Scary Black Man / Live-Action TV

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• Colonel Ike Dubaku of Sangala from 24. Even more so, his boss, General Benjamin Juma, played by the above-mentioned Tony Todd.
• 30 Rock plays with the trope with Dot Com and Grizz, Tracy Jordan's two friends/bodyguards/entourage. They are both gigantic, and are more than capable of looking extremely scary...but are really just huge teddy bears — smart ones, too. Dot Com is actually The Smart Guy — he is a graduate of Wesleyan and has a way of being the smartest guy in the room that Jack Donaghy finds "off-putting".
  • When Hazel gives her deposition alleging a culture of harassment, she mentions Grizz and Dotcom, describing them as two big, black guys who were always pestering her — to join their book club.
  • Liz is trying to drive her roommate out of the apartment, and Tracy suggests that a Scary Black Guy might scare him off, so to that end Dotcom poses as a Crazy Jealous Guy ex-boyfriend. (The roommate, it turns out, is NYPD, and instead of being intimidated he just clubs Dotcom in the knees and forces him to the ground.)
• Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series, starring Jeremy Brett, are known for being very faithful to the original stories, but in "The Adventure of the Three Gables", supporting villain Steve Dixie gets upgraded from a broad comic "negro" stereotype to a quiet, dangerous, and genuinely scary black man.
• Shadow in the TV adaptation of American Gods is a play on this trope — he's the protagonist, and is mostly a quiet and introspective person, but he's physically intimidating and recently released from prison, so often comes across as scary in universe. Shadow's physical appearance is less specified in the original book.
• B. A. Baracus from The A-Team. He's played by Mr. T. Most goons seem suitably cowed when he gets in their face.
• The Babylon 5 episode "GROPOS" has an EarthForce Marine Corps private known only as "Large". His first scene has him billeted with Space Fighter pilot Warren Keffer because B5 wasn't built to hold 25,000 Marines on short notice. Keffer walks in and starts complaining, and Large comes up to him. He's a good foot taller and wider and asks if he's got a problem, "airboy".
  Keffer: Yeah, I got a problem. Just give me a minute to find a ladder, and we'll hash it out face to face.
  Large: (Beat, then Large bursts out laughing) He's all right. You're all right, baby.
• On one episode of The Bob Newhart Show, dentist Jerry Robinson gets on an elevator. Then a large unfriendly-looking black man gets on with a white dog. The guy shouts "Whitey, sit!". The guy's dog sits, as does Jerry.
• The Boys (2019):
  • Vought CEO Stan Edgar, an Actor Allusion to Giancarlo's most famous role as Gus Fring below. A stoic Faux Affably Evil chessmaster who exudes an eerie perpetual calmness much like his comic counterpart James Stillwell. Unlike many examples of this trope, he actively refrains from displaying anger, describing a Hair-Trigger Temper as a "white man's luxury".
  • Black Noir, the Seven's resident Batman expy. Most of the time he's The Comically Serious Bunny-Ears Lawyer, often seen goofing off in the background while wearing his intimidating costume. However, in combat situations he's shown to have a Healing Factor and immunity to pain making him the Implacable Man and a borderline Immortal Assassin, as well as his enigmatic and robotic nature making his role as the sort-of Team Normal making him seem even more alien as opposed to humanizing him. The only reason we know he's black is because of Maeve partially lifting his mask in Season 2 and flashbacks in 3.
• From Breaking Bad:
  • Gus Fring. It's best seen when his "charitable Los Pollos Hermanos CEO and Albuquerque philanthropist" façade is dropped, like when he cuts Victor's throat in front of Walt, Jesse, and Mike to send a message or when he threatens to have Hank killed.
  • Tyrus Kitt, one of Gus's Co-Dragons, is a more obvious example. In every scene he's in, he positively radiates danger.
  • In Seasons 4 and 5, Huell Babineaux, Saul's new bodyguard. Played with in that given his rotund figure, bizarrely-shaped head, frequent bathroom trips, and general apathy to the insanity is going on around him, he's often more comical than intimidating.
• Zigzagged on Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Sgt. Terry Jeffords, a tall, muscular, and imposing African-American officer who, personality-wise, is really just a big softie at heart. However, he does have a bit of a short fuse... but it's mainly bluster, and he's by and large mild-mannered... unless you really piss him off, in which case he can get pretty darned terrifying.
