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Badass Beard

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"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man."
— William Shakespeare

Some badasses are not satisfied with just a Badass Mustache or Perma-Stubble to show off their awesomeness. No, they choose to take it further. As opposed to facial hair growing above their upper lip, they won't be content until they have a full blown beard to show off. Many times, it works for them where a simple mustache would just look foolish or out of place. And when it does work, the gentleman in question is a bona fide tough guy, a man's man, a veritable buffet of manliness.

In short, it's what happens when the Badass Mustache gets cranked Up to Eleven.

In Real Life, beards fell out of style (in most places) after the invention of the safety razor. Before that, shaving had to be done with a straight razor, and the risk of cutting yourself was a much more dangerous concern. This is why most historical bearded people were around before the 20th Century. Having a long beard in battle isn't always a good thing, as an enemy can grab on it and pull the guy in reach of a sword. However, beards have been making a comeback, and the more common they have become, the more bearded badasses that have sprung up on sheer statistical possibility alone. Some sports even encourage their badasses to stop shaving.

Distinct from Growing the Beard, but the two can most definitely overlap. Same thing goes for Beard of Evil and Beard of Barbarism. Also see Stroke the Beard. Contrast with Beard of Sorrow, although they could overlap. Sometimes goes hand in hand with Wild Hair. Sometimes part of a Bald Black Leader Guy look. Occasionally the beard has some unusual properties.

Do not confuse with The Beard.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Used in a sidebar advertisement for a "Free Online MMO Trading Card Game" called Urban Rivals that appears on TV Tropes at the time of this writing. An initially wimpy-looking soldier character is shown growing increasingly more powerful through a series of stages, and his beard grows gradually at the same time.
  • The Most Interesting Man in the World has a well-maintained full beard; the character probably wouldn't work any other way.
    • "His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man's entire body."
    • "His organ donation card also lists his beard."
  • The guy in the Dr. Pepper 10 advertisements has a rather impressive one.
  • Captain Birdseye from the "Captain Birdseye frozen products".

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • The dwarven noble in Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns has a very elaborate style, reaching as low as the sternum. It has three intertwined braids in front, plus an extra one on each side. His mustache is also long, arranged neatly in two long strands that reach the level of his collarbone. His long-dead action girlfriend invented it, and the same style was since shamelessly copied by Lord Harrowmont, the Assembly Steward, etc. To compound it all, due to an event that gave the prince his Magic Knight status, all his hair is snow/silver white (that includes the spiked short cut on the head). Badass much?
  • Megin in Honor for the Enemy is a bearded Viking. 'nuff said.
  • Our six protagonists in Epic Unicorn History The Beards Of Harmony all have beards, and they can defeat a stone-encrusted mountain lion, a pack of timberwolves, outsmart changelings and also act stallionly.

    Film — Animated 
  • The Book of Life:
    • Xibalba has a very cool and suave-y looking beard.
    • One of Chato’s defining features that sets him apart is a round, un-kept beard.
  • El Cid: The titular character starts out as a clean-shaven youth who grows a beard during his exile.
  • Hiccup's father Stoick from How to Train Your Dragon sports one. This is probably intentional, given that he's voiced by Gerard Butler in a similar manner to his version of King Leonidas of SPAR-TA.
  • Naturally, all of the dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs except Dopey had beards. (What? Don't think they were badass? Watch the climax of the movie, and then try to deny it.)

