best movie villains? ???

[nagantguy]

I could use a brake from the right left hook of life at the moment...so who's your favorite movie villains. ..I'll see where this goes and post my list later. ..book villains are okay as well, since it's my post and read may more books than see movies.....no cable or tv for 8 years, just got a TV this year still no cable

[Hickok]

Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Wow. I would not let a little kid view that movie.

[shooter93]

Hannibal Lector has to rate right up there and also the horse thieves and man burner in Lonesome Dove and I'll toss in Nurse Ratchet from Cuckoo's Nest. It's always a bummer too if one of your favorite actors takes on a bad guy role.

[jonp]

Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Wow. I would not let a little kid view that movie.

That's no lie. He was downright spooky in that role. Actually, pretty disturbing and an Oscar winner for sure. The best movie villains are the ones that make you hate them from the git-go. It's a hard thing to pull off.

Why So Serious?
162077

[jonp]

Chris Penn in Reservoir Dogs was pretty good although I really liked Joe Pesci in Goodfellas

[Naphtali]

√Andy Robinson in "Dirty Harry" no additional Dirty Harry movies without this villain

Patrick Stewart in "Conspiracy Theory"

Alan Rickman in "Die Hard"

Dean Martin in "Rough Night in Jericho"

Arthur Kennedy in "The Man from Laramie" and "Bend of the River"

Walter Matthau in "Charade"

Robert Shaw in "The Sting"

John Vernon in "Animal House"

Jason Robards, Jr. in "The Saint Valentines Day Massacre"

Basil Rathbone in "The Adventures of Robin Hood"

√Burt Lancaster in "Vera Cruz" far and away the best. He steals the movie being hilarious and evil

√John Wayne in "The Searchers" an incredibly complex character being both hero and villain. Just behind Burt.

If these are insufficient, I got a million of 'em, a million.

[Markbo]

Alien, Predator, Terminator.

[OS OK]

BRUCE DERN maggot little SOB…you know who he shot!

[Bent Ramrod]

Richard Boone as Cicero Grimes in Hombre. Also Robert Mitchum as the Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter.

Heath Ledger was great as the Joker. He turned the character into the Richard III of comic book supervillains.

[Taylor]

I have been mad at him ever since.The gall...to shoot John Wayne! He always did play a dirtbag.

[Blammer]

Allen Rickman as Professor Snape in Harry Potter. You just KNEW he was up to no good until...

[richhodg66]

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter ranks way up there, that movie still gives me the creeps.

Lately, I have to vote The Governor in The Walking Dead.

[jcren]

Hans Landa in "Inglorious ********". Creepily likable.

[dilly]

There were two bad guys in the Green Mile. The one that stands out to me is the prisoner played by Sam Rockwell. Though I just can't peg what it is about him, Sam Rockwell is an excellent actor, good or bad.

[rondog]

I always thought Wes Studi made the most badazz Indian. He was in Last of the Mohicans and Dances With Wolves, who knows how many others.

[Powder Burn]

Snoopys arch enemy....the Red Baron

162085

[AK Caster]

Have to agree about Ledger. He was absolutely brilliant as the Joker.

[nagantguy]

Bill the butcher in gangs of new York
Darth Vader
Dr. Lecter in silence of the lambs
Brick top in Snatch
David Karidean in kill bill

[Col4570]

Ernest Borgnine, as Fatso in "From Here To Eternity".Jack Palance in "Shane".Lee Marvin in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.There where lots like Victor Jury,Robert Ryan,George Sanders,Christopher Lee,all baddies who could also play goodies.

[Hickok]

Can some of you remember back when "Dallas" was a hit show? Wife used to watch it some, and I would catch bits and pieces of it. I couldn't take it for too long, as "J.R." was the type of guy that I would have liked to walk up to and bust right in chops!

I think we have all run into "J.R. Ewings" in our life time. Those that are scheming, conniving, lying, stepping on good working people for their own amusement.

[Hickok]

I always thought Wes Studi made the most badazz Indian. He was in Last of the Mohicans and Dances With Wolves, who knows how many others.Rondog, I could have went "full-medieval" on him in " Last of the Mohicans."

[dagger dog]

Robert Mitchum and Robert Deniro, both in the role of Max Katy in the original and remake of "Cape Fear"

[StuBach]

The Warden (played by Bob Gunton) from Shawshank Redemption. Hated him from the get go and he was so fundamentally wrong he thinks God will still accept him.

Norman Stansfield (played by Gary Oldman) in The Professional. Psychopathic drug dealing cop who kills kids. What's not to hate, but also love his randomness.

[Rick Hodges]

My vote goes to Jack Palance in Shane.... "prove it".

[Ickisrulz]

The Wicked Witch of the West

[Stewbaby]

Ricardo Montalban as Khan in Star Trek II.

Darth Vader

Bruce the shark in Jaws

HAL9000 in 2001

Keyser Soze in the usual suspects

Dr Szell in marathon man

[jmort]

Heath Ledger's Joker

[Kent Fowler]

Jack Elam in "Once Upon a Time in the West" Best opening scene ever in a rough mug movie where he was waiting at the train station to kill Charles Bronson.
Lee Van Cleef in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

[Mal Paso]

Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

You guys nailed the others on my list.

[OS OK]

Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

You guys nailed the others on my list.

