I gotta go with Bob Gunton. I can’t think of a single role he’s ever played where he wasn’t a bad guy, if not THE bad guy.
Jason Isaacs was a real charmer in the delightful film Passionada. The character was a flawed human being, one you want to smack at times, but he had a good heart and was a heartthrob to boot.
I love that movie. It’s not brilliant or anything, but it is charming and sweet, and anyway, I’d have a soft spot for any movie where the older (cool in itself) lead female character (played by the wonderful Sofia Milos) sings Fados music, which is one of the reasons why the male lead (Isaacs) falls in love with her (well, along with the fact that she’s beautiful and sexy and fantastic). There just isn’t anywhere near enough Fados music in the movies, so we have to cherish ones like this that feature it. Nice that it’s a decent movie too.
(here’s the trailer, which pretty much tells you everything about the movie, one of those “lay out the entire damn plot and all the major characters” trailers)
Christopher Walken’s played a number of “good guy” roles, such as in Who Am I This Time? with Susan Sarandon, Brainstorm with Natalie Wood, The Dead Zone, Blast From The Past, Scotland, PA, Catch Me If You Can and Hairspray, among others. It’s been so long since I’ve seen Pennies From Heaven, I can’t remember if he was a good guy in that. He sure was a great dancer, which is what I mainly remember.
I don’t watch nearly enough movies to run with this crowd, but I’m going to throw out the I’ve never heard of Frank Langella playing anyone other than the heavy, ever since I first saw him in Dracula back in '79.
Can anyone enlighten me otherwise?
Gary Oldman was wonderful as the completely sympathetic Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
In addition to those already mentioned, he played good guy archetype John Justice Wheeler on “Twin Peaks.”
Played a good guy in “The Return of Chandu.” Arguably he played a good guy in “Plan 9 from Outer Space” as the grieving widower who only turns bad after he dies and is resurrected by aliens.
IMDB doesn’t credit Lugosi for being in “Plan 9.” How odd.
I unfortunately missed this, but I believe he was a decent guy at heart in last year’s Starting Out In The Evening, playing an aging college professor. Many people who follow awards were shocked that he didn’t get an Academy Award nomination for the role. However, since I haven’t seen it, and only know the bare bones of the plot, I could be wrong about his character.
Langella was William Paley in Good Night, and Good Luck. Maybe not a good guy as such, but not a bad guy, just a businessman who was walking a line between supporting Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, and not letting their exploits ruin the station. I haven’t seen a lot of Langella’s movies, but I’m sure there are more.
Not pertinent to this thread, but looking at his IMDB listing, I find it fascinating that he’s going to be playing Richard Nixon later this year in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, which has a killer cast (Michael Sheen as David Frost, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Toby Jones, and yay! Rhoda freaking Penmark all grown up, Patty McCormack as Pat Nixon!).
David Warner is the ultimate movie bad guy, and I can prove it. He was the villain in Time Bandits and Tron; the assistant villain (to Billy Zane) in Titanic; and I don’t kow how many others.
When David Warner was in Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell (Alex in A Clockwork Orange, so no slouch in the bad-guy department, either), Warner was Jack the Ripper to McDowell’s H.G. Wells.
Langella also played Perry White in Superman Returns and Sherlock Holmes in a TV movie.
Okay, thanks for the info on Langella.
Tim Curry seems to enjoy being a baddie, and he can be a lot of fun to watch at it. I know that in the (somewhat dire) made-for-TV musical Mrs. Santa Claus, he reformed at the end, but I don’t think that makes him a good guy, or a not-bad guy.
Tim Curry is mighty good at playing bad guys, but when I see him I can’t help but think of him as… the very mild mannered Dr. Poole from Oscar.
You thought I was gonna say RHPS, didn’t ya? heheh…
John Quade. My husband tells me he’s known as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. But he’s never the nice guy on screen.
Hey – Tim Curry’s the voice of Nigel Thornberry, not to mention lots of other nice guys (he’s also been the voice of evil animated characters, I grant you). And he’s not evil in Clue.
I LOVE Demon Knight! OK I love the first 30 minutes of Demon Knight but I definitely think it is an underrated movie, and Zane is absolutely fantastic in it.
That’s who I came to mention.
Miguel Ferrer. Is this guy even capable of playing someone who’s not an amoral prick?
Oh, and Danny Trejo played a straight up good guy in Spy Kids.
Did Sydney Greenstreet ever play anything but a villian?
Other than Sherlock Holmes, I can’t recall anything but bad-guy roles for Basil Rathbone.
Also - Billy Zane had a role in Orlando as a sort of romance-novel hero.
David Warner played sympathetic characters in The Company of Wolves, but is one of my long-time favorite baddies other than that.
Warner also played sympathetic characters in The Omen and Star Trek VI. And he starred in a short-lived TV series about a sports journalist, the name of which I don’t immediately recall …
My first thought, when it came to people playing villains, was Jack Palance. Has he ever been a good guy?
City Slickers and Bagdad Cafe. He was kind of scary in both, but I seem to recall he was a good guy.
Cops and Robbersons. I’m ashamed that I remembered that.
And David Warner was a good-guy mad scientist in The Man With Two Brains, but, in general, bad-guy bad-guy bad-guy.