  • The trope is even squared with the introduction of his brother-in-law Zeke, who is even bigger and taller, as well as a major bully to Terry.
• Buffyverse:
  • Charles Gunn. The leader of a Vampire-killing street gang, who turns into someone even his Vampire boss considers "The Big Guy", though most of the time he's friendly and loveable.
  • Principal Wood was this as well. (The Buffyverse is enough of a World of Badass that any black character is likely to be open to this interpretation.) He was introduced in such a way as to make him seem to Buffy (and the audience) as if he were a scary enemy in league with the Big Bad who is operating under the Hellmouth this year. Then, his real agenda is revealed and he turns out to be a highly skilled vampire fighter much like Gunn on the spinoff. But even so, the idea that he was an enemy was a Double Subversion in that he really does have it in for one member of Buffy's team, namely, he considers Spike his sworn enemy and tries to kill him.
  • DoppelGunn, who is the Conduit to the Senior Partners in Gunn's form.
• Castle:
  • The episode "Law and Murder" has a juror suspected of killing another juror specifically refer to a character as a big Scary Black Man.
  • Vulcan Simmons, a suspect in Beckett's mother's murder, is definitely one of these, being a sociopathically creepy black man.
• Charmed (1998):
  • Season 5 introduces Kazi Demons, who all appear to be Black, and extremely hammy.
  • The Seer is a malevolent villain who proves to be The Starscream for the Source, eventually tricking Phoebe into becoming pregnant with his baby, all so she can rule the underworld.
• Chuck has several:
  • Big Mike, the Buy More manager, is rarely seen actually being scary (his usual laziness is punctuated with occasional angry yelling) but all the employees are terrified of him.
  • Michael Strahan had a cameo as an employee from a rival store who terrorizes Morgan until Anna beats Michael Strahan's character up. ("Chuck vs. the Break-Up")
  • Michael Clarke Duncan appeared as a villain and even said to Chuck, "I assume you find me imposing. I was going for imposing." ("Chuck vs. the First Date")
  • Subverted when Jerome "The Bus" Bettis guest-starred and played an imposing and muscular ex-con friend and football teammate of Big Mike's who needed a job and briefly worked at the Buy More. The crew assumed he was a former gangster or other violent criminal. Turns out he was actually convicted of bank fraud.
• Carl Buford of Criminal Minds is a subversion. He's seen as a friendly and approachable pillar of the community who coaches a football team of troubled youths. Unfortunately, this ends up being a good front for his crimes.
• Doctor Who:
  • Toberman, the villains' servant/henchmen in "The Tomb of the Cybermen" and one of the few black characters in the classic series.
  • "School Reunion": One of the Krillitanes poses as one of these, Evil Teacher Mr. Wagner. Notably, his true form is darker than the others.
• Chris's father from Everybody Hates Chris (played by the aforementioned Terry Crews) can be quite scary when pushed too far. Chris's mother is even scarier.
• Firefly:
  • Bounty Hunter Jubal Early in "Objects in Space". He's actually quite slightly built but makes up for it with the scary.
  • There's also the Operative, who is a very chilling and calm kind of scary; and Shepherd Book, whom Zoe refers to as "the scary preacher" in Better Days when he beheads a killer attack robot with a single swing of a sword.
  • Zoe is usually not called upon to be the Heavy (Jayne needs to earn his keep, after all), but she is perfectly capable of cowing even Jayne with a raised eyebrow and a deadpan comment.
• For Life: Cassius is a frightening prison gang leader who has pull both with other prisoners and the guards, even on the outside. Tall and strong, he never raises his voice but stays menacing nonetheless effortlessly.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
  • "Mad Dog" from one ep manages to inspire three Oh, Crap! reactions from Will and Carlton while he is asleep. The first upon hearing his scary name, the second upon coming out of the closet half-naked and seeing his huge 300-lb frame, the third was when they tried to grab their clothes from under him and stirred him awake.
  • Uncle Phil, while usually a pretty nice guy, is also perfectly capable of being this. Among his moments, his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Will's deadbeat dad is a sight to behold.
    "Uncle Phil is a very large man with a very short fuse. Bad combination!"