^…+…X…10…That type you take out with a .308 long range…then you send someone else to see if he is dead!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The trouble with movie villains is that they are foredoomed to lose, and so many of them display the qualities that we know will send them that way. Possibly the most accomplished at conveying actual fear must be Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter. I can only think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" who equaled him in that, and I don't know if it is an extenuating circumstance when someone, like Nicholson's character, is as mad as several hatters. I think we are means to see Dr. Lecter as compos mentis, and you wouldn't want to bet on him losing. Another is Ian McShane as Al Swearengen, the murderously abusive brothel-keeper in "Deadwood". Maybe it is because they are ambivalent that they seem so real. Dr. Lecter only wants to kill (among other things) people the guiltless among us find unpleasant, although there are times when it is nothing personal, only business. Events and a realistic acceptance of how the Territory must develop lead Swearingen into using his appalling methods to serve the interests of the good.

The above rise in my estimation because they aren't villain specialists, and have done extremely well in gentle and benevolent roles. I thought the less of John Wayne because he refused to play a villain in case the image stuck. Conversely I have great admiration for Sir Richard Attenborough for playing the real-life necrophiliac serial murderer John Christie in "10 Rillington Place". There is something impressive in the life of a Lecter or Swearengen, but Christie was simply a loathsome little inadequate, living in poverty but ruthlessly plotting to overcome his aversion to something most people find essential in a woman, namely consciousness. Not only that, but he appeared as a witness, swearing away the life of his tenant, Evans, for the murder of his wife and baby who had actually been murdered by Christie. We are too much conditioned to believe that monsters are monstrous, but Attenborough conveys the idea of Christie, like many sexual predators and indeed the leading Nazis, being colourless and not even much motivated by passion. I'm pretty sure there isn't a Lecter or a Swearengen in my neighbourhood, but you never know about a Christie.

I agree Wes Studi as Magua in the 1992 "Last of the Mohicans" produced the sort of character who brings tribal savages into disrepute. My Irish terrier is just growing to the stage at which he needs loose hair stripped with a toothed stripping knife, and I find myself muttering "I will put your child under the knife".

Another actor who runs the full scale from delightful to terrifying is Bob Hoskins. I don't mean in "The Long Good Friday", for his Eddie Shand is a once ruthless gangster who is trying to move into legitimate (if bribe-fuelled business), and shows much warmth towards his friends. But as Nikita Khruschev in "The Enemy at the Gates", he is full of brooding fury. I actually don't get the impression of villainy the real-life Nikita, who moved Russia from crude Stalinism onto the path that led to Gorbuchev's reforms. He was a hero in his defence of Kharkhov and Stalingrad, and the western Allies might have faced a far worse war if he hadn't been. Beria, Stalin's successor, was like Stalin without Stalin's few redeeming qualities, such as being a Fenimore Cooper enthusiast, and not being a serial rapist like Beria. But in the movie Hoskins exudes the intimidatory force which it takes to make a crumbling defence, under generals who were none of them weak men, fear failure less than they feared him.

[Clay M]

I liked Alan Rickman in Quigley Down Under

As far as book Villains,
Whackford Squeers in the book Nickolas Nickelby by Charles Dickens

[Col4570]

William Bendix,could be villainous,so could James Cagney,Edward G Robinson and Lee J Cobb.Amongs todays actors Jos Ackland looks the part.

[Prospector Howard]

Gotta go with good old "Gold Hat" from Treasure of the Sierra Madre, for obvious reasons. Best line in a movie ever IMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdZKCh6RsU

[Col4570]

Any comments on the fact that many English Actors portray excellent Villains.

[Clay M]

Gene Hackman did an excellent job in the Movie Unforgiven.
Also Richard Harris as English Bob in the same movie.
(an Irish actor)

[OS OK]

William Bendix,could be villainous,so could James Cagney,Edward G Robinson and Lee J Cobb.Amongs todays actors Jos Ackland looks the part.

After watching 'The Life of Riley' for so many years, how could that ole' Teddy Bear be a bad guy?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Any comments on the fact that many English Actors portray excellent Villains.

More of them go to acting school, and are taught that it is a craft, creating an identity that isn't their own. Some good actors make it by hanging around Hollywood trying to be recognized. But they are more likely to believe, sometimes incorrectly, that they do it by being themselves for the camera.

[bosterr]

Gene Hackman as Herrod in The Quick and the Dead.

[smokeywolf]

George Kennedy as "Curley" in "The Sons of Katie Elder"

Ben Johnson as "Jack Beynon" in "The Getaway"

Eli Wallach as "Calvera" in "The Magnificent Seven"

Eli Wallach as "Charlie Gant" in "How the West Was Won"

Charles Bronson as "Matson" in "4 for Texas"

John Malkovich as "Mitch Leary" in "In the Line of Fire"

Glenn Close as "Alex Forrest" in "Fatal Attraction"

Christopher George as "Dan Nodeen" in "Chisum"

Chuck Conners as "Buck Hannassey" in "The Big Country"

[Col4570]

what was the movie with Tommy Lee Jones, there was an indian Shaman blowing hot pepper dust and Narcotics into folks eyes giving them halousinations.He was particularly nasty.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I had to stand up and cheer when Clint shot the bar/brothel owner in "Unforgiven". Karl Malden met a well deserved fate in "Nevada Smith."

[Artful]

Well, you guys got a lot on my list - I'll add

Dr. Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes

Count Dracula

Agent Smith (The Matrix Trilogy)

The Wizard Sauron from Lord of the Rings

Voldemort from Harry Potter

Ernest Blofeld (James Bond Baddie)

Norman Bates (Psycho)

Nurse Ratched (one flew over the Cockoo's nest)

Joan Crawford (Mommy Dearest)

Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)

Noah Cross (Chinatown)

[Clay M]

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector.

[Bruntson]

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery!