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Miraz◊ in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is surrounded by bearded bad guys, but his beard is the baddest one.
  • Coffin Joe in the Coffin Joe series.
  • Clint Eastwood as The Man with no name in the Dollars Trilogy.
  • Everyone in Gettysburg. It's an American Civil War period piece, facial hair was in fashion, and the cast is 100% male.
  • Roadblock from G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
  • Gladiator: Maximus.
  • Alan from The Hangover.
  • In The Hunger Games, Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane sported one of these. (Bonus Points to Wes Bentley as that was his actual facial hair.)
  • Ivan the Terrible: Ivan's beard defies gravity. And boyars.
  • In The Last Witch Hunter, flashback!Kaulder sports an impressive Viking beard.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • The norse influences of the Rohirrim include a wide distribution of these particularly Éomer and Théoden. Notably, the Evil Chancellor, Wormtongue, is clean-shaven.
    • Gandalf.
    • Even the ents have beards made out of tree branches.
    • And Faramir. And Boromir. And Gimli and the rest of the Dwarves. Aragorn spends most of the series with vagabond Perma-Stubble before taking the throne and growing out a regal beard,
    • The trend is continued in The Hobbit- nearly all of the dwarf company are depicted with badass beards (the exception is Kíli, who sports badass Perma-Stubble).
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • While better known as a comic character, Tony Stark's beard in Iron Man is more individualistic than his relatively generic comic counterpart's.
    • Fellow Avenger Thor as well, in contrast to the usually clean shaven comics counterpart.
    • Nick Fury, played by the one and only Samuel L. Jackson. (when David Hasselhoff played him, it was Perma-Stubble).
    • Unlike the clean-shaven look of the comics and even the X-Men Film Series, Quicksilver sported a beard in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
    • The adaptation of Doctor Strange provides a very specific origin for his comic-book facial hair: When we first meet him as a neurosurgeon, Strange is clean-shaven, but after the car accident that wrecks his hands, he can't even shave without seriously risking hurting himself, leading him to let a beard grow on its own until, as he learns new confidence well into his days at Kamar-Taj, he's shown sculpting his iconic beard with an electric razor. (The scene is even used in a real-world commercial for the razor in question. That, and Benedict Cumberbatch doing a Shirtless Scene.)
  • Desert warrior Ardeth Bey, played by Oded Fehr, in The Mummy Trilogy.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean:
    • Captain Jack Sparrow. Come on — his beard has beads in it! That's pretty awesome.
    • Barbossa has one too.
    • Davy Jones had an octo-beard, in that it was made up of tentacles. He could kill someone with it. Beards don't get much more badass than that.
    • Blackbeard in the fourth film has them all beat by virtue of being introduced with the ends of his beard smoldering with smoke. (Truth in Television: The real Blackbeard did things like that to terrify people.)
  • Clint sports a great big beard in The Outlaw Josey Wales as well.
  • Roy from R.I.P.D..
  • Star Wars: A popular facial hair choice among male Jedi from species that have facial hair. Obi-Wan Kenobi is by far the most famous example, followed by his own master Qui-Gon Jinn. Prequel trilogy background character Ki-Adi-Mundi is a non-human example. And the Sith Lord Count Dooku, who used to be a Jedi, most definitely counts. In The Force Awakens, Luke Skywalker also grows a beard as a Jedi Master.
  • Macready from The Thing (1982), along with Barbarian Longhair.
    • Bennings, Clark, Fuchs, Windows and one of the Norwegians also have beards.
  • In WarCraft, both Lothar and Llane are Badass Normal warriors and both sport beards to confirm this.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • Victor Creed/Sabretooth. How else can he compare to Wolverine?
    • The Wolverine: Logan has a very shaggy one at the start of the movie.
    • X-Men: Days of Future Past:
      • Iceman sports one. Shawn Ashmore has said in interviews that it signifies his character's maturity.
      • Bishop's thick facial hair makes him look formidable.
  • Colour Sergeant Bourne from Zulu, who's 'tash and sideburn combo◊ is so awesome it is simultaneously Badass Mustache and Badass Beard!

