# Actors who embrace the evil of their character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660 "2014-01-01T21:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/81 "2014-01-03T10:36:59Z")
When I was a kid, I met Anthony Ainley at a convention. Gave me his autograph all over a poster of Peter Davidson. Even wrote “HA HA HA”… Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/82 "2014-01-03T15:52:34Z")
William B. Davis as CSM (The Smoking Man) in The X-Files. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/83 "2014-01-03T16:05:28Z")
Kathy Bates in Misery. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/84 "2014-01-03T16:27:12Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Jack Gleeson as King Joffrey in Game of Thrones. Gleeson plays Joffrey with enough madness in him to make him believable. That’s what happens when a psychopath is spoiled rotten then given a throne. There’s not a single redeeming quality in him. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/85 "2014-01-03T16:52:51Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Lee van Cleef in _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_. LvC had such marvelous presence–I recently watched _ **High Noon** _, in which he has, IIRC, not a single spoken line, yet there’s no mistaking him whenever he’s on screen. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/86 "2014-01-03T17:06:53Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland, and James Cromwell. Cromwell played both the taciturn but good-hearted Farmer Hoggett in Babe and also the chief of police in LA Confidential. “Do you have a valediction, me boyo?” His eyes were _cold_, cold as the darkest corner of space. Definitely agreeing with his acting in LA Confidential; he was one nasty MF. > [@somepumpkin](#): > > I think Willem Dafoe always plays a great villain, and certainly has the looks for the part. In American Psycho _he_ was almost the villain. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/87 "2014-01-03T17:18:53Z")
F. Murray Abraham in The Name of the Rose. He usually plays complex characters like Salieri in Amadeus. But I saw him in an interview where he said he relished his role as the Holy Inquisitor in the Name of the Rose, as his first chance to play an unmitigatedly evil-to-the-core character. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/88 "2014-01-03T17:47:24Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > F. Murray Abraham in The Name of the Rose. He usually plays complex characters like Salieri in Amadeus. But I saw him in an interview where he said he relished his role as the Holy Inquisitor in the Name of the Rose, as his first chance to play an unmitigatedly evil-to-the-core character. He certainly strikes modern people as evil, but an Inquisitor almost HAD to be a man completely convinced of his own righteousness. The Inquisitor DID horrible things, but like Inspector Javert, he did evil in the belief that he was the good guy, and that the people he persecuted DESERVED it. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/89 "2014-01-03T18:40:53Z")
> [@Wolf333](#): > > Robert Mitchum in “Cape Fear” I was going to mention Mitchum for his performances in _Cape Fear_ (very good) and _Night of the Hunter_ (brilliant). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/90 "2014-01-03T19:11:27Z")
Lee Marvin played the thoroughly vile title character in _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence_. Henry Fonda played against type as the vicious villain in _Once Upon a Time in the West._ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/91 "2014-01-03T19:46:18Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The Inquisitor DID horrible things, but like Inspector Javert, he did evil in the belief that he was the good guy, and that the people he persecuted DESERVED it. Yeah, well, so did Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/92 "2014-01-03T22:16:08Z")
Orson Welles as Hank Quinlan in _Touch of Evil_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/93 "2014-01-03T22:51:30Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’ve never seen _Silence of the Lambs_, believe it or not, but gather Anthony Hopkins might be another one. If you want to pick someone from that movie for this thread, it’s Ted Levine all the way; his schtick is passing himself off as low-key amiable, which is plenty less comic-book than what Hopkins is doing – but he’s clearly _working_ at it, and whenever the mask _slips_ he’s more than a little creepy. And when he drops the act – yeah, he ain’t holding back. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/94 "2014-01-04T00:02:10Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Lee Marvin played the thoroughly vile title character in _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence_. Strictly speaking, he played Liberty, not the man who shot him 😛 But I certainly agree with the nomination, Marvin never seemed to care about being likeable. ---