[square butte]

Col4570 - That movie was called "The Missing "

[Bent Ramrod]

Quote Originally Posted by Col4570
"William Bendix,could be villainous,so could James Cagney,Edward G Robinson and Lee J Cobb.Amongs todays actors Jos Ackland looks the part."
Quote Originally Posted by OSOK
"After watching 'The Life of Riley' for so many years, how could that ole' Teddy Bear be a bad guy?"

I watched "The Life of Riley" for years as a kid and then as a teenager saw William Bendix as the leader of the "Tri-State Gang" in an episode of "The Untouchables." He had a sawed off 12 gauge and the temper of a scorpion. The previous type casting made him even more scary.

Watch a few mainstream Cameron Diaz movies and then watch her in "The Counselor." I don't think those people have to worry about Type Casting any more.

[Clay M]

Wackford Squeers from the Dickens book was very much like my second grade teacher.
She was a alcoholic and liked to beat children.
She was evil through and through.

Fagen from Oliver Twist was also a despicable character.

In many ways I like books better than movies.

I really liked the book Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.
Such beautiful writing.

Count Karenina was also a very evil character.

I like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Steinbeck..
but Charles Dickens is my favorite.

[jonp]

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery!

You know, I've seen quite a bit of nasty in my life but I turned my head when she was breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer. Just deliberate cruelty.

[jonp]

I'd almost forgotten Alan Rickman which is strange as many times as I've watched Quigly. He left us just last month and a better bad guy on the screen is hard to point out. He had that "I hate you at first sentence" thing that most actors never get down.

[Kevinakaq]

Blue Duck!

[Clay M]

Lee Marvin in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
I really liked Lee Marvin, My favorite movie he did was Death Hunt,in an opposing role with Charles Bronson.
Sort of like the Missouri Breaks with Nicholson ,and Brando in opposing roles.

[richhodg66]

The Missing is an excellent movie. I had forgotten how evil that guy was.

For those who like Misery and No Country for Old Men, those villains in the movies pale compared to their book versions. Hannibal Lecter as well.

[opos]

Trivia post: David C Smith...he was the one armed actor that played the Predator in Predator 2 after his arm was torn off...he's played in many cameo and bit parts and always a nasty one armed bad guy...known him for years...he was a real hoot at Haloween when he'd break out the Predator suit and pass out candy.

[brstevns]

Bill McKinney in (The Outlaw Josey Wales )

[Mk42gunner]

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery!
That was a very sickening scene.

Mark Harmon as the bad guy in Crossfire Trail.

Richard Boone in Big Jake.

Robert

[Markbo]

To this day I cannot watch Bruce Dern in a movie and like him. I know, I know....it was just a movie role. But I cant help it. I really dont like him

[JWT]

Jennifer Jason Leigh as Hendra Carlson in Single White Female
Kevin Spacey as John Doe in Se7en
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Bladerunner
Rober DeNiro as Dwayne in This Boy's Life
Charlie Hunnam as Bosie in Cold Mountain
Dolf Lundgren as Street Preacher in Johnny Mnemonic
Jason Isaacs as Col. Tavington in The Patriot
Tom Berenger as Sgt. Barnes in Platoon
Tim Roth as Cunningham in Rob Roy
The monster in the Thing (John Carpenter version)

Napoleon in Animal Farm (Orwell)

[Wedgie]

Harvey Korman - Hedley Lamarr

[Col4570]

Col4570 - That movie was called "The Missing "

Yes he was a particular nasty piece of work.

[Col4570]

Rondog, I could have went "full-medieval" on him in " Last of the Mohicans."
Yes that scene on the mountain side was like a Tragic ballet unfolding with the movie main Music theme accompanied by a Scottish Fidle Jig.Film Making at its best.The end of the hatefull Magwa (Wess Studi) with his death being suitably horrific at the hands of Chingakchook.

[Col4570]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ZisDHg6v0
Classic putting down the villain.

[Cap'n Morgan]

To this day I cany watch Bruce Dern in a movie and like him. I know, I know....it was just a movie role. But I cant help it. I really dont like him

I first noticed Bruce Dern in the Sci-Fi movie "Silent Running" and loved it. After that he more or less turned to the Dark Side in his characters :razz:

Another villain with a distinct lack of redeeming traits, was Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru in "Wild at Heart"

[NavyVet1959]

Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role of the movie "Lincoln". But like all good villains in the movies, The Rapist of the Constitution gets killed in the end. :)

Of course, in this case, "best" villain means the one you are hoping will die.

[375supermag]

Bernie Kopell as Siegfried in Get Smart.

[richhodg66]

Bernie Kopell as Siegfried in Get Smart.

Plus 1! I love Get Smart, every character was great. Wish they made TV that good now.

[Mal Paso]

I'd almost forgotten Alan Rickman which is strange as many times as I've watched Quigly. He left us just last month and a better bad guy on the screen is hard to point out. He had that "I hate you at first sentence" thing that most actors never get down.

I think he was such a good actor, you never thought about who he was or might have played before. I'm sorry we lost him.

[mtnman31]

Kevin Spacey in "Se7en"

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

There is plenty of good ones, but the 1973 film "Emperor of the North" always stuck with me.

Ernest Borgnine: "Nobody Rides Shack’s Train."

https://mikestakeonthemovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/emperor-of-the-north-1.png

[Ballistics in Scotland]

R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket" and Robert Duval (another actor versatile enough to play the warm-heart and likeable) as Colonel Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now". I always thought "Full Metal Jacket" was a bit of a cop-out. I believe they meant it as the sort of recruit training that produces atrocity in war, but market forces led them into a ending in which, whatever else goes wrong, no atrocity of war takes place.

[Multigunner]

Lawrence Tierney in the 1947 "Born to Kill", also in as Joe Cabot in "Reservoir Dogs" and as Cyrus Redblock in the Star Trek next generation holodeck episode "the Big Goodbye".