• Jeremiah Bello, the Nigerian gangster from Graceland.
• Maxtor, the Proud Warrior Race guy against whom contestants have to compete in the Spanish show El gran juego de la oca. Upon making his entrance, he immediately proceeds to beat the crap out of anyone standing within ten feet of him.
• The Haitian on Heroes.
  • May be a subversion given that he is actually a fairly decent guy... it's just that he has the bad tendency of taking orders from all the wrong people. Though as all of them have been white and he's been shown as being a good man when NOT following orders from them... well, it opens up a whole bunch of OTHER invokedUnfortunate Implications.
  • In Volume 3, a black villain named Knox inadvertently takes advantage of this trope seeing as how fear powers his Super-Strength. invokedUnfortunate Implications, away!
  • Later, we are introduced to the Haitian's brother, who is quite possibly the scariest black guy yet to be seen on the show. Although his power is invulnerability, it is off for most of his appearance. Just to give you an idea of how scary he is.
  • Before the writers got lazy and started playing the invokedUnfortunate Implications completely straight, they subverted this trope with DL Hawkins. His white, blonde wife Niki first describes him to the police as a terrifying, unstoppable felon who's committed a string of brutal murders. When DL actually shows up, he turns out to be a devoted, cuddly father who was actually framed for the killings — by his frail-looking white wife, no less, whose psychopathic, super-strong alter ego actually committed them.
  • We also have a scary black man in the GN's in the shape of Marcus. He may not LOOK scary but he's a warped as hell serial killer who takes great joy in bending and breaking people's bodies.
• Chi McBride as Corrupt Corporate Executive Vogler in the first season of House serves as this. Averted later in his main role on Pushing Daisies as a private detective who's more bluster than business. Also, he quite enjoys knitting.
  • Averted even earlier with his role as Principal Steven Harper on Boston Public, who was a genuinely compassionate educator doing his best to help his students and staff, but who could also be genuinely terrifying if he had to be (usually if he had to go to bat for his teachers).
• Court Officer Petri Hawkins-Byrd on Judge Judy. Nobody messes with the Byrd.
• Justified has Siblings in Crime Jay & Roscoe, a pair of killers-for-hire who rent their services out to various drug organizations and freely admit they got into the business to kill as many people as possible.
• Kamen Rider 555 has the Crocodile Orphnoch, aka Mr. J. Like above, he only grunts and like the former, had invokedUnfortunate Implications.
• Played around with, like all race tropes, on Key & Peele. Particularly notable, however, is Luther, the tall, bug-eyed, barely contained "anger translator" for Barack Obama (in an Affectionate Parody of Obama's cool-as-a-cucumber style).
• The Knights of Prosperity lampshades this, as Rockefeller is explicitly referred to at one point as "our big scary black dude", a label he has no problem with.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent lampshades this in one episode where the Captain comments that they can't arrest a suspect for being a "large, scary black man".
• Lost:
  • Mr. Eko, played by the aforementioned Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Especially in his first few appearances, where he spends most of his time not talking, looking mean, and beating people with what Charlie sarcastically calls his "Jesus stick".
  • Abaddon is a tall, scary Man in Black. He doesn't fit the description completely because he's not very big and imposing. He's just... really creepy.
• Luke Cage (2016):
  • Averted with Luke Cage, despite his strength and power. But he invokes this with other criminals.
  • Willis "Diamondback" Stryker. One assumes that part of the reason Erik LaRay Harvey was cast for this role is because he has a deep gravelly voice that just oozes menace, which is appropriate for a character who can wipe out an entire legion of bodyguards then casually crash a mob meeting and kill four gang bosses without breaking a sweat.
• The title character on Luther, a genius police detective, has a habit of smashing doors and windows to pieces when he gets upset and is occasionally shown picking people up bodily by their necks.
• MacGyver (1985): Axminster, the hit man from "Target MacGyver", can come off as this.
• Malcolm in the Middle:
  • Subverted in an episode where Hal is trying to get mugged, so he drives to a bad neighbourhood, finds an ATM next to which a big, leather-clad black man is standing, and makes a big show about removing over $1,000 dollars and sticking it in his back pocket while loudly mentioning he has a Rolex and a Porsche. The black man calls out to him... and warns him that he should be more careful.
