While a new vision of one of the most “hellish” comic book heroes is upon us, for many fans, the 2004 Hellboy cast will always be the definitive iteration. Two decades ago, Academy Award-winning writer and director Guillermo del Toro created one of the best non-Marvel or DC-based superhero movies out of Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic about a demon who grows up on Earth into a protector of humanity.
Before Jack Kesy takes over the role of the big, red hunter of all things paranormal in the upcoming Hellboy: The Crooked Man – coming to VOD in the U.S. on October 8th, but hitting U.K. theaters September 27th – celebrate the original performance by Ron Perlman. In fact, let’s take a look what the actor and the rest of the Hellboy cast from 2004 have been up to since.
Ron Perlman (Hellboy)
Despite previously expressing interest in doing a Hellboy 3, Ron Perlman would only play the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense’s top agent once more (not counting two animated, direct-to-video movies) in 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He would appear in three more Guillermo del Toro movies (Pacific Rim, Nightmare Alley, and 2022’s Pinocchio), reaching a total eight collaborations between them, which also includes the second installment of the Blade movies.
The former Sons of Anarchy cast member is also known for the 2011 film noir movie favorite, Drive, leading the Amazon drama Hand of God, lending his voice to the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts cast as Optimus Primal, and playing a main antagonist in the Poker Face cast. Perlman has a few films in post-production, including Thug and Cottonmouth.
Selma Blair (Liz Sherman)
Hellboy’s love interest, the pyrokinetic Liz, is one of the best-known roles of Selma Blair, in addition to being in the Legally Blonde cast as Vivian Kensington and one of the best ‘90s teen movies, Cruel Intentions. Some of her notable roles since have included Caprice in the NC-17 movie, A Dirty Shame, Kris Jenner in Season 1 of American Crime Story, and the killer Kendall in Mom and Dad with Nicolas Cage.
Her battle with Multiple Sclerosis was documented in the award-winning 2021 documentary, Introducing Selma Blair, but she has been in remission since that year. She has yet to return to acting, but has made appearances on several TV programs, such as when she participated on Dancing with the Stars in Season 31.
Doug Jones (Abe Sapien)
Half-man, half-fish Abe Sapien (also voiced by David Hyde Pierce in 2004’s Hellboy) is one of many creatures Doug Jones has played in a Guillermo del Toro movie, including Fauno in 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth and The Amphibian Man in the Best Picture Oscar winner, The Shape of Water, from 2017. He has also disappeared into many other roles from great horror movies – such as the Ghoul from 2016's Mike Flanagan movie, Ouija: Origin of Evil – and has worked on Del Toro’s FX series The Strain and What We Do in the Shadows.
More recently, Jones reprised his role from the Hocus Pocus cast as Billy Butcherson in Disney+’s 2022 sequel and played Saru on Star Trek: Discovery from 2017 to 2024. He also played Count Orlok in a 2023 movie that has no connection to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake and, according to Deadline, started filming a thriller called The Weight of Darkness in April 2024.
Rupert Evans (John Myers)
Rupert Evans made his major motion picture debut in Hellboy as John Myers – a B.P.R.D. agent created specifically for the movie as an audience surrogate. He did not return for The Golden Army but would encounter a few odd circumstances in movies like 2014’s The Canal and The Boy from 2016, and as Harry Greenwood on The CW’s reboot of Charmed from 2018 to 2022.
The British actor also had a main role on Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle and guest-starred alongside Netflix’s Bridgerton cast as Edmund Bridgerton in Season 2. Evans can currently be seen on PBS’s six-part crime series, Moonflower Murders, and has a historical drama series in production called Truth & Conviction.
Karel Roden (Grigori Rasputin)
The main antagonist of 2004’s Hellboy is none other than Grigori Rasputin, who was a real-life mystic and faith healer who acquired considerable power and influence from his ties to the Russian Empire. This highly exaggerated depiction of the historical figure is portrayed by Karel Roden, who had previously worked with both Del Toro and Perlman in 2003’s Blade II and starred in Bulletproof Monk the following year.
Also in 2004, the Czech Republic native appeared in the second installment of the Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Supremacy) and went on to appear in films like 2007’s Mr. Bean’s Holiday, the 2008 Guy Ritchie movie, RocknRolla, and the 2009 horror favorite, Orphan. Roden is also known for TV shows like AMC’s McMafia from 2018 and 2022’s MGM+ original A Spy Among Friends and he has an upcoming Terrence Malick project called The Way of the Wind in post-production.
Brian Steele (Sammael)
Doug Jones is not the only Hellboy cast member known for disappearing into his roles, as it was Brian Steele dressed as Sammael in practical shots of the hellhound. He previously made his debut in the early ‘90s as the titular sasquatch in the sitcom spin-off of Harry and the Hendersons, before playing Kothoga in 1997’s The Relic, Sharkmouth in Men in Black II, and a werewolf in 2003’s Underworld.
His notable creature portrayals since include the T-600 in Terminator Salvation, a couple of the titular aliens from Predators, both a Were-hyena and a Minotaur in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, and various creations in Hellboy II. He also played “The Entity” in the recent underrated horror movie, 2020’s The Empty Man, and most recently starred as The Robot in Netflix’s Lost in Space reboot.
Jeffrey Tambor (Thomas Manning)
The director of the B.P.R.D., Thomas Manning, who often butts heads with Hellboy, is played by Jeffrey Tambor. The veteran actor would later voice the father of a “monstrous” woman in 2009’s DreamWorks animated movie, Monsters vs. Aliens and a writer of paranormal stories in the 2011 sci-fi comedy, Paul.
In between his reprising his Emmy-nominated role in the Arrested Development cast in Netflix’s 2013 and 2019 revival seasons, Tambor earned two Emmy Awards for starring in Transparent as middle-aged transgender woman, Maura. Due to allegations of inappropriate behavior on set which the actor has claimed are false, Tambor was fired from the Amazon series in 2017 and his career has since slowed down, with his last major roles being a guest spot on The Orville and the Disney+ original movie, Magic Camp in 2020.
John Hurt (Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm)
The B.P.R.D’s original director and Hellboy’s adoptive father, Professor “Broom,” is played by John Hurt. The two-time Oscar nominee (for Midnight Express and The Elephant Man) had previously experienced “things that go bump in the night” most notably in one of the best sci-fi movies, 1979’s Alien, in which he, iconically, became the first victim of the chestburster, which he later poked fun at in the spoof movie classic, Spaceballs.
After Hellboy, the English actor starred in more acclaimed comic book movies (including 2005’s V for Vendetta, Hellboy II in an opening flashback, and 2014’s Snowpiercer), the fourth Indiana Jones movie, two more Harry Potter movies as Ollivander, and the masterful spy movie, 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. His final acting credit was 2017’s Damascus Cover, before he passed away that year at 77.
There are some who actually argue that one of the best things about 2019’s Hellboy is David Harbour’s performance in the title role. While fans also hope to see good things from Jack Kesy’s work in the upcoming superhero movie, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, as far as I am concerned, the character will always belong to Ron Perlman.
