The Gryffindor Gazette

A look back at Gary Oldman’s freaky roles

by Wendy on August 1st, 2007

EW has a fun photo gallery all about the sometimes very scary (yet completely intriguing) roles that Gary Oldman, who plays Sirius, has taken on throughout his career:

In ”Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004), Gary Oldman plays Sirius Black, the mysterious escaped convict of the title.

Oldman first found stardom as self-destructive Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in ”Sid and Nancy” (1986), which chronicles the improbably tender romance between the self-destructive punk rocker and girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb).

Oldman had a brief but pivotal role in Oliver Stone’s conspiracy-theory drama ”JFK” (1991) as Lee Harvey Oswald, who fired the shots that killed John F. Kennedy — or did he?

Preparing to neck with Winona Ryder in ”Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), Oldman played the vampire as a tragic romantic hero. He stayed so in character that Ryder told EW: ”I still don’t feel like I ever met Gary Oldman”

‘The Professional” (1994) featured Natalie Portman (in her breakthrough role) and Oldman as the corrupt cop who massacres her family.

Eight years after ”Sid and Nancy,” Oldman played another famous wild-haired musician with a tumultuous love life in ”Immortal Beloved” (1994). Offscreen, Oldman and costar Isabella Rossellini became live-in lovers for two years.

In Demi Moore’s revisionist take on ”The Scarlet Letter” (1995), Hester Prynne (Moore) and Rev. Dimmesdale (Oldman) earn that ”A’.

With that ‘do, it’s no wonder Oldman described his baddie in ”The Fifth Element” (1997) as ”Hitler meets Jerry Lewis.” In films, he moaned to EW: ”I can never seem to have my own hair”

Cementing his status as all-purpose villain, Oldman played the terrorist who hijacks president Harrison Ford’s plane in ”Air Force One” (1997). Matching Oldman’s Method realism, Ford demanded that Oldman really smack him around.

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