History - Villains turned Hero

[Guest tomk]

My daughter has a report due.

She needs to do it on someone in History who was a villain who turned GOOD GUY.

Non-religious, non-biblical, please.

[checkerboy]

If you were British you could go with Benedict Arnold. Hahahaha.

[mightynancy]

Changing views of history have villified traditional heroes (namely, explorers from Europe coming to the New World).

I can't think of anyone who's the other way around.

[BenRaines]

Pancho Villa, hero to some, villain to others.

Ben Raines

[OtterPop]

Oskar Schindler

[Tough Grits]

I just can't think of anybody real.

Gilgamesh was a bad ruler, but after all his trials and the death of Enkidu, he became a good ruler.

Beowulf had a murky past, but became a good ruler when he came back from killing Grendel and Grendel's mother.

Achilles was a neither completely good nor completely bad...but he had his good moments.

Anakin Skywalker turned back to the good side right before he died.

I just can't think of any real-life villains turned good.

[Lbybug]

I just can't think of anybody real.

Gilgamesh was a bad ruler, but after all his trials and the death of Enkidu, he became a good ruler.

Beowulf had a murky past, but became a good ruler when he came back from killing Grendel and Grendel's mother.

Achilles was a neither completely good nor completely bad...but he had his good moments.

Anakin Skywalker turned back to the good side right before he died.

I just can't think of any real-life villains turned good.

hold up, are you saying anakin skywalker isn't real?????

my life is ruined :S

[Tough Grits]

hold up, are you saying anakin skywalker isn't real?????

my life is ruined :S

I feel for you, as I too, have a hard time admitting that Anakin, the force, and the whole Star Wars saga is not real.

~TG

[NeuroTypical]

I vote for Oskar Schindler also. It's not every day you see a member of the Nazi party buried with honors in Mount Zion, Jerusalem.

It will be a great contrast to all the other reports on Malcom X and Yassir Arafat...

Edited October 10, 2008 by Loudmouth_Mormon

[bytor2112]

How about Jean Lafitte....he was a pirate. He also helped to defeat the Brittish at the Battle of New Orleans.

[bytor2112]

Too bad it can't be religious.....Paul comes to mind

[Moksha]

I attended this one Church several times, where the Reverend had been in prison, read religious books and liked what he read. So he went to Divinity School and became a preacher - a pretty good one at that. Villain to hero.

I imagine that this wrong doer to good doer does indeed happen in the penal system and in other walks of life too. Look at the cut throat business practices of Bill Gates. Gates is now a philanthropist and his foundation does a lot of good.

[piper]

When I see an assignment like that, I think of people like Jesse James. He was a villian no doubt, a thief and killer. But with time, he became kind of a folk hero. Movies and books have done the same with killers like Billy the Kid. John Paul (Jones) was a slaver and once killed a man although it is not known whether or not it was justified. He founded the American Navy. Morgan was another. He was definitely a villian and a pirate. However, after buying his freedom and becoming the governor of Jamaica, he actually helped tame the seas and make way for British colonialism. Though he was considered a pirate to the end of his day by France and Spain, he became somewhat of a hero in some parts. Just a few ideas. Hope it helps.:)

[Elphaba]

Johnny Depp of course!

There was a time he would not have given me the time of day, he was such a bbbaaaadddd boy!

Now he wants ME bbbaaaadddd.

If you saw my butt, you'd understand why he is a hero!

Elphie

[Bookmeister]

Elphie...if your butt is the same green color, I think I'll pass on seeing it...;

[HoosierGuy]

Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox? Altho he was not really bad besides the fact that he fought for Germany, but he had the respect of many including his opponents. Plus, when his own people came to murder him, he could have fought it, probably have lost, and his family would probably have been prosecuted also. Instead he did the honorable thing and went with the murderers with out a fuss knowing his family would not be harmed later.

[Elphaba]

Elphie...if your butt is the same green color, I think I'll pass on seeing it...;

Well, let me put it this way. It used to be the perfect verdigris.

However, it is all rubbed off now.

I know, TMI.

Elphie

[skalenfehl]

I think Oskar Schindler is a prime candidate. I personally don't believe he was a villain at heart, just a capitalist who aligned himself with the wrong party. Then again, I'm not too terribly familiar with is life. In a nutshell, he joined the Nazi party, supposedly worked for intelligence, which led up to the invasion of Poland. Once he set up his company, it was all about making money, initially. Still, he saved a lot of lives. He is a hero to many, many people.

