Nurse Ratchitt from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”!
Scratch through my above nomination for second favorite and replace her with the meanest Angel of Mercy of Filmdom!!!
I’d have to break it down into three:
Coolest, Sexiest Villian - another vote for Hans Gruber. The single reason I have seen “Die Hard” as many times as I have.
Most Fun & Influential Villian - Ming the Merciless, (particularly as portrayed by Max Von Sydow, although Frank Middleton was lots of evil fun too). The grandaddy of space opera villians. Darth can’t touch him. The ultimate Outer Space Tyrant. All who came after were but pale imitations.
Villian with the Best Chest - Kahn, from the Wrath of Kahn. Tasty.
Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies!
When I watch a movie, I rate the villian by how well I think he’s doing. As soon as I see him make one of the cardinal villian mistakes (e.g. leaving the hero(es) in a deathtrap with just one inept guard to make sure all goes according to plan), they lose my respect and I can’t wait for the hero to shoot them/beat them up/drop them from high place/blow them up.
Being completely despicable and dishonorable are good traits, although compromising those traits at the last minute for something sappy earns double bad villian points, as does offering the unarmed hero another chance by going “mano y mano”.
To that end, my favorite, and the best, movie villian is Kevin Spacey’s killer in Seven.
He wins in the end! Yay for the bad guys!
Okay, I’ve got a couple that are pretty unconventional. Most of the time I find great villains are also great characters.
The villain you can’t help but love: Begbie from Trainspotting (I know, not exactly a villain, but it’s justifiable in the context of the film)
The villain who doubles as the protagonist: Alex from A Clockwork Orange (or maybe Tyler Durden/The Narrator from Fight Club).
Jesus H Christ…I can’t belive no one has mentioned Dennis Hopper’s character from Blue Velvet! Absolutely demonic and psychotic, scared the shit out of me…“You know what a love letter from me is man? It’s bullet straight to your fucking heart!”
To detour briefly out of films and into television, Sheriff Lucas Buck from the short-lived “American Gothic” (damn you CBS!)
Either Boris or Natasha.
Just thought of 2 more that are a bit iffy.
C.G. Spender aka The Cigarette Smoking Man and Alex Krychek, both from The X-Files. There was an X-Files movie…
They are both always 2 steps ahead of everyone. CGS is almost a hero, his motives are for the good of mankind, but to him the ends justifies the means.
Krychek, well he’s just totally unafraid to do whatever it takes to further his own agenda.
Ernst Stravo Blofeld
Masala from “Ben-Hur”
Han from “Enter The Dragon”
Frank Booth from “Blue Velvet”
The Terminator
Ramses from “The Ten Commandments”
I 2nd Lucas Buck
and Keyser Soze from the Usual Suspects, Also Kevin Spacey in Se7en and Hannibal!
I too watch DIE HARD to glory in ALAN RICKMAN’S smarmy HANS GRUBER. That voice, that slide to grab Bonnie Bedlia’s arm. Way cool.
But, like SOULMURK—the EVILIST OF THE EVIL is the KEVIN SPACEY’S character in SEVEN. Hannibal Lector’s work doesn’t even come CLOSE to the appalling vileness in SEVEN. And Spacey played him like a naive, sweet, innocent altar boy. Truly CHILLING portrayal.
DRASTIC—I agree with you on AMERICAN GOTHIC. The only new show that season worth watching.
I am partial to Darwin and Minerva Mayflower from Hudson Hawk. No one can play insane, self centered, megalomaniacs like Richard E Grant and Sandra Bernhardt.
Faye Dunawaye as Lady DeWinter from the Musketeers films.
Robert Carlyle in Ravenous.
Jack Palance in Hawk the Slayer.
Gary Oldman in Leon
and Timothy Dalton’s Nazi spy in The Rocketeer : “It wasn’t lying, my dear, it was…acting” Bwahahaha!!!
Dang it all…I was thinking about Frank from Blue Velvet right before I posted, too (we just took the film in a class on contemporary cinema). Very scary indeed (and it’s really interesting how the parallels are made between him and Jeffrey).
Another one I remembered: Jack Lint (Michael Palin) from Brazil. There’s just something scary about a man who’s willing to lobotomize his friend to uphold the system. And the fact that he is at the same time a family man and a monster also adds to his eerie quality. He’s just your average Joe, going through the daily grind of torturing and killing people. Plus, it’s played by Michael Palin, so he’s at the same time so likeable which brings about a very eerie effect.
Best Disney Villain (and one of the best of all): Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast.” Why? Because he was one of the very few villains who never thought he was doing anything evil. He was just trying to help Belle to a better life (with him) and rescuing her from a terrible beast.
Other great ones:
Marty Augustine in Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.” So crazy you didn’t know what he might do. He’s first shown with his girlfriend as he talks to Marlowe. He goes to her and very tenderly tells Marlowe how much he loves her and how he’d do anything to make her happy. Then he smashes her face with a bottle and turns to Marlowe and says, “You, I don’t even like.” No film villain has ever topped that moment.
Cody Jarrett in “White Heat.” James Cagney in his most over-the-top performance. Chilling.
Christian Szell in “Marathon Man.” Is it safe to go to the dentist after seeing him? Is it safe? 
Super Gorilla Grodd in Flash Comics. Both campy and sinister.
Anybody remember Macauley Culkin’s character in “The Good Son”?
Sweet, innocent Mac, likes causing traffic accidents, killing neighborhood pets and siblings.
So evil his own mother killed him on a cliff.
“Don’t fuck with me” coming out of his mouth was supremely creepy.
Bette Davis in any of her “bad” roles.
The Mads from the early MST3k shows.
My vote goes to Evil Incarnate played by David Warner in Time Bandits, Who was so evil that He had to get Benson the dog’s attention by calling to him cheerfully before blowing him up. Now that I think of it, Warner made a good villian as the Master Control Program in Tron and as Jack the Ripper in Time After Time too.
Zoinks! Checking his filmography I see he has appeared in approximately 12 million movies. I wonder if he is often cast as the villian.
Another vote for Keyser Soze. It’s good to see a movie where the bad guy wins once in a while.
The Sheriff (Alan Rickman) in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - he was better that Robin Hood. But damn, everybody was better than Robin in that film…
Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in The Matrix - cliched Men in Black type, but still cool
General Zod (Terence Stamp) in Superman II - another English-accented cliche but still cool
Darth Maul and Boba Fett in the Star Wars series - don’t fancy Vader all that much. I prefer the silent types.
Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich) in Con-Air - he got some of the best lines.
Scar (Jeremy Irons) in The Lion King - See Terence Stamp
Otto (Kevin Kline) in A Fish Called Wanda - Dumb villiany at its best.
Jason Dean (Christian Slater) in Heathers. Alright he wasn’t really bad, just…warped.
Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in Rounders - another accent. And the way he ate his Oreos.
Carl (Steve Buscemi) in Fargo - small and funny looking
Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich!) and Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) in Dangerous Liaisons - I cried at the end when Valmont died.