Which Actor Played Hellboy?

Hellboy is another comic book hero brought to life. The actor who played Hellboy under all of that red makeup is played by veteran stage, movie and television actor Ron Perlman, who seems drawn to characters that require heavy makeup artistry. Among some of his other more famous creature portrayals include Vincent, the half man/half lion, in Beauty and the Beast opposite Linda Hamilton, Reinhardt in Blade II, and the Reman Viceroy in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Hellboy the Comic, illustrated by Mike Mignola, had its first full treatment in a limited black and white book published in 1993 by Dark Horse Comics. Hellboy is a supernatural creature of demonic appearance with red skin, horns and an oversized right hand apparently made of stone. Summoned by the Nazis in WWII in an attempt to turn the war around, Hellboy was rescued by an American occult researcher who raised him, along with the United States Army, to adulthood.

As an adult, Hellboy serves as the chief agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. An important part of the character’s backstory centers around him being a key to the beginning of the Apocalypse, mostly due to his right hand, which is a mystical artifact in its own right. Hellboy looks like the devil complete with hooves, tail and horns. However, he keeps the horns filed down to stumps to help give himself a more normal appearance. 

Hellboy: The Movie

Director Guillermo del Toro brought Hellboy to the big screen in Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II:The Golden Army (2008). As of 2010, a third Hellboy film was in the planning stages, with the development of Hellboy as the herald of the Apocalypse a key plot line. Two direct-to-video animated Hellboy movies have also been released. The animated movies are considered to be closer in content and plot lines with the comic series than the live action films.

The movies attempt to mix horror, wit, and humor in a thematized show of pyrotechnics. Reviews of the movies have been mixed but many reviewers give Perlman a nod in his ability to portray a character deeply haunted by his unexplained past and potentially deadly future.

Actor Who Played Hellboy

Actor Ron Perlman portrayed the Hellboy character in both feature films. A case can be made for Perlman’s expertise in playing characters requiring extensive make-up, including full facial prosthesis in some cases. His most famous make-up roles include: a Golden Globe winning performance as Vincent in Beauty and the Beast, the hunchback in The Name of the Rose, and of course, Hellboy. 

Perlman has also had featured roles in Alien Resurrection, Enemy at the Gates and Blade II. He is currently a main character on the television program Sons of Anarchy on FX. Perlman also has numerous voiceover credits in animated series and video games. He has been heard on the animated shows, Afro Samurai, Teen Titans, Batman:The Animated Series and many others. Video gamers know him from Halo 2, Halo 3 and as the narrator of the Fallout introductory movies.

Ron Perlman was born on April 13, 1950, in Washington Heights, N.Y. He has admitted in interviews to having a low self image during childhood which has guided him toward taking on physically deformed characters throughout his career. He graduated from Lehman College with a degree in Theater, which he has used to develop a very long and prosperous career throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Even under all of that makeup, it is very easy to tell which actor played Hellboy. Ron Perlman has distinctive physical features, including his deep voice, which easily distinguish him from other actors. Because of this, he has a long list of acting credits in film, television, theater and voice-over work.