Was a terribly evil figure (5)
I believe the answer is:
lived
'was' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a terribly evil figure' is the wordplay.
'a terribly' is an anagram indicator.
'figure' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'evil' anagrammed gives 'live'.
'live'+'d'='LIVED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lived that I've seen before include "Escaped destruction" , "Existed or dwelt" .)