5 Hilarious Sitcom Stars Who Also Played Absolutely Frightening Villains

Comedy and horror have a lot in common. Both genres are all about eliciting a reaction from the audience, and it's for this reason that many great horror auteurs, like "Get Out" director Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger of "Weapons," got their start in comedy. So, it shouldn't be surprising that actors who were best-known for playing hilarious characters on sitcoms have also been terrifying villains.

The following five actors have all charmed TV audiences. On the small screen, you might know them as a beloved family patriarch, a kooky friendly alien, or an upbeat soccer coach. In another role, however, they're much more sinister. You almost don't recognize them as an unhinged doomsday prepper, obsessive stalker, or abusive partner. As this list shows, the very same acting talent that can make a sitcom star so silly can also be used for evil.

It's a testament to the late, great Robin Williams' skills as an actor that he could be insane in a funny way — as seen in the ABC sitcom, "Mork & Mindy," where he played an eccentric alien – and also insane in a terrifying way.

In 2002, Williams played two scary villains on the big screen. In the neo-noir thriller, "Insomnia," Williams was crime writer, Walter Finch, in a small Alaskan city. When Walter loses his temper and kills a girl for rejecting his advances, it's the start of a murder case that eventually comes back to him. Robins is low-key in the role of a murderer, perhaps unnervingly so. His other villainous role that year was in the thriller "One Hour Photo." He's extremely creepy as Sy Parrish, a photo technician who becomes obsessed with a family whose pictures he regularly develops.

Williams played a scary villain on the small screen, too, appearing as the criminal in "Authority," a Season 9 episode of NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." His character, Merritt Rook, is a brilliant audio engineer with a grudge against authority, and manipulates people into committing terrible acts to prove his point. Rook is among the closest thing to a supervillain there's ever been on "SVU," and his crimes culminate in forcing Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to inflict pain on his partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). Williams received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor for his performance.

John Goodman has played plenty of beloved characters: Sulley from "Monsters Inc.," Pacha from "The Emperor's New Groove," and his breakout role as Dan Conner in the classic ABC sitcom "Roseanne." He's an extremely prolific actor, and on more than one occasion he's used his deep voice and large frame to be terrifying rather than a teddy bear.

In one of his many collaborations with the Coen Brothers, 1991's "Barton Fink," he plays Charlie Meadows, a seemingly simple, affable fellow who is staying next to the title character's hotel room. It turns out, however, that he's really notorious serial killer, Karl "Madman" Mundt. And based on the way the hallway inexplicably sets aflame during an intense climatic scene, he might as well be the devil.

Goodman's scariest role — and one of his best — came in the 2016 sci-fi thriller, "10 Cloverfield Lane." He plays Howard, a somewhat kooky man who has trapped Mary Elizabeth Winstead's protagonist, Michelle, inside his underground bunker. He claims it's because aliens have invaded up on the surface, but Michelle has no way of knowing if Howard is her captor or savior. Given how volatile and unsteady Howard reveals himself to be, Michelle might be better off outside the bunker even if he is telling the truth. It's a supremely creepy, intimidating performance.

You could certainly make a compelling case that Michael Scott was a villain from a workplace perspective. The Dunder Mifflin regional manager ultimately had a heart of gold, though, and TV audiences certainly loved him and Steve Carell's memorable performance on NBC's "The Office."

Much less loveable — though no less impressive — was Carell's role in the 2014 biopic, "Foxcatcher." Underneath heavy prosthetics and speaking with a strange affect, Carell is uncanny as John E. du Pont, heir to the du Pont family fortune and a major fan of Olympic wrestling. John wants to sponsor and coach wrestling brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), but his intensity and jealousy soon lead to uncomfortable moments and, eventually, tragedy.

Perhaps because it was Carell's biggest role after leaving "The Office" three years earlier, John is a very different sort of character than Michael. Yet, there are strange similarities. Both men want to be important and to be respected. On "The Office," this desire leads to hilarious moments as Michael Scott. In "Foxcatcher," it results in a murder. Carell was nominated for Best Actor at the 87th Academy Awards for his chilling performance. The actor has also, of course, voiced Gru in the "Despicable Me" movies, but even though Gru is a supervillain, he's not at all scary. He's nice, actually.

Michael Bluth was the closest thing to "the normal one" in the Bluth family in "Arrested Development," but Jason Bateman since played his fair share of scary villains. Marty Byrde, his character in the Netflix series, "Ozark," may have been the ostensible protagonist, but he was quite scary at times. Even if you want to call Marty an antihero rather than a villain, there are still other creepy Bateman performances to choose from.

In HBO's canceled adaptation of the Stephen King book, "The Outsider," Bateman plays Terry Maitland, a little league coach accused of a gruesome child murder. Terry is innocent as the real killer is a shapeshifting entity known as El Cuco, and Bateman plays the monster quite creepily when it takes Terry's form. Bateman also played the villain in "Carry-On," a Netflix movie where he's a psychopathic terrorist who manipulates Taron Egerton's TSA agent into letting him pass a bomb through security. The movie is a fun action thriller, but Bateman's bad guy has plenty of earnestly sinister, intimidating moments that weaponize the dry humor he showcased in "Arrested Development."

In the Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis plays one of the most relentlessly upbeat, positive characters on the small screen. The AFC Richmond coach would probably have some words for one of the most despicable characters Sudeikis has ever played, an abusive, emotionally manipulative friend in the kaiju drama, "Colossal."

The 2016 movie is relatively unknown, but great. The first film production company Neon released, "Colossal" stars Anne Hathaway as Gloria, an alcoholic writer who returns to her hometown. She soon discovers that she manifests as a gigantic monster in South Korea's capital city whenever she gets drunk and walks through a certain playground at a specific time. Gloria is distraught at the devastation she's causing and resolves to better herself. Her childhood friend, Oscar, on the other hand, has developed jealous feelings for her and resents her sobriety. When he learns he also manifests as a monster, he threatens the destruction of Seoul in order to control her.

What's scary isn't the giant monsters themselves, but just how monstrous Oscar is as a person. Kaiju aside, it's an unfortunately familiar — and scary — personality type.