[piper]

One other possibility occurs to me. Frank Abagnale jr. He was one of, if not the most, successul con men in history. He turned from his path and ultimately became a consultant with the FBI to help them catch con men. From what I understand, he really turned from a bad guy to a good guy.

[YoungMormonRoyalist]

If your looking really, really ancient you could always go with Gaius Julius Caeser, or Augustus, the first Roman Emeperor.

The question one must ask themselves is: Did these men do what they did for power, or to save Rome from herself?

Other people to consider:

Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor - One back the holy lands while excommunicated for feuding with the pope by a treaty with the sultan, not through bloodshed. He was called an antichrist by many contemperaries, but also hailed as an enlightened ruler who spoke and wrote several languages, including the taboo that was Arabic. He held a court that included Jews and Muslims among many other faiths, kept a zoo, not for entertainment but for reaserch. He was a renaissance man who predated the renaissance, but also brutal

Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor - This guy is often hailed for becoming the first 'Roman' (the guy was Frankish, or German) Emperor since Romulus Augustus. He's also hailed for opening up Christianity to Germany and lots of other Western areas. He is often regarded as a lawgiver and reformer, and yet one must remember that once he killed 8000 Saxons who refused to convert to Christianity.

Saladin - The muslim leader most famous for his interactions and battles with Richard the Lionheart. He was chivalrous for his age to be sure, but had no qualms about killing Templar or Hospitaller prisoners (who perhaps deserved it), or mocking Christianity when he took Jerusalem. Altogether though he was quite the hero.

Asoka - Emperor of India way back, predating Christ, who converted to Buddhism. He was regarded as a prince of peace, and a great lawgiver. However, before his conversion he was also noted for his many wars of expansion and conquest.

Brutus - Caesers assassin. This guy was often regarded during the age of Kings, Queens and Emperors to be one of the most vile men of all time. In Dante's devine comedy he is in the very deepest level of hell, suffering the same fate of his co-conspirator Cassius and the ultimate betrayer, Judas Iscariot. However, after the age of enlightenment this man has often been seen as trying to save the Republic from a man who he saw as trying to take a crown for himself.

To name a few of course.

[lilered]

Johnny Depp of course!

If you saw my butt, you'd understand why he is a hero!

Elphie

Elphie: Does your rearend, look like two giant Ham Shanks in a gunny sack?

Edited October 11, 2008 by lilered

[lilered]

How about Porter Rockwell.

A local hero to some, revered by some, but feared by others?

He had many adventures and misadventures outside of his loyalty to J.S. and the Church.

He was a scout, marksman, killer, drunkard, sherriff, tracker, husband, father, bar tender.

Edited October 11, 2008 by lilered

[Fiannan]

Dr. Bernard Nathanson

As a younger man, he had been strongly pro-choice, and he claims that he performed an abortion on a woman who had become pregnant by him.[1] He later gained national attention by then becoming one of the founding members of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America. He worked with Betty Friedan and others for the legalization of abortion in the United States. Their efforts essentially succeeded with the Roe v Wade decision. He was also for a time the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), New York's largest abortion clinic. Nathanson has written that he was responsible for over 75,000 abortions throughout his pro-choice career.

The development of ultrasound, however, in the 1970s led him to reconsider his views on abortion. He is now a staunch supporter of the pro-life movement. In 1984, he made the documentary The Silent Scream which showed an abortion from the perspective of ultrasound. His second documentary Eclipse of Reason dealt with late-term abortions. He has also stated that the numbers he once cited for NARAL concerning the number of deaths linked to illegal abortions were "false figures".[2]

He has written the books Aborting America and The Hand of God. Although he grew up Jewish, he described himself as a "Jewish Atheist"[2] and later converted to Catholicism in 1996 through the efforts of Fr. C. John McCloskey, a member of Opus Dei. Before that conversion, he had been divorced three times.[citation needed]

Bernard Nathanson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[OtterPop]

One other possibility occurs to me. Frank Abagnale jr. He was one of, if not the most, successul con men in history. He turned from his path and ultimately became a consultant with the FBI to help them catch con men. From what I understand, he really turned from a bad guy to a good guy.

I think Frank Abagnale is a great example. You can read his philosophy on his website. He now runs a private consulting firm on security. He also says very clearly that he regrets his past actions, and that he strives to be the antithesis of what he was.

[Elphaba]

Elphie: Does your rearend, look like two giant Ham Shanks in a gunny sack?

It's more like twenty-two ham shanks, and I can't fit in any of the gunny sacks.

Does anyone know where I can special order gunny sacks for zoftig women like myself?

Elphie