    Literature 
  • Mangiafuoco from The Adventures of Pinocchio has a very long beard.
  • Dwarves of The First Dwarf King, naturally. Some humans have impressive beards as well.
  • Sometimes, Gilgamesh of The Epic of Gilgamesh fame is depicted with a really long beard. It helps that he's 2 parts Divine and one part Human.
  • Guan Yu, above, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms is infamous for his impressively long and full beard and he's one of the top badasses of the story. So impressive, the Designated Villain Cao Cao gives him a beard-bag to protect its luxuriousness. A mere display of his beard makes Mooks go weak at their knees and beg to join him.
    • He was known by his contemporaries as "Lord of the Magnificent Beard", which rather attests to its badassery.
      • The Han Emperor once said what roughly translates into, "Damn, that is one bad ass beard!"
  • If an older man has a beard in a Kafka novel, you can assume he's a terrifying, castrating authority figure. Case in point: The Trial.
  • One of the ways in which Our Dwarves Are All the Same is in having impressive beards. Another is in being badasses.
  • The Lord of the Rings
    • Gandalf and Saruman: big beards —> big badassness.
    • Gimli! Effectively competed with an elf no less!
    • Cìrdan, anyone?
      • Given to the presumption that elves do not grow facial hair...
  • Beorn. The climactic battle in The Hobbit is going badly for the good guys until he shows up late in the day and wins it more or less single-handed. Admittedly being able to turn into a giant bear immune to weapons has its advantages...
  • Similar to Guan Yu, El Cid Compeador is described in The Poem of the Cid as having a magnificent beard, as befitting an archetypal badass.
  • Belgarath of The Belgariad had a beard, often depicted in art as being long and flowing, but was described in the books as being cropped close to his face. Barak, the Big Guy from the series' Viking Fantasy Counterpart Culture who turns into a bear on occasion, never shaved in his life.
  • Kurik in The Elenium has a mighty beard, as well as the 25,000 member strong Order of the Genidian Knights (with the exception of Sir Ulath).
  • Väinämöinen in the Iron Druid Chronicles has a badass beard which Atticus duly notes. In fact it is later found that he has a kit of knives strapped and concealed beneath his massive face bear.
  • Harry Potter: Dumbledore, once described as reaching down to his knees.
  • Yamauchi-sensei in Greek Ninja has one.
  • Averted in the medieval fantasy series Tales of the Branion Realm, in which men go clean-shaven to honor the female founder of their religion. They're essentially feminizing themselves — it helps that Everyone Is Bi.
  • Averted by Mr. Twit from The Twits. He only thinks it makes him look wise and manly, especially since it's prone to keeping bits of food in it to be eaten later.
  • The Royal House of Idris in Warbreaker possess the magical ability to control the color and length of their hair, due to having a trace of divine blood. Word of God explicitly confirms that this extends to facial hair in the case of male royalty.
  • Bluebeard: Bluebeard the woman killer is a literal Big Bad with a beard.
  • King Arthur and Merlin.
  • The Girl From The Miracles District has Robin, a professional killer and Friendly Sniper with a magnificent lumberjack-style beard.

