best movie villains? ???

[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"