[edler7]

There is plenty of good ones, but the 1973 film "Emperor of the North" always stuck with me.

Ernest Borgnine: "Nobody Rides Shack’s Train."

https://mikestakeonthemovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/emperor-of-the-north-1.png

Shack was one mean SOB.

[nagantguy]

Left one off my list Thuls of Doom from the original Conan the Barbarian. .." Now I will teach them why they are afraid of the dark, they will swim in rivers of their own blood and remember why they fear the night." And he could turn into a snake at will.

[smokeywolf]

My favorite role for Ernest Borgnine was of course, Quinton McHale. But, he also did a darn good bad character (Donnegan) in "Vera Cruz".

[Col4570]

There is plenty of good ones, but the 1973 film "Emperor of the North" always stuck with me.

Ernest Borgnine: "Nobody Rides Shack’s Train."

https://mikestakeonthemovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/emperor-of-the-north-1.png
During the Great depression my Dad was given Free passage on the Empress of France to Canada along with many young hopefuls looking for work.The fact is that there was little or no Jobs there since it was a World Wide problem.He rode the Rails and was Chased off by Railroad Bulls many times.He would tell me of the near starving conditions,even to the extent of going into Chinese Restaurants and running out without paying.He eventualy managed to get work on a Cargo Boat and work his way back to Liverpool.The Photo of Ernest Borgnine portraying a Bull brought back memories of my late Fathers tales of his ordeals in those troubled times.I often wonder if his early life in fact contributed to his early death at the age of 46 having survived WW2 in the African campaigns.

[LUBEDUDE]

Danny Gluver as Col. ...? And ?? As the Senator in Shooter.

Sorry about the ??, I'm having a blonde senior moment.

Add: I remembered that Ned Beaty was the jerky senator.

[NavyVet1959]

Sorry about the ??, I'm having a blonde senior moment.

My wife introduced me to a new term the other day -- Male Pattern Blindness (MPB).

It's when we are trying to find something and look at where it is located, but can't find it and then the woman comes by and points out that it is right there in front of our face.

Slightly different than Alzheimer's...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pz6pLmhK9Q

[LUBEDUDE]

That was funny NV'59!

Only it was the opposite with my ex. She couldn't find the ground if she fell.

[ammohead]

Alan Arkin with Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark" 1967.

[Blackwater]

I always thought Jack Palance as a bad guy was awfully good. You NEVER cried when he died playing the bad guy. Just can't think of what movie that was?

[Col4570]

Our Fridge seems to give me Male Pattern Blindness,she hides small things behind big things.

[richhodg66]

I noticed George Kennedy passed yesterday. He was a decent villain in a few, most notably, one of my favorites, Lonely are the Brave with Kirk Douglas.

[Clay M]

I noticed George Kennedy passed yesterday. He was a decent villain in a few, most notably, one of my favorites, Lonely are the Brave with Kirk Douglas.

I liked Kennedy's role in " Cool Hand Luke"

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Although it is a comedy, Peter Sellars as Dr. Strangelove. There is something spooky, and familiar in Germany in those days, about the President's ex-Nazi adviser with a nervous tic in his right arm, sending it into the kind of salute Germans weren't meant to give any more, which had to be wrenched down by the other hand.

Not at all villainous, or even deliberately comical, is Slim Pickens's role as Major Kong, more cowboy than most cowboys and yet flying his B52 to do, through no fault of his own, the wrong thing with utmost efficiency and wipe out life on earth. I think Pickens, whose talents chiefly consisted of acting exactly like himself, should have been willing to grease the cockpit steps to get that role away from Sellars.

Pickens got the role when Sellars, intended to make it one of his multiple roles, sprained an ankle, and it was turned down by John Wayne and Dan Blocker who played Hoss Cartwright in "Bonanza". Apparently the idea that thermonuclear war is best avoided was too pinko for them.

[kenyerian]

You guys have pretty much covered everything but Gary Busey in Under Siege and Point Break was as despicable character imaginable . Also David Carridine in KILL BILL.

[labradigger1]

My votes go to gene Hackman in unforgiven and the quick and the dead, he can really play a mean bastard.
Also on my list, curly bill (Stacey keach) in tombstone, Jeff bridges can portray a bad man pretty well and if it counts my 2nd grade and 3rd grade teacher, now she was a real life bastard.

[Col4570]

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo,that name rings a Bell.Apparently he always got the hump when people mentioned that role.His Captain Bligh in mutiny on the Bounty was another good one.

[Col4570]

Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast",plays a Chilling part as a gangster attempting to recruit a retired crook back into the underworld.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Charles Laughton as Quasimodo,that name rings a Bell.Apparently he always got the hump when people mentioned that role.His Captain Bligh in mutiny on the Bounty was another good one.

A good job of acting, most certainly, but neither really fits as a villain. Quasimodo was a well-intentioned inadequate, and Hollywood has done something of a hatchet job on Bligh, who occupied every rank from ship's boy to vice-admiral in an age when birth didn't matter like it did in the army, it mattered a bit. Although naval attitude to mutiny in those day deserves some less wishy-washy word than "draconian", officers who needlessly provoked it weren't liked either. The records show he was an enlightened and humane captain, sometimes dogmatic in his judgments, but a post captain was meant to be.

There may be an untold story in his relationship with Fletcher Christian, whom he had known as a seaman, taught navigation and enabled to rise to master's mate. Both married and had children, though - and Christian knew the juvenile Blighs well. Maybe the mutiny was due to nothing more than a ship with only one commissioned officer, about to leave forever a region of compliant dusky maidens.

