10 Western Movie Villains Who Actually Existed in Real Life
Pirate shows created a certain image of Black Beard and other people who actually roamed the Caribbean back then.
The same can be said about Western movies: some of them also featured real historical figures and helped cement a certain portrayal of them in pop culture. They were villains, and damn good ones.
The Wild West had some individuals of corrupted morals ruling over it and, well, making it wild.
These questionable personas made great antagonists, and if history provides you with a nicely controversial historical figure, then why not use it for entertainment? It doesn't have to be perfectly historically accurate, of course, but as long as it captures the vile nature of the villain then it's all good.
The actors who brought these flawed individuals to the silver screen did it so well that their performances have stayed in the hearts, minds, and libraries of cinephiles for decades. And they are who we associate with these historical figures.
Fiction does not affect reality but sometimes changes our perception of it if we don't use our critical thinking skills much. And some of the movies released back then helped change the general narrative surrounding some of the historical events.