Quentin Beck (Earth-21399)

Early Life
Quentin Beck was born in Saratoga Springs, Utah. His parents took him to the Sundance Film Festival when he was five, and this event sparked Beck's lifelong interest in film.

Film Career
Quentin Beck began his career in the film industry as a professional stuntman before eventually graduating to special effects design. Beck's work was instrumental in creating some of the biggest blockbusters of his time, but Beck had bigger dreams - he wanted to direct his own feature-length film, an urban fantasy horror flick about an evil sorcerer-cult trying to summon demons from beyond our world.

Unfortunately, Beck's proposal was shot down by numerous studio executives due to budgetary concerns, leading to his becoming disillusioned with the major Hollywood studios. He opted to budget and make his dream flick independently, using the money he got from his usual special effects work.

Becoming Mysterio
Beck was eventually hired to supervise the pyrotechnics for a Captain America biopic, but the troubled production cycle, coupled with the lead actor's utter vanity, quickly got on Beck's nerves. At some point, Beck slipped up on his pyrotechnics after an argument with the director over their tight schedule, which resulted in a much more powerful explosion effect than anticipated - one that hospitalized the lead actor. Beck was forced to pay a hefty fine due to negligence and was effectively blacklisted from further studio work.

Left without a steady income and no other way to finance his dream picture, Beck resorted to crime, targeting the massive corporations whom he blamed for ruining his career. He figured along the way that if he was going to head down this path, he might as well do so with theatrical flair - to this end, he crafted the elaborate guise of Mysterio, one of the cultist characters from his dream film, moved to New York City and took to robbing Wall Street, using his special effects knowledge to bypass security.

Trivia

 * In Quentin Beck's dream film, Mysterio is a stage magician who assists the protagonist early on, only to later be revealed as the cult leader.