12 Facts You Never Knew About the Actor Who Portrayed Character of Terrifying Clown 'Pennywise' In movie 'IT'

“It’’ was enough to give you the shocks and thrills of your life. The scary supernatural flick based on famous horror fiction writer Stephen King’s book by the same name creeped out movie fans worldwide and like the nun in Conjuring II, this too had its signature demon which many feel turned out more terrifying. Pennywise the clown has well and truly cemented the face of a clown as devilish and demonic instead. The character is enough to make people throw out their clown dolls and is easily a reason to give you nightmares. Incidentally, IT is going on to become one the highest grossing horror movies of all time as well as the second highest grossing R rated film of all time after Deadpool.

The success of the fright quotient of Pennywise owes a lot to the man who played the character Bill Skarsgard and his looks are in sharp contrast to what one would stereotype the looks of an actor playing an evil clown. He is really good looking and you will definitely know his father. Here are 12 facts about Bill Skarsgard who plays Pennywise the clown. 

1 His name is Bill Istvan Gunther Skarsgard and he is a handsome guy

Does the name sound familiar?? Yes he is the son of none other than famous Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard who plays Bootstrap Bill in The Pirates of the Caribbean and Professor Eric Selvig in the “Avengers” and “Thor”.

Bill is 27 years old and was born in Sweden. His mother is Stellan Skarsgard’s first wife Sonja Marie Agnes. All of Bill’s seven siblings are actors among whom you may recognize his younger brother Gustaf who played Floki in the History Channel’s TV series “Vikings” 2013. Bill is new to Hollywood and was seen in Atomic Blonde alongside Charlize Theron and James Mcavoy. 

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2 He was bullied at school

Bill was constantly bullied at school because of his famous actor father. Bullies purposely picked on him accusing him of being privileged. Bill narrated his ordeal in an interview saying that people would abuse him for being Stellan Skarsgard’s son. He felt it made bullies feel good in saying ‘This guy didn't get any of this because he actually deserved it—he just got it for free.'" 

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3 He has starred in Horror films before

As Pennywise, this isn’t Bill’s first foray into horror movies. He has acted as Roman Godfrey in all three seasons of the popular Netflix horror series Hemlock Grove. However, it is definitely going to be Pennywise who will make Bill famous. 

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4 He has a major in science and wanted to become a doctor

He has a major in science because he felt it would lead him to become a doctor, a biologist or an engineer. At the time he was unsure of his choice of career and thus chose science for its scope of offering a choice of careers. However, since he started acting in 2000, he felt he found his goal in life. 

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