    Live-Action TV 
  • During the writers' strike in 2007-8, late night talk show hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien sported "beards of solidarity" (also they paid their crews out of pocket and kept their shows on the air throughout).
    • Conan re-grew his since he left The Tonight Show. For his show Conan on TBS, he kept it from November 8th, 2010 to the day Will Ferrell wanted it gone when he guest-starred on May 2nd, 2011. Then grew it back that fall, and shaved it off again in spring of 2012.
  • The late Billy Mays from Pitchmen and innumerable advertisements.
  • Doyle Bennett from Justified.
  • Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation is, for the most part, a poor man's Kirk. The beard is what makes him Riker-er.
  • Firefly: Jayne Cobb, whose facial hair bounced around this trope and Perma-Stubble.
  • Marcus Cole of Babylon 5.
    • Sheridan grows a beard later in the series, fittingly right before he ousts President Clark from power and becomes the President of the Interstellar Alliance himself.
  • In Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor gained one between "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" and shaves it off later.
    • He grew another one in "The Wedding of River Song", but shaved it off during the episode.
    • The War Doctor grew one at some point in his life (given he started out clean-shaven). Given his Reluctant Warrior status, and the war he fought in, definitely counts as a Beard of Sorrow.
  • Half the cast of Sons of Anarchy, being bikers have beards, with varying degrees of badass and evil backing them up. Probably the most badass is the beard belonging to Tig Trager◊, the club's Sergeant-at-Arms and assassin of choice although Jax's beard in Season 4 bids fair to rival it.
  • Duck Dynasty—full stop. All the male leads have big, healthy beards—all awesome, too.
  • Morgan Grimes from Chuck. Ironically, Morgan's beard is much more badass than he actually is. Except for when he has the Intersect.
  • Community: The Dean grows one to show he is serious about making Greendale respectable. Both last for less than an episode.
  • Fairly common in Westeros. Pretty much every adult male character has one at one point or another.
    • Of the Starks, Ned has a full (but not too thick) one from the beginning and is very much a badass, while Robb and Jon Snow grow one later in the show, Jon's one being of varying intensity. Benjen has one which is thinner than his brother's, but present all the same and as badass.
    • Tywin Lannister also sports a trimmed beard, thin on the sides and a bit thicker on the goatee.
    • Ser Davos Seaworth, who has a thick but trimmed short beard.
    • Syrio Forel has a goatee.
    • Locke's pointy beard goes with his effective combat skills and stealth abilities.
    • Rickard Karstark probably has the most epic beard in the series thus far... with the possible exception of Tormund Giantsbane. It looks almost like an old photo of grim and bearded American frontiersmen. Doubles as Beard of Sorrow after the death of his sons.
    • The Greatjon has a very thick beard. The Smalljon also has one. Like father, like son.
    • Galbart Glover has a beard and he is chosen to command Robb's vanguard over The Greatjon.
    • House Manderly's sigil is a battling merman with a beard.
  • Inspector Rex: Inspector Marco Terzani starts out with stubble, but it later grows to a short beard.
  • Bobby Singer in Supernatural.

    Music 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Santa Claus. (If it's a case of a Badass Santa, even better.)
  • Sinterklaas: On whom Santa Claus is mostly based.
  • Many representations of the Judeo-Christian God (blamed equations of him to the Semitic El or Persian Ahura Mazda). Also, the literal patriarchs: Abraham, Moses, Noah, etc.
    • Jesus. Blame it on the art and especially on Robert Powell's iconic portrayal in Jesus of Nazareth.
      • Sure, he may not have looked exactly like he does in those portraits, but he almost certainly had a beard. (In would have been kind of hard for him, or anyone of his social class, to shave regularly in those times.)
  • Most of the Norse Gods particularly Odin, Thor, and Tyr are commonly depicted and described as having some truly epic facial hair.
    • Certain gods in Classical Mythology also count, including Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares (interestingly, Hades has often been depicted as lacking a beard, unlike his two brothers (whom he is older than).
    • Heracles is usually portrayed in mythology with a beard too. There's not enough room to explain why he was a badass.
  • Merlin, King Arthur's wizard advisor, is almost always depicted with a beard. (More often than not, Arthur is too.)
  • Leviticus 19:27
  • The Islamic prophet Muhammad is said to have had one, and he was most certainly a badass given that he successfully led his armies to victory in three separate battles against numerically superior forces.
    • Similarly, his uncle, Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib, is even today renowned as the greatest Semitic warrior to ever live.
  • As Sikhs reject altering a person's natural appearance apart from clothing, making them well known for turbans and beards. Add the martyrdom/militancy that tend to follow the monotheist/monist faiths and you have some badass bearded men.

