Jim Carrey as The Riddler in Batman Forever is the main reason it’s my favorite among that particular Batman franchise.
But the award goes to Paul Williams as Swan in Phantom of the Paradise , with an honorable mention to his portrayal of Dr. Loveless, Jr. in the Wild Wild West TV movie.
But Stumpy wasn’t a bad guy in Rio Bravo and his “bad guy” in Sheriff was not particularly menacing (though admittedly hilarious).
See Post #5
Well, duh. It’s double indemnity.
PS: :smack:
I wanted to do Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, but since that’s already been taken, I’m going to go with Andy Griffith as Col. Ticonderoga.
WAY evil.
Merv Griffin brought an uncharacteristic menace and depravity to The Man with Two Brains.
Well, OK, no he didn’t.
I was going to sugest him too, but for his performance in Cable Guy.
While Wilford Brimley usually played gruff curmudgeons, his characters were good-hearted, right? Not so much in The Firm. I thought he was awesome in that.
Telly Savalas played plenty of nasty bad guys before changing his image with Kojak.
Same with Jack Elam – long history of playing bad guys, then changing his image around with Support Your Local Sheriff.
People sometimes forget how great how great Humphrey Bogart was as a villain.
People tend to like Derek Jacobi, especially for his work in I, Claudius, but he has been a very effective bad guy (giving the example I’m thinking of would be a spoiler).
John Leguizamo - Carlito’s Way, Spawn, Romeo + Juliet, etc
John Lithgow - Cliffhanger
I loved Christopher Lloyd’s portrayal of Kruge in Star Trek III. For the first time here was a Klingon who wasn’t even the tiniest bit campy, he was just a human-hating, evil, murdering sociopath!
He played a similar role in Roger Rabbit. He toned it down a little, but he was still pretty darn evil for what was essentially viewed as a kid’s movie.
And although he’s pretty much made a career playing villains, the first thing I saw Malcolm McDowell in was Time After Time where he played a really likable, sympathetic H.G. Wells against David Warner’s evil Jack The Ripper. Then I saw him in Clockwork Orange. Eeek!!
Ben Affleck and Vince Vaughn were also cast as villains in the early films.
Arnie in the first Terminator.
John Ritter played a suitably creepy evil guy on an episode of BtVS.
Greg Kinnear in Loser.
Oooh - and also in a Law & Order episode (possibly CI).
Rodney Dangerfield as the abusive father in Natural Born Killers:
[after sending Mallory to her room]
Ed Wilson: I’ll show her a little tenderness, after I eat. When I get up there, she won’t see my face for an hour.
Gah!
Michael Caine & Christopher Reeve in Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap.”