Laughton is also extremely good, and successfully ambivalent, as Henry VIII in "Young Bess". Henry, too, is no out-and-out villain. He started out determined to avoid having the terribly destructive dynastic Wars of the Roses back, which required an undisputed male heir. Henry wasn't good at producing sons, and Anne Boleyn was hopeless at producing undisputed. He was Good King Hal to ordinary people. But Laughton successfully conveys the brooding energy of a man with a growing desire to have his own way, who has learned to strike if opposed, and strike fast.

There is another marvelous villain Americans may not know, in the 1991 British TV movie "Lorna Doone". Aidan Gillen is the spine-chilling young outlaw Carver Doone, to whom the kidnapped Lorna has been destined since childhood to marry.

Peter Vaughan also does elderly villains rather well, including Sir Ensor Doone in the above. He is also good (although no villain) as a literate French miner in "The Razor's Edge", and fearsome as Obergruppenfuhrer Arthur Nebe in "Fatherland".

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Another actor Americans are unlikely to know is Rikki Fulton. He was a Glasgow comedian, including standup, and the dialect doesn't travel. But in "Gorki Park" he is rather sinister, and indulges in a gun battle with the hero, as Major Pribuda of the KGB. It astonished everyone who knew him as a comic of the most inoffensive kind, and does great credit to the director, Michael Apted, who claimed to have recognized, at first sight, the cruelest eyes he had ever seen. It also illustrates one of the truisms of the business, that a lot more comedians can turn straight actor, than straight actors can turn comedian.

Brian Dennehy plays a supporting role in that movie, one of the American cops with which his career is strewn. But in the "To Catch a Killer" miniseries, like Sir Richard Attenborough, he risked the grimmest kind of typecasting by playing John Wayne Gacey, the type of man who gives serial killers a bad name.

Similar courage, though far from playing a villain, was shown by Timothy Spall, in "Pierrepoint", distributed in America as "The Last Hangman". After a career spent mostly in supporting comic roles as a benevolent little chipmunk of a man, he played a man who hanged well over 400 people, including about 200 Nazi war criminals. Albert Pierrepoint was, in his way, a conscientious man, who made it a science to minimize the time taken between opening of the cell door and the final drop, and was indignant with subordinates who made the process any more distressing than the law required. He took the view that anyone hanged had paid for what he did. But plenty of actors besides Wayne would be afraid to have that in their filmography.

[slohunter]

The Wicked Witch of the West
Ditto, still the baddest of the bad!

[NavyVet1959]

The Wicked Witch of the West

Ditto, still the baddest of the bad!

Good point...

https://www.googledrive.com/host/0B8A9o0AImjXHfmlSQWdFVFRfSmd6d19mTG1jVXUzRWhrZk1KQ WFvdjJidlFtUERRcXh3M1k/hillary-flying-monkeys.jpg

[jonp]

My votes go to gene Hackman in unforgiven and the quick and the dead, he can really play a mean bastard.
Also on my list, curly bill (Stacey keach) in tombstone, Jeff bridges can portray a bad man pretty well and if it counts my 2nd grade and 3rd grade teacher, now she was a real life bastard.
Curly Bill was played by Powers Booth and quite well at that

[labradigger1]

Curly Bill was played by Powers Booth and quite well at that

You are correct sir, my bad

[Mike Kerr]

John Malkovich as the Presidential Assisan in IN THE LINE OF FIRE

John Malkovich as the "prisoner mastermind" in CON AIR

[TXGunNut]

BRUCE DERN maggot little SOB…you know who he shot!


Saw an interview of Bruce Dern more than a few years ago. The man is a genius, well educated and a brilliant actor. He's not the same kind of scary as Heath Ledger but I learned to appreciate his skills in spite of my hatred for his character.

[TXGunNut]

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery!

Good point, I hated her character so much I could never appreciate her in any other role.
What's fascinating to me is the actors that can successfully play a villain in one move and a hero in another.

[doc1876]

I thought the guy in No Country For Old Men ( or whatever) was very cool and ruthless.

[avogunner]

The Duke's great friend and 'B' movie foe ---- Yakima Canutt!!
162565

[NavyVet1959]

Our Fridge seems to give me Male Pattern Blindness,she hides small things behind big things.

The pantry does a pretty good job of it also.

In my garage, if I have my tools in drawers or on shelves, I tend to have a problem finding whatever I'm looking for. If I have everything on pegs on the walls (and I remember to put the tools *back*), I have a bit better luck finding things. I think it's a 2D vs 3D type of thing. With them on pegs, it's just a 2D system, so I can see everything with one glance and then just sequentially search until I find it. With shelves, I have to see what might be behind something else or hidden underneath something and that takes more times to search and more effort to move everything around. Of course, not being able to find the tool that we need is the reason that we sometimes end up with multiple of that particular tool. That's probably why I have 5 or so hammers of basically the same style laying around various places in my garage (even though I would be lucky to find more of 2 of them right now). :)

[Mal Paso]

John Malkovich as the Presidential Assisan in IN THE LINE OF FIRE

John Malkovich as the "prisoner mastermind" in CON AIR

I liked it when he shot an RPG coming at him, at enough distance he didn't get killed, with a S&W XVR 460. ;) RED or RED 2.

[Col4570]

[QUOTE=NavyVet1959;3565551]The pantry does a pretty good job of it also.