    Pinballs 

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Porkchop Cash decided to go the other way in the 1970s, when the NWA territories were seeing a rise in the Afro's popularity. The generally hairy Pampero Firpo decided to go with bushy hair on both ends of his head.
  • The Undertaker, when not close shaven.
  • Randy Savage: Oooooh◊ yeah!
  • Hillbilly Jim◊ really went the extra mile to fit the look.
  • Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart [2]◊
  • Jim Cornette, in a roundabout way, claimed the nWo was this in a shoot.
    "Eric Bischoff is a guy who's a big fan of hanging around studly guys with long hair and beards, who smoke cigars and ride Harleys so that some of it can rub off on his pansy ass!"
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, you know, when he wasn't doing his Gorgeous George gimmick.
  • Bill Goldberg, who was criticized for copying Austin's look initially.
  • The Briscoes. The plate Jay chose for the "real" ROH world title belt was a bearded skull.
  • The Marquee Bruce Santee is instantly recognizable thanks to his goatee.
  • Travis "Tyson" Tomko, whose beard, tattoos, bald head, and black ring attire make him look like a total badass. [3]◊
  • Sensacional Carlitos has a pretty short beard but makes up for it by shaving designs into it.(since he's in the link you could also count Mr 450)
  • Does Daniel Bryan have one? YES! YES! YES! Did he shave it? NO! NO! NO!
  • Your IWA Texas ACW Tag Team Champions, Paul London, Jack Jameson, Two Dudes With Facial Pubes!
  • In Progress Wrestling Tommy End, Rampage Brown, Marty Scurll and Dave Mastiff all have one. Doubles as a Beard of Evil in the case of the latter two.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Games Workshop games:
    • Skarbrand from Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 is one of the strongest Bloodthirsters (the most powerful type of daemon to serve the War God Khorne) in existence and is the only one to sport a beard. Skarbrand’s beard is plaited, hung with bones, and longer than a man is tall.
    • Warhammer:
      • Warriors of Chaos are basically Heavy-Metal Satanist Vikings so they naturally have long, flowing, plaited beards loudly proclaiming their copious badassery to all who look upon them.
      • Dwarfs take great pride in their beards. The older a Dwarf gets the stronger and tougher they become and so, as they never cut their beards throughout their life, veteran Dwarfs have the longest and most glorious beards of all.
      • Tomb Kings wear artificial beards in the manner of their real-life counterpart Ancient Egypt. Settra, the oldest and most badass of the Tomb Kings, has the biggest beard.

  • Chejop Kejak◊ of Exalted, the oldest and most powerful Exalt in existence, possesses one of these.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons again, it is always emphasized how fond dwarves are of beards. (In some editions, but not all of them, even female dwarves occasionally have them.)
    • Elminister has a pretty decent beard, and he's the biggest badass in the Forgotten Realms setting (arguably the biggest in any setting of the game).

    Toys 
  • G.I. Joe. It started in the 70s with the 12" Adventure Team member Joe Colton with realistic flocked facial hair as a selling point, and despite the fact that facial hair is still against military regs in most branches, a lot of Joes started sporting Badass Beards, including Shipwreck, Snowjob, Frostbite, Clutch, Outback, Rock & Roll, and most recently Bench Press. On the other side, Dreadnoks Ripper, Torch, and Monkeywrench as well as Iron Grenadiers Voltar and General Mayham have their own.