  • Exploited in another episode where they want to get rid of Lois's Evil Matriarch of a mother, and they ask the normally soft-spoken Abe to play this up around her to scare her away from the neighborhood. He wrangles some of his friends to help and Ida runs screaming from the house.
  Piama: (who is Native American) "I'd do it myself but I'm not dark enough. I just annoy her a little."
• The show Martin had a recurring character called "Angry Man" who would always appear and tell people "Man sit-cho ass down!!"
• Helios from Merlin, a warlord that Morgana hires in order to take down Camelot. Subverted much earlier in the show with Aglain, who was a (literal) Magical Negro before falling to the Black Dude Dies First trope.
• Played straight, then subverted in the "Cabin" episode of New Girl, in which Schmidt and Winston go to a bad neighborhood, ostensibly to buy some crack cocaine in order for Winston to embrace his blackness. Winston is seeing just how far Schmidt will go in making a fool of himself, when the Scary Black Man gets into their car, freaking them out. Bath parties think the other is trying to mug them, but Scary Black Man finds out Schmidt and Winston are looking for crack, Schmidt and Winston find out Scary Black Man was just offering them help, and they part amicably.
• The Office (US):
  • Stanley is grumpy and rude, but not very intimidating at all. This doesn't stop Michael and Ryan from being terrified of him. Until the "Beach Games" episode, when Stanley puts on his "game face" and terrorizes Jim. He also becomes terrifyingly furious when he believes Ryan is trying to sleep with his teenage daughter.
  • Darryl is at least intimidating enough to shut Dwight up, no easy task.
  • Charles Miner had the whole branch (especially Jim) walking on eggshells.
• Simon Adebisi from Oz, another role played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. For most of the show's run, Adebisi is the official "toughest guy in Oz", which is impressive given that most of the prisoners on the show are Ax-Crazy and have an average life expectancy of about three episodes.
• Queeg 500 on Red Dwarf, the back-up computer who seizes control of the ship. Just one look at him tells you that he's not going to put up with any of your crap.
• Features twice in Roseanne:
  • Season 2's "Lobocop" has two barflies at the Lobo square off, with one mouthing off to a Scary Black Man playing pool at the back of the bar; needless to say, he is not amused.
  • Season 7's "White Men Can't Kiss" has Roseanne see the father of one of DJ's classmates and DJ's future father-in-law this way — right after spending half the episode giving Dan a hard time for his own subconscious prejudice.
• In an episode of Salute Your Shorts, counselor Ug goes looking for his runaway campers at a movie theater. Since he does not plan to see a movie, he senses his presence to be awkward and tries talking friendly to the large black usher/bouncer. The usher remains silent and stone-faced.
• On a famous Saturday Night Live sketch, Richard Pryor turned into one after a barrage of racist epithets from Chevy Chase.
  Chevy: Mr. Wilson, you'll be the highest-paid janitor in America. Just, don't hurt me, please.
• Scrubs, besides being the Trope Namer, has played with this trope several times:
  • Turk and JD frequently play "World's Tallest Doctor" by having JD stand on Turk's shoulders. They once did it the other way round. People ran.
  • Hooch is a bit of a subversion since he is not physically imposing at all: short and kind of skinny. He only fits the trope because, well, Hooch is crazy.
  • Leonard the security guard is a more typical example, especially since he has a hook for a hand.
  • One episode featured an old friend of Dr. Cox, who used this trope to put a quick end to unwanted conversations.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand:
  • Doctore, later revealed to be Oenomaus, is the Drill Sergeant Nasty of the ludus and the only one to have survived a battle in the arena with Theokoles. Subverted when it's revealed he's a Gentle Giant and merely Good Is Not Soft.
  • Naevia initially starts as the most innocent character but, after suffering a Trauma Conga Line, becomes an outright Blood Knight appropriately called a "mad bitch" by Gannicus.
• Stargate:
  • Teal'c, from Stargate SG-1. Lampshaded when SG-1 gets sent to a prison planet, where O'Neill tells him to, "Look scary and take point."
    • More on point, he exploits this trope to the maximum during an interrogation sequence.
  • Ronon Dex from Stargate Atlantis fills the same role.
  • Master Sergeant Ronald Greer in Stargate Universe.