In my garage, if I have my tools in drawers or on shelves, I tend to have a problem finding whatever I'm looking for. If I have everything on pegs on the walls (and I remember to put the tools *back*), I have a bit better luck finding things. I think it's a 2D vs 3D type of thing. With them on pegs, it's just a 2D system, so I can see everything with one glance and then just sequentially search until I find it. With shelves, I have to see what might be behind something else or hidden underneath something and that takes more times to search and more effort to move everything around. Of course, not being able to find the tool that we need is the reason that we sometimes end up with multiple of that particular tool. That's probably why I have 5 or so hammers of basically the same style laying around various places in my garage (even though I would be lucky to find more of 2 of them right now). :)[/QUOTE
Yes on the Ships every tool was in place and there was hell to pay if any went missing.(Ex Merchant Navy Engineer).At home in my workshop it is like Hells kitchen.

[NavyVet1959]

Yes on the Ships every tool was in place and there was hell to pay if any went missing.(Ex Merchant Navy Engineer).At home in my workshop it is like Hells kitchen.

I recently needed to replace a cracked piece of glass in a window. So, I bought a pane from Home Depot that was a bit larger than needed and figured I would replace it myself since I had a glass cutter *somewhere* around here. That piece of glass sat around for a few months with me looking for that cutter every time I remembered it (or the wife nagged about it). Eventually, I just gave up and bought another cutter. Maybe a week later, the old one turned up. It's *difficult* finding something as small as a glass cutter in an entire garage. Plus, there's a chance that it was also in the reloading "shack" or my room that I use for computers. Hell, for that matter, I wasn't even sure if it wasn't in the *kitchen*. So, now I have TWO glass cutters...

Somewhere...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The pantry does a pretty good job of it also.

In my garage, if I have my tools in drawers or on shelves, I tend to have a problem finding whatever I'm looking for. If I have everything on pegs on the walls (and I remember to put the tools *back*), I have a bit better luck finding things. I think it's a 2D vs 3D type of thing. With them on pegs, it's just a 2D system, so I can see everything with one glance and then just sequentially search until I find it. With shelves, I have to see what might be behind something else or hidden underneath something and that takes more times to search and more effort to move everything around. Of course, not being able to find the tool that we need is the reason that we sometimes end up with multiple of that particular tool. That's probably why I have 5 or so hammers of basically the same style laying around various places in my garage (even though I would be lucky to find more of 2 of them right now). :)

I don't know if this trick is used in the US, but it is useful to paint or draw a silhouette of every tool where it hangs on its peg. Felt-tip on satin finish paint will do. Then you see instantly if something isn't where it ought to be.

[Col4570]

I put a You Tube clip of Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast,then watched it.I immediately deleted it the language being too ripe for this site.I made my apologies and to those who saw it before deleting.Worth watching this villain and his chilling dialog .

[NavyVet1959]

I put a You Tube clip of Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast,then watched it.I immediately deleted it the language being too ripe for this site.I made my apologies and to those who saw it before deleting.Worth watching this villain and his chilling dialog .

I watched it... I found it difficult to take someone with that sort of English accent serious as a villain. Got about halfway through it and quit. He just keeps repeating himself, not very creative in his cussing at all. Not like some of those DIs who could cuss out a recruit for 15 minutes and never repeat themselves even once. :)

[big bore 99]

I don't know if this trick is used in the US, but it is useful to paint or draw a silhouette of every tool where it hangs on its peg. Felt-tip on satin finish paint will do. Then you see instantly if something isn't where it ought to be.

My Father did that on the peg board wall in his workshop. Us kids were welcome to use anything, but God help you if it wasn't put back.

[abunaitoo]

Don't remember the title of the movies, but it always made me cringe thinking about it.
Richard Widmark. He was a gangster/killer. He pushed a old lady, in a wheelchair, down a long stairs. Laughing all the time.

[abunaitoo]

I remember now.
Kiss of Death (1947)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_of_Death_%281947_film%29

[Col4570]

I watched it... I found it difficult to take someone with that sort of English accent serious as a villain. Got about halfway through it and quit. He just keeps repeating himself, not very creative in his cussing at all. Not like some of those DIs who could cuss out a recruit for 15 minutes and never repeat themselves even once. :)

A spot on London Mobsters accent as opposed to the Mary Poppins,Dick Van Dyke rendition.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I watched it... I found it difficult to take someone with that sort of English accent serious as a villain. Got about halfway through it and quit. He just keeps repeating himself, not very creative in his cussing at all. Not like some of those DIs who could cuss out a recruit for 15 minutes and never repeat themselves even once. :)

H'm, I got intrigued by the Wikipedia article and bought the DVD of "Sexy Beast", and liked it. It gets the balance right - making major criminals human with ordinary lives - some of them - and yet not in the least glamorizing the lethally abusive world they live in. I felt I was unlikely to swoon in the Victorian manner at the language per se, and tend to judge things by context. Effusive foul language doesn't sound inappropriate in Ben Kingsley's character - an oppressor of other criminals, even, and skirting marginally above the level of mental disturbance which gets you found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. He isn't Ghandi in this one. I find the typing of miscellaneous characters to dodge asterisks more objectionable, when someone is playing the role of civilized internet poster.

"The Krays" (the 1990 version with the Kemp twins playing the infamous London gangster twins) is enough to revise a few attitudes on British accents in gangsterdom. Not that the twins are portrayed quite as nastily as real life suggests they could have been. The most sinister character is Steven Berkoff in the role of George Cornell, torturer to the Richardson gang.

I also saw the Ben Gazzara "Capone" last night, and thought he pitched it just right. The Capone in "The Untouchables" (Mel Gibson fiction added to Elliot Ness fiction) strikes me as one of the few roles Robert de Niro has ever done badly, or been required to. That Capone was just a loud-mouthed, aggressive brute. In real life I think he wanted to be a civilized businessman, and liked (despite everything) as a person. He almost exclusively harmed his own kind (physical harm anyway) and some of his charitable donations appeared to be more than self-promotion. Where do weeping willows for the hospital get you, when you are diagnosed with terminal neurosyphilis?

