Here's Why Most Movie Villains Have Skin Conditions

Your favorite movie villains have more in common than just dastardly deeds – they also have skin conditions.

A new article published in JAMA Dermatology examined the top 10 film heroes and villains on the American Film Institute100 Greatest Heroes and Villains List and discovered that six out of the top 10 villains have some kind of dermatologic issue.

For example, Dr. Hannibal Lecter of "The Silence of the Lambs," Darth Vader from "The Empire Strikes Back" and Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" all have hair loss, aka alopecia. Both The Wicked Witch of the West ("The Wizard of Oz") and The Queen ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") have warts, or verruca vulgaris, on the face.

Only two heroes on the list have skin conditions. Both Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and Rick Blaine in "Casablanca" have facial scars. Still, according to the authors, facial scars on heroes are typically less pronounced than those on their villainous counterparts.

The authors argue that Hollywood tends to put skin conditions "in an evil context." Back during the silent film era, filmmakers used skin conditions to showcase wickedness because they couldn't do so via spoken word, study author Dr. Julie A. Croley tells U.S. News in an e-mail. She says these depictions of skin conditions on the big screen have stuck around through today, creating social stigma.

"Specifically, unfairly targeting dermatologic minorities may contribute to a tendency toward prejudice in our culture and facilitate misunderstanding of particular disease entities among the general public," according to the article. "In some cases, filmmakers are tasked with addressing biased portrayals of dermatologic disease, as evidenced by the goals of advocacy groups."

The article mentions the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation as one group that's advocated for not casting albino people as villains, but notes its "limited success" on that front.

"While other advocacy groups have not mounted such large-scale campaigns in Hollywood, the formation of support groups for people with skin conditions, such as the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, is further evidence of the psychosocial challenges associated with stigmatizing public perception toward dermatologic disease," according to Croley.