# Female Movie Villians **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2002, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272 "2002-11-23T00:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/21 "2002-11-23T18:51:05Z")
Miranda Richardson in **Sleepy Hollow** Commandant Mele-on Grayza on **Farscape** ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/22 "2002-11-23T18:55:35Z")
Single White Female? Basic Instinct? Crazy bitches abound in the movie world. I think Max in Mission Impossible was FANTAAAASTIC! but more criminial than evil. I am not sure how you mean by baddies… Only campy evil-overlords? I think Glen Close in almost any role can give Hannibal a run for his money, her Dangerous Liasons part was deliciously evil and big on the power-angle. Many of the Bond films had, if not evil over-ladys then at least very unpleasant henchwomen. Spikey boot lady springs to mind… ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/23 "2002-11-23T21:57:06Z")
Catwoman - Selena Kyle ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/24 "2002-11-24T03:26:42Z")
Well, it wasn’t a movie, but a Masterpiece Theater production, “I, Claudius” Sean Phillips as Livia, the wife of Augustus. What an awful bitch she was. ---
**Author:** ![airdisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19adc/32.png) [@airdisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/airdisc)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/25 "2002-11-24T04:49:18Z")
Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in The World Is Not Enough. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/26 "2002-11-26T18:01:14Z")
Jen Yu (sort of) and Jade Fox in **Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon**. Zhang Ziyi (again) in **Rush Hour 2** (No, I’m not obsessed, one just reminded me of the other.) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/27 "2002-11-26T18:30:07Z")
\*\*Angelica Huston \*\* as the Evil Stepmother in \*Ever After \* \*\*Kathy Bates \*\* In \*Misery \* ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/28 "2002-11-26T18:31:47Z")
Whomever was the woman who played \*\*Lady Catherine DeBurgh \* in the A&E Pride and Prejudice show. Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/29 "2002-11-26T18:41:06Z")
**Theda Bara** in . . . well, most of her movies. **Claudette Colbert** in The Sign of the Cross. **Jean Harlow** in Red Headed Woman. **Marilyn Monroe** in Niagara. **Bette Davis** in Of Human Bondage. **Joan Crawford** in The Women. **Barbara Stanwyck** in Baby Face. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/30 "2002-11-26T18:46:38Z")
On TV, I used to love to watch FALCON CREST to seen Jane Wyman chew the scenery as Angela Channing. I loved Hepburn in THE LION IN WINTER; not exactly a villain, perhaps, but a schemer so amibtious she’ll use incest and anything else to get her way. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/31 "2002-11-26T19:06:36Z")
I got beat to Barbara Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity” and Mary Astor in “Maltese Falcon,” so I’ll add Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat.” She plays William Hurt like a violin (and looks very, very tasty). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/32 "2002-11-26T19:20:36Z")
“Lena Olin in ROMEO IS BLEEDING.” From television, Lena Olin as Irina Derevko/Laura Bristow on “Alias”. Example: the first time Irina’s on the show, she meets her daughter, who she hasn’t seen in over 20 years because she (Irina) was pretending to be dead – and promptly shoots her (the daughter)! Yowsa! ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272/33 "2002-11-26T19:22:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*Lilith. > Delilah. > Judith. > Herodias and Salome. > Circe. > Medea. > The Bacchante. > > For more, see Bram Dijkstra’s IDOLS OF PERVERSITY: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle Culture (Oxford, 1986). \*\* Circe wasn’t so bad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-movie-villians/138272.md?page=1)