A marvelous small-part personification of evil is Bruce Spence as the Mouth of Sauron, his ambassador at the gate of Mordor in the extended version of "The Lord of the Rings".

[27judge]

henry fonda in Once upon a time in the west tks ken

[Mal Paso]

A spot on London Mobsters accent as opposed to the Mary Poppins,Dick Van Dyke rendition.

'Srite! Innit? :smile:

[waarp8nt]

Gary Oldman in The Professional

[Col4570]

'Srite! Innit? :smile:

E bah gum thas reet tha nows.

[Clay M]

"It rubs the lotion on it's skin, or else it get the hose again"

[Clay M]

J.T. Walsh also did a pretty good job in the movie Breakdown.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

"It rubs the lotion on it's skin, or else it get the hose again"

Ah yes, Clay Levine in the role of Jame Gumb in "The Silence of the Lambs", a movie which is enough to convince us that psychopathic serial killers differ as much as anyone else.

[jonp]

Ah yes, Clay Levine in the role of Jame Gumb in "The Silence of the Lambs", a movie which is enough to convince us that psychopathic serial killers differ as much as anyone else.

They do, or not. I am reminded of the line in Beetlejuice where the girl is asked what her costume is and she says she is dressed as a psychopath. "We look like everyone else". And they do. It is interesting if you look into it. It is not that psychopaths/sociopaths are evil, it's that they have no dividing line between right and wrong. They don't feel anything one way or the other and simply can't understand what good and evil are.

[725]

Don't know the actor's name, but the British Calvary Major in "The Patriot". Such an easy disregard for things of humanity. He was a good villain.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Don't know the actor's name, but the British Calvary Major in "The Patriot". Such an easy disregard for things of humanity. He was a good villain.

A fine portrayal of villainy, but the thinly disguised Major Tarleton was quite unfairly treated in a movie which is historically inaccurate even by Mel Gibson standards. He was a ruthless man who hated rebels, and there is no doubt about property damage and rapacious foraging, but the Continental military surgeon at Waxhaws stated that this, the only massacre under his command, occurred while he was trapped and semi-conscious under his horse, which had been shot immediately before or after the American commander's request to surrender. They copied the church incident from Oradour-sur-Glane in the Second World War.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

They do, or not. I am reminded of the line in Beetlejuice where the girl is asked what her costume is and she says she is dressed as a psychopath. "We look like everyone else". And they do. It is interesting if you look into it. It is not that psychopaths/sociopaths are evil, it's that they have no dividing line between right and wrong. They don't feel anything one way or the other and simply can't understand what good and evil are.

They don't have a conscience about it, and very often don't suffer from nerves. But in the UK at least, not knowing the difference between right and wrong is the test for getting off with a verdict of "Not guilty by reason of insanity." It usually fails with psychopaths because the prosecution knows how to exploit the argument exemplified by Captain Cremony of the US Army, who wrote a surprisingly humane book about the Apache in the 1850s. He said, more or less, that if you think the Apache doesn't know right from wrong, just try wronging him and see what happens.

Perhaps the majority of criminal lunatics are neurotics. But psychopaths fall into two groups. The adequate psychopath knows how to exploit society's laws and career opportunities to get wealth, status and the fun of tormenting people. It is the inadequate psychopath who has to break the law, sometimes in dreadful fashion, to get what he craves.

[Col4570]

Has anyone seen "Apocolypto" produced by Mel Gibson.Villainy on a grand scale.Almost as vicious as the Holocaust.Primitive civilisation in all of its gory details.

[marlin39a]

Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men".

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Has anyone seen "Apocolypto" produced by Mel Gibson.Villainy on a grand scale.Almost as vicious as the Holocaust.Primitive civilisation in all of its gory details.

Ah, that is another one with the Gibson touch for accuracy, like ''JFK'' and ''Braveheart'' (aka ''Mad Macs'' and sometimes referred to as the most historically inaccurate film of modern times). The Maya did carry out a certain amount of human sacrifice, I believe people they knew being preferred. But it was on nothing like the scale shown in the movie. Apparently they even digitally altered real-life murals to give human sacrifice a part in Maya life it didn't in fact have. It would have been a lot more accurate if it had referred to the far more ferocious Aztecs, but it didn't.

You can't libel the dead, and certainly not the several centuries dead. But there are academics who have built their career on studying the technology, religion and quite amazing calendar of the Maya, and people like that are affected by what universities and publishers consider to be the public perception of the Maya.

[frkelly74]

I just watched " The man Who Shot Liberty Valance" So right now I am thinking Liberty Valance, ( Lee Marvin )

[Col4570]

Ah, that is another one with the Gibson touch for accuracy, like ''JFK'' and ''Braveheart'' (aka ''Mad Macs'' and sometimes referred to as the most historically inaccurate film of modern times). The Maya did carry out a certain amount of human sacrifice, I believe people they knew being preferred. But it was on nothing like the scale shown in the movie. Apparently they even digitally altered real-life murals to give human sacrifice a part in Maya life it didn't in fact have. It would have been a lot more accurate if it had referred to the far more ferocious Aztecs, but it didn't.

You can't libel the dead, and certainly not the several centuries dead. But there are academics who have built their career on studying the technology, religion and quite amazing calendar of the Maya, and people like that are affected by what universities and publishers consider to be the public perception of the Maya.

Yes,I have never subscribed to the Mel Gibson historically correct group but the Movie as a work of fiction was to me quite riveting.I have no doubt that there is an element of truth and the subject matter (Villainy) was evident.

