Vincent Price in The Conqueror Worm.
I also enjoyed Bonham-Carter in Sweeny Todd and as Morgana Le Fey (“All beauty is an illusion”). I even liked Wonderland in part because of her wonderful Red Queen.
She is a villain worthy of a Disney Queen.
Alec Baldwin in Malice - if you’re looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17, and he doesn’t like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something: I am God.
Michael Keaton - Pacific Heights
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years A Slave
Sian Phillips as Livia in I, Claudius. Any time she would fix that basilisk gaze of hers on anyone who stood between her son Tiberius and the throne, [spoiler]that person’s death warrant was written in her eyes and on her face. There’s a great “shop talk” scene with her and a professional poisoner when they compared notes on which poisons were the most effective and undetectable, and the dawning realization on the pro’s face when she realized Livia might be poisoning her as well.
What really struck me was her last request to Claudius, when she’s an old, frail woman who knows she’s dying and knows exactly how many deaths she has on her hands. She begs Claudius to promise her that when he becomes Emperor he’ll declare her a goddess, because otherwise she knows she’ll burn in Hades for all eternity. Even knowing all the deaths and all the evil she had caused, you actually felt sorry for her. It was a brilliant, chilling, unforgettable performance. [/spoiler]
Damn he was good in that, but more because he was an Interesting Character. Not so much evil. He didn’t seem to take pleasure in killing. His, ‘fall on your sword’ routine was rough, but had a reason behind it - they had failed, and they should die in a fashion that admitted that failure, even if he has to help them along. I think he was a highly moral man with bent morals. He felt that killing a few dozen men, woman and children was worth it to ‘make a better world’. It wasn’t even a better world of his imagining. He was just working to make society better, according to his superiors. He didn’t even think there was a place for him in the better world, so he was working, sacrificing, to make a work he neither created nor could live in.
But yeah, he was great in that role.
Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger) as a serial killer in “It happened in broad daylight”.
Agreed. He’s got some really good non-villain roles, but they’re always a little odd (Platoon, Patriot Games). Villain roles seem to fit him like a glove. Just saw Grand Budapest Hotel and he’s great (though getting older).
Klaus Kinski could really channel evil on-screen, nowhere more so than in Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Apparently he was just as malevolent as his character on set when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Glenn Close was brought up earlier for Damages and Fatal Attraction; her portrayal of the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons is also memorable.
Thirded.
Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.
Gregory Peck as Josef Mengele in The Boys From Brazil
Ditto on this , I was squirming any time he was on wondering what nastiness he was about to do.
Also ditto on Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast
Finally
Dennis Hopper in Paris Trout he does not hold back on playing an utterly despicable person without hamming it up.
Michael Pitt in Funny Games
Anthony Anderson as Antoine Mitchell in The Shield
Nthing Joffrey in Game of Thrones. Man, he is hateable. He plays that role with a tightly-wound, malevolent energy that makes the character a human crossbow. Even he has moments of humanity (spoilers for TV and books):
He seemed genuinely upset when his “father” died, and I think he was totally into Margaery, seeing her as someone he could truly be evil with. If they’d stayed together he would have totally fallen for her - he’d still have killed her at some point, but he would have been sad about it.
But that doesn’t detract from his evilness, it just shows that the actor can do more than simple evil.
I’d like to add Richard Burton in 1984. You truly believed that there would be a boot on the face of humanity forever, and he would be one of the ones weilding that boot. Not because he enjoyed it, but because he just was.
This. The entire church sequence was fantastic.