**Author:** ![peptastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@peptastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peptastic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/95 "2014-01-04T03:08:14Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > This thread reminds me of something C. Thomas Howell said to [the Onion AV Club](http://www.avclub.com/article/c-thomas-howell-on-ithe-outsidersi-blackface-and-h-92458) about his character of George Foyet, one of the most memorable serial killers from the TV show _Criminal Minds_. When he was in a movie with Rutger Hauer, he asked how Rutger played such great bad guys. The reply was: “I don’t play bad guys.” > > That informed Howell’s performance as Foyet. He thinks that absent that advice, he would’ve overacted, been too broad. By not playing him as a bad person, he thinks, he made the character better. Thanks! I enjoyed that interview. Hauer was mesmerizing in The Hitcher, but even in fluffy comedies like Buffy the Vampire slayer he has that air about him. Lothos was so strong! He was able to make each bad guy work. No wonder Jennifer Jason Leigh gets Munchausen syndrome for him in Flesh & Blood. > [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > Gleeson plays Joffrey with enough madness in him to make him believable. That’s what happens when a psychopath is spoiled rotten then given a throne. There’s not a single redeeming quality in him. Joffrey and the Boltons are the rare exception in the Westeros who have no redeeming qualities. I was shocked when I found myself warming to Jaimie. He does Joffrey so brilliantly. Jason Patric in Your Friends & Neighbors was downright chilling. I haven’t seen that movie since '98 when it came out. I’ll never forget the way he talked about raping that boy in gym class or screaming at Amy Brennenan for menstruating on his bed. I did not know he had it in him since the only thing I’d known him from was The Lost Boys. One of my all-time favourites, John Malkovich, has usually been characterised as playing a lot of villains but his stand-out roles for me weren’t baddies. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/96 "2014-01-04T04:20:33Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > So we started trying to think of actors who are willing to just go whole hog on a truly dark, scary character in a completely believable fashion. … But “whole hog … truly dark, scary character(s) …” \*\*aren’t \*\*completely believable, are they? For every Richard III, there are thousands of Gordon Geckos, who honestly believe they are playing by the rules, just doing it better than every one else. I find pure villains self-indulgent and unconvincing in dramas. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/97 "2014-01-04T14:10:28Z")
David Warner is so evil as Gul Madred in STNG: “Chain of Command” (he’s the Cardassian who tortures Jean Luc Picard) and as Jack the Ripper in _Time After Time_ that I find him wholly unbelievable as Bob Cratchit in the George C. Scott _A Christmas Carol_. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/98 "2014-01-04T22:27:38Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > David Warner is so evil as Gul Madred in STNG: “Chain of Command” (he’s the Cardassian who tortures Jean Luc Picard) and as Jack the Ripper in _Time After Time_ that I find him wholly unbelievable as Bob Cratchit in the George C. Scott _A Christmas Carol_. I agree. I can’t watch that version without thinking, “watch your back, Scrooge! Bob is _planning_ something!” ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/99 "2014-01-05T00:08:00Z")
One of my favorite underrated actors, Robert Knepper plays almost nothing but villains and he’s fantastic at them. T-Bag from Prison Break was one of my all-time favorite villains and he did that despite being constrained by network rules which dramatically limited what he could do and say. Damn, what he could’ve done if that show had been on HBO or Showtime. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660/100 "2014-01-05T00:41:00Z")
Also, I’m as much to blame as anyone, but this thread is turning into way too much of a sausage fest, so let’s mention some women. Some of my better ones. Glen Close as the rutheless, amoral anti-hero Patti Hewes in _Damages_. I know some people might be surprised by my choice for roles rather than the vastly more famous iconic role as Alex Forrest from _Fatal Attraction_, but I actually thought her role as Patty was better and deeper. Besides, I like dogs more than bunnies. She’d definitely be on this list for _Fatal Attraction_ if not for _Damages_. Polly Walker as Attia of the Julii from\* Rome\*. Tricia Helfer as Six from _Battlestar Galactica_. Madeleine Stowe as Victoria Grayson on _Revenge_. Bridget Fonda playing completely against type in _A Simple Plan_. Rebecca De Mornay in _The Hand that Rocks the Cradle_. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in _Batman Returns_. Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in _The Devil Wears Prada_. Just the way she doesn’t even need to raise her voice to terrorize people and can destroy people with merely a look. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-embrace-the-evil-of-their-character/677660.md?page=6)