[Sig556r]

Walking Dead's Nagan...still gives me the creeps as he smashed skulls with his "Lucille" barb-wired bat...

[Winger Ed.]

I'd have to nominate Pennywise the clown in Stephen King's "It". It was terrible the way he tormented those kids.

[robg]

Alan rickman in robin hood and die hard.and the psycho in dirty harry.

[GregLaROCHE]

I thought the guy in No Country For Old Men ( or whatever) was very cool and ruthless.

That’s my vote too.

[GregLaROCHE]

Of all the movie villains we can list, there were far worse that really existed in human history.

[richhodg66]

I have been mad at him ever since.The gall...to shoot John Wayne! He always did play a dirtbag.

He doesn't play a dirt bag in All the Pretty Horses, plays an almost devine character in the end when John Grady Cole is in awful personal need of redemption.

Bruce Dern is a better actor than he's received recognition for. He says he ruined his acting career by shooting John Wayne in the back, maybe so. Good actor nonetheless.

[richhodg66]

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter is a hard one to top. The scene where he's hiding in the bushes while Lillian Gish sits on the front porch with a shotgun guarding the kids is so surreal and spooky, I can't hear "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" in church without thinking of it.

[richhodg66]

I would have to mention The Governor on The Walking Dead. One of the best villain roles I've ever seen.

[UKShootist]

Another vote here for Ben Kingsley in 'Sexy Beast' (I wish they had got a better title!). The very best scene IMO was the very last when the devil kicks his coffin to bits and there's Ben, smoking a cigarette and he just gives the devil a look of utter indifference. Brilliant acting.

Alan Rickman, as a deliberately and incredibly cleverly, overacted villain I don't think he can be bettered. He also played an excellent angel in 'Dogma', an utterly brilliant and hugely funny film, possibly my favourite, although I think it might not go down too well with too many members of this board.

[Thin Man]

I'll toss in a vote for Vincent Price, the sci-fi genius who used to scare the dirt out of me with every one of his movies.

[nagantguy]

Glad this is still going strong; thanks y’all

[richhodg66]

I'll toss in a vote for Vincent Price, the sci-fi genius who used to scare the dirt out of me with every one of his movies.

Vincent Price was a neat guy. Didn't always play villains either. He played that may character in The Last Man on Earth, which was the closest renditing to the Richard Mattheson book, I am Legend of the several movies that have been made from it.

He could do comic stuff pretty well too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w42F8nYktZ0

[WheelgunConvert]

Ben Kingsley in Ghandi
Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen
Edward Norton Primal Fear
John Lithgow in Raising Cane

Femme fatal Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
Betty Davis in Whatever Happened to Sweet Baby Jane

[wildwilly]

The clown, Pennywise (Tim Curry) in "IT".....made me hate all clowns.

[KCSO]

Lee Van Cleef in all the old westerns and vrs Randolph Scott with his whiny brother James Best.

[osteodoc08]

Didn’t read all the responses but have to add Scar from the Lion King. Agree with most the others especially Heath Ledger as joker.

[fatnhappy]

Hedley Lamar

He destroyed the entire town of Rock Ridge

[Rufus Krile]

Danny Trejo

[rl69]

I thought jack lemon did a fine job in cowboy

[richhodg66]

Hedley Lamar

He destroyed the entire town of Rock Ridge

I have probably seen that movie 100 times and still laugh myself sick every time. Harvey Corman was great.

[waksupi]

Kirk Douglas, "The Villain"

[Firebricker]

Another vote for Hedley Lamar lol !
FB

[WheelgunConvert]

Keyser Soze

[Texas by God]

John Lithgow
Christopher Walken
Anthony Hopkins
All disarmingly evil in certain roles.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[StuBach]

John Lithgow
Christopher Walken
Anthony Hopkins
All disarmingly evil in certain roles.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Completely agree on Lithgow from Dexter.

[Mohawk Daddy]

Laurence Olivier as Dr. Szell, the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. I haven't liked dentists since.

[WheelgunConvert]

Laurence Olivier as Dr. Szell, the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. I haven't liked dentists since.
I’m pretty sure that my childhood dentist was inspired by that character.

[popper]

Lon Chaney

[Wag]

Mel Gibson in Payback.
Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen.

--Wag--

[gwpercle]

In the 1968 movie , Once Upon A Time In The West , Henry Fonda played the bad guy "Frank" and portrayed an evil killer so well that I have a hard time watching it on TV .
I saw it when it first came out , on the big movie screen , I was caught up in the action and in the movies there is no commercials and you are stuck in your seat watching the larger than life murdering of a complete family including a little boy ....Frank personified evil , a cold blooded killer with steely blue eyes that looked right through you... his performance unnerved me ...Man that was 50 years ago and I still don't like to watch Frank shoot that little boy !
I know it's just a movie but Fonda's performance as a bad guy was spot on .
Gary

[Dutchninja]

Meryl Streep in Out of Africa

[MT Gianni]

Jack Farthing as George Warrleggan in the PBS/BBC series Poldark.

[Ed K]

Max Cady - both versions

[WheelgunConvert]

The VC commander at the roulette table in The Deer Hunter

[Texas by God]

Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate. Pretty good job of playing the Devil Himself.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[pertnear]

David Carradine in "Lone Wolf McQuade". Just imagine - he rips the badge as a souvenir off the beaten & bloody body of Texas Ranger Chuck Norris. Then buries him alive in a Chevy Blazer along with a six-pack of Pearl beer! Simply horrific! :evil::evil::evil:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQkyi1_l6po

[Beagle333]

Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez - or "The Ugly".