• Worf, from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; beneath the fairly dark makeup is black Michael Dorn.
  • Many of the Klingons, as well.
  • Sisko is usually rather calm but when he wants to he can get extremely scary; hell, even WORF is afraid of him.
• Onyx Blackman in Strangers with Candy, played by Greg Hollimon. Paul Dinello describes suddenly being nose to nose with Greg after a game where they all had their eyes shut.
• Supernatural:
  • Uriel is a scary, black, evil angel. He does not like humanity and he has threatened to go against his orders and destroy the Winchesters as well as an innocent town. He has also decided to side with Lucifer and was subverting his garrison one angel at a time, and killing the ones who said no.
  • Raphael, who knocked out the entire eastern seaboard just by touching down to Earth. Although in a later appearance he was using the body of a black woman instead.
  • Also before them there was Gordon Walker, the first hunter to turn on the boys. Big, strong, black guy in love with violence. He was creepy in his first appearance, insane in his second, and turned into an especially scary vampire in his third. Until then he was one of the best vampire hunters alive. He is also kind of psycho and gets fixated on the idea that Sam is the Antichrist.
  • His opposite number was introduced in Season 3, the FBI agent assigned to the Winchester case, Victor Hendriksen, a youngish black man with a bit of a Cowboy Cop attitude and a slight obsession with bagging Dean. He is the least scary of the four black recurring characters. The others were Black Dude Dies First or other one-offs.
  • There was also Rufus Turner, old semi-Retired Badass and Bobby's former partner. Fairly scary, but on 'is a hunter and 'is a hard-assed old man' lines, more than Scary Black Man ones.
• Teen Wolf:
  • Dr. Deaton, Scott's boss, is intimidating enough to get the alpha to back down. Normally, though, he's not remotely scary.
    Dr. Deaton: Let me make myself clear. We. Are. Closed.
  • Boyd, at first. The whole barely-ever-speaks thing he sometimes has going on doesn't help much, either. Of course, then he got completely skewered by Allison...
• The Ellison Terminator on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was one of these. For somewhere around ten seconds or so. Of course, being confronted by your exact double asking "Are you you?" as it is about to Kill and Replace you is Nightmare Fuel alone.
  • Queeg, the Terminator who commanded a submarine became pretty damn scary once he refused the humans' attempts to override his orders. His name (if not a Shout-Out to Queequeg in Moby-Dick) was possibly derived from Red Dwarf.
• Some Toku shows in the '70s and '80s such as Warrior of Love Rainbowman and Denshi Sentai Denziman had Scary Black Men as villains. In Rainbowman's case, the first Scary Black Man is drugged and made to fight the title hero. He speaks perfect Japanese before he is drugged, then afterward he does invokednothing but grunt. The drug wears off and he is vaporized much to the horror of Takeshi Yamato/Rainbowman.
• Two and a Half Men
  • Charlie and Alan encountered one as a bouncer.
  • Michael Clarke Duncan in two episodes. Jake was dating his daughter and he didn't even have to get into the "If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her..." speech.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Michonne would be a female example. The fact that she is walking around with two walkers on a leash, is taciturn, not very social, and deadly with a katana doesn't help (at least, initially, until she begins to trust the group and vice-versa).
  • Tyrese also qualifies, being very tall and muscular, and people are afraid to anger him because of his temper (the fact that he went berserk several times, including against Rick, doesn't really help).
• The Wire has a number of scary black men — WeeBey, Chris, and Marlo are the first to spring to mind.
  • One character who witnesses a murder describes the man as big and black with a big gun. The cops then say BNBG which means "Big Negro, Big Gun."
    • He happens to be referring to Omar Little, who is so scary that some drug dealers throw their stash to him as he takes a smoke outside, while unarmed and wearing pajamas.
  • There are a multitude of other examples, but Brother Muzone, an intelligent, soft-spoken contract killer who fabricates his own bullets and calmly faces down multiple gangsters comes to mind.
• In the Live-Action Adaptation of You're Under Arrest!, American football player turned pro kickboxer Bob Sapp played a villain. At 6'5" and 375 lbs of muscle, the fact that he was black was a relatively minor component of his scariness. The fact that he was in a Japanese show made him look like a bleeding kaiju in comparison.

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