Villains

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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 collaborator in France.

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Benedict Arnold. Almost passed 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.

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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 them.

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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. O.J. Simpson 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. 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... Kevin Spacey 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.