Hellboy is a 2004 American supernatural superhero film, starring Ron Perlman, John Hurt and Selma Blair, directed by Guillermo del Toro. The film is based on the Dark Horse Comics work Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola. It was produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is about a demonic beast known as Hellboy who secretly works to keep the world safe from paranormal threats.

Released in the spring of 2004, it grossed $59 million at the United States box office, and $99 million worldwide and was favorably received by critics. A sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, was released on July 11, 2008.

In 1944, the Nazis build a dimensional portal off the coast of Scotland during World War II. With the help of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, they intend to free the Ogdru Jahad—monstrous entities imprisoned in another dimension—to aid them in defeating the Allies. Rasputin knows that this will be an apocalyptic event that he believes will create a paradise. He opens the portal with the aid of his disciples, Ilsa von Haupstein and Obersturmbannführer Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, Adolf Hitler's top assassin. An Allied team is sent to destroy the portal, guided by young Professor Trevor Broom, who is well-versed in the occult. The German team is killed and the portal is destroyed—in the process absorbing Rasputin—while Haupstein and Kroenen escape. The Allied team discovers an infant demon with a right hand of stone came through the portal; they dub it "Hellboy".

Hellboy is a fictional character, a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (Aug.1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers. The character has been adapted into two live-action feature films in 2004 and 2008 that starred Ron Perlman in the title role, and two straight-to-DVD animated films, as well as a video game.

A well-meaning demon whose true name is Anung Un Rama (Meaning "...and upon his brow is set a crown of fire..."), Hellboy was summoned from Hell to Earth as an infant on December 23, 1944 (given as his birth date by Mike Mignola) by Nazi occultists (spawning his hatred for them). He was discovered by the Allied Forces; amongst them, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who formed the United States Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). In time Hellboy grew to be a large, red-skinned demon with a tail, horns (which he files off, leaving behind the signature circular stumps on his forehead), cloven hooves for feet, and an oversized right hand made of stone. He has been described as smelling of dry-roasted peanuts. Although a bit gruff, he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to demons, and works with other strange creatures in the BPRD. This is said to be because of his upbringing under Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as a normal boy.

Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American television, film and voice actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast (for which he won a Golden Globe), a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character Hellboy in both the film of that name, and the sequel, and as the narrator of the post-apocalyptic game series, Fallout. In 2010 he provided the voice of the Stabbington brothers in Tangled, Disney's animated film adaptation of "Rapunzel". He is currently the narrator of the television series 1000 Ways to Die on Spike.

Perlman was born in Washington Heights, New York to a Jewish family. His mother, Dorothy, was a municipal employee, and his father was a jazz drummer and repairman. Perlman stated in a 1988 interview that "It was not a bad childhood but...I had a perception of myself that was, I was terribly overweight as a young kid, and it was sort of a low self image." Perlman continued to say that this experience is one thing that attracts him to "playing these sorts of deformed people who are very endearing".