Top Hollywood Scars

Hollywood is a place synonymous with outrageously good looking people, where the men are severely handsome and the women are shitpantingly beautiful. Throughout the early years Hollywood produced stereotypical leading men with chiseled chins and pecs of oak and leading ladies with ripe natural melons and pins which never quit.
But as the years rolled on actors and actresses emerged, (especially during the 70s) with more non-traditional looks. We don't know about you but we want our stars to look weathered, we want them to have flaws and facial imperfections. So here is a list, (in no discernible order), of some of the most famous stars whose scars we find interesting.

Harrison Ford - (Indiana Jones, Star Wars)

Location: Chin

Origin: According to Mr Ford he ended up with his scar when he crashed his car after losing control, whilst trying to put on his seat belt. Apparently he split his chin on the steering wheel.

Trivia: Ford's scar is highlighted in two of his films, Working Girl where he lies to Melanie Griffith that he picked it up in a bar room brawl and in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, where a young Indiana, (played by the late River Phoenix), reveals that the scar was an accident involving a bullwhip.

Michael K Williams - (Omar Little from The Wire)

Location: Across forehead down to cheek

Origin: A bar room brawl in Boston's Rustic Kitchen on his 25th birthday in which his face and neck were slashed with a razor. The attack nearly cost the actor his life as one of the cuts came close to his jugular vein and nearly killed him.

Trivia: Williams maintains that his acting career took off within months of the incident, with photographers stopping him on the street and offers flooding in to do music videos and roles as thugs in TV shows.

Tommy Flannagan - (Gladiator, Smokin Aces, Braveheart)


Location: Face (across both cheeks)

Origin: The Glaswegian actor was once a DJ and after leaving a club one night he was approached by a group of men who demanded his jacket and record collection. When he refused, Tommy was attacked and left with a Glasgow Smile.

Trivia: After a difficult recovery his long time friend, actor Robert Carlyle, suggested he get into acting. He worked alongside Carlyle in theatre for three years, before he secured his first major role in film for Mel Gibson's Braveheart. Gibson, seeing what a wonderful actor he was, gave Tommy an even bigger role then was originally scripted.


Tina Fey - (30 Rock, Baby Mama, Saturday Night Live)

Location: Chin up across cheek

Origin: Not much is known about the back story to Fey's scar but during an interview with Vanity Fair, her husband revealed that a stranger slashed Fey's face when she was only five years old. Apparently the incident occurred in the front yard of her house. Grim stuff.

Joaquin Phoenix - (Gladiator, Signs, Walk The Line)

Location: Upper lip

Origin: For many years it was assumed that the actor's scar was due to the result of a repaired cleft lip or palate, but during an interview Phoenix revealed that it is a birth mark. The actor said that during pregnancy his mother felt a sharp pain one day, and he was born with a mark on his lip.



Sandra Bullock - (Speed, A Time To Kill)

Location: Next to left eye

Origin: The actress got this scar when she was younger, after diving into a lake for a swim and hitting the side of her head on a rock.

Bruce Willis - (Die Hard, The Sixth Sense)

Location: Right shoulder

Origin: Contrary to popular belief the Hollywood action scar did not get this scar from a broken bottle during a fight when he tended bar. Instead his shoulder scar was the result of an operation after he broke his arm when he was 17 years old.


Sharon Stone - (Basic Instinct, Total Recall)

Location: Across neck

Origin: Probably the most mysterious Hollywood scar of all. It's claimed that she ended up with the scar in her youth when riding a horse, apparently her neck was left with the mark after she rode into a clothes line.

Trivia: Many people argue that Stone's scar doesn't even exist but in the movie Sphere a reference is made to it as the character she is playing undergoes a medical examination.

Johnny Depp - (Pirates Of The Carribean, Donnie Brasco, Blow)
Location: Arms

Origin: Depp has publicly confessed to being a self harmer in his early years which led to around eight scars which he currently bears on his arms. The star stated that his behaviour was brought on by the stress of family problems and his own insecurity.

Trivia: In a Smash Hits interview in 1993 the star said: "From time to time! I had this thing, you know, I think that in a way your body is a journal, for me it is anyway. I started scarring myself when I was a kid, it was just a way to remind myself of things that happened. I wouldn't advise it though! I haven't done it for a couple of years. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist"

Viggo Mortensen - (Lord Of The Rings, Eastern Promises)

Location: Upper Lip

Origin: Details are sketchy but it appears the actor scratched his lip on a barbed wire fence when he was young and full of booze.

Trivia: In an interview the star said: "I was 18. I stole some beer and a deerskin rug. Somebody had just skinned the deer. I put it on as a cape and was running around with this case of beer. Someone chased me, there was a fracas and a bit of barbed wire. It was silly."


Let's also not forget those who have shunned what was once thought to be a major taboo for an aspiring actor or entertainer - acne scars. Some famous examples include: Brian Cox, Laurence Fishburne, Ray Liotta, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Mel Gibson, Jet Li, F. Murray Abraham, Tommy Lee Jones, Seal, Bryan Adams, Bill Murray, Michael Stipe, Edward James Olmos, Dennis Farina and James Woods. Their facial imperfections did not hold them back and in many cases enhanced their careers and popularity with their fans.

Viva La Scar