    Video Games 

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • In The Gamer's Alliance, Belial, Khasra III, Orestes, Pronin, and Taliesin have these. Refan also had it for a while, but he eventually shaved it to signify his newfound determination.
  • Post-Mission That Dude in the Suede.
  • Harley Morensein's grew in during the run of Epic Meal Time. He shaved it off for "Breakfast Lasagna" and is letting it grow in again.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd has grown one.
  • Quinn from Demo Reel has a great bush of hair on his face, making him even more manly than the clean-shaven (but still badass) Carl.
  • Smooth McGroove.
  • Saberspark from the MLP Analysis community.
  • Jack Pattillo of Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter is known for two things: sounding almost exactly like cohort Ryan Haywood, and having the most glorious beard among any of the Achievement Hunters. It's so iconic that his part of the group's RTX 2014 intro is just him running his fingers through it. Sadly, it was shaved off during the November 2015 Extra Life livestream as part of a donation milestone.
    • Adam Ellis from the same company can be considered Jack's Friendly Rival when it comes to beards.
  • Brad Jones, of The Cinema Snob fame.
  • Arthéon from Noob is the most experienced player of the eponymous guild and also the only one wearing a full-grown beard among the three male members.
  • In Why Beards are Awesome by Matt Santoro, Matt gives reasons for why his beard is badass.
  • YouTube personality AlphaOmegaSin, to the point where he has pictures of himself created by his fans posted in one of his intros.
  • RWBY: In Volume 4, the ship's captain has a full and shaggy white beard and side-burns, and full moustaches. It initially helps make him seem grandfatherly when he first tries to bring the anti-social Blake out of her shell, but once the sea dragon attacks, it helps give him a no-nonsense air, portraying him as a grizzled veteran when compared to his young crew and the two young Huntsmen that are travelling on the ship. Although even he has never heard of a Grimm this big, he calmly issues instructions and swiftly devises a plan to defeat it. He not only easily splits his attention between the movements of the Grimm, the effectiveness of the ship's side-guns, the ship's main cannon and his crew's activities, but he also takes command of Blake and Sun. It's his orders they follow to slow down the Grimm enough for his ship to become effective. Turning his ship into a battering ram, he pins the dragon to a sea stack and blows the creature's head off with the main cannon. It saves Blake and Sun's lives in the process.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: While not a true character, Sokka's alter-ego Wang Fire is generally held to be incredibly badass.
    • Also Ozai, Sozin and Azulon.
    • And Hakoda.
    • In Season 2, Iroh grows out his goatee and Hot Blooded Sideburns into an amazing beard, and keeps it that way.
    • Special Mention goes to the Order of The White Lotus, an organization full of them.
  • Dexter's Laboratory.
  • Futurama: Santa Bot. Whether you have been naughty or nice. Also, his pal the Hanukkah Zombie. Kwanzaabot is badass, but alas, no beard.
  • The Legend of Korra: Tenzin.
    • In a similar vein, flashback adult Aang and Sokka (though not to Wang Fire degrees).
    • Zuko adopted a beard similar to his ancestor Sozin in his later years.
  • Abraham Kane, Jacob, The Duke of Detroit and Tennie's father Bracket from Motorcity.
  • Popeye: Bluto, who is the villain of the series and therefore true to the trope.
  • Yukon Cornelius was likely the most badass character in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (he wrestled the Abominable into submission and tamed it, for crying out loud) and his beard was just as full as Santa's.
  • Samurai Jack grew one in between Seasons 4 and 5 (crosses over with Beard of Sorrow due to his fractured mental state). Aku thinks it looks stupid.
  • The Simpsons
    • Jasper Beardley.
    • While no attention is drawn to it, Hank Scorpio would be far less awesome without his.
  • The Smurfs:
    • Papa Smurf is instantly distinguishable from the other Smurfs by his full beard (along with his red hat, opposed to the white ones the other Smurfs wear) and Flashback scenes showed he had one back when he was a young Smurf too, although it wasn't grey then. Grandpa Smurf, who was his predecessor, has an even longer one.
    • In one episode, Gargamel tried to use magic hair tonic to grow a beard, seeing as he believed it would make him a respected wizard like all his relatives (who had Badass Beards of their own). Unfortunately, he didn't read the instructions, and the resulting beard grew so large it filled his whole house; the Smurfs had to rescue him, as they often did.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • Star Wars Rebels:
    • Captain Rex has grown a beard since the Clone Wars. He's still plenty badass.
    • Kanan started off with sideburns and a goatee, which he grows into a full beard between seasons 2 and 3. Since he grew it during a Heroic B.S.O.D., it also counts as a Beard of Sorrow.
  • The Teen Titans episode "Betrothed" introduces Galfore, Starfire's k'norfka (guardian), a serious badass with a very impressive beard.
  • In ThunderCats (2011) King Claudus and General Grune, the Big Good and The Dragon respectively, both sport expansive versions of these, while Court Mage Jaga has a slightly more downplayed badass Wizard Beard.
  • The Monarch from The Venture Bros..

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