This topic probably has been done before, but I just rewatched Contact and Tom Skerritt’s character David Drumlin, the national science advisor who impedes, takes over, and gets credit for Jodie Foster’s character’s work, makes you kinda grit your teeth in aggravation but the character isn’t really an bad/evil guy. (Side note–the movie has Skerritt and John Hurt and is about first contact with an alien species. This contact goes a little better than their previous one.)
The classic example is the mayor from Jaws. From his point of view, he’s looking out for the town’s best interest and doesn’t understand the threat the shark imposes until it’s too late. I think Murray Hamilton really nails it as the douchebag mayor.
One I remember seeing years ago is Brian Cox’s character in Longitude. As I recall, Cox’s Lord Morton is a minor character but he’s such a pompous ass who vehemently opposes clockmaker John Harrison winning the Longitude prize because he’s not a Royal Society astronomer or mathematician. I remember thinking: “That’s some great acting because I want to punch that guy in the face!”
I think all three performances were great because you really dislike the characters and although they’re antagonists, they’re not really evil villains like, say, Darth Vader. (Even the shark in Jaws was just doing its thing.)
Walter Peck in Ghostbusters is a smug asshole, but he’s also just a guy from the Environmental Protection Agency with perfectly legitimate concerns about the storage of toxic chemicals in NYC.
For some reason that’s the first one that jumped to mind.
Inspector Callahan’s immediate supervisor in most of the Dirty Harry movies is a contemptible deskjockey bootlicker who does well for himself at Callahan’s expense. He’s easy to hate, without being at all cartoon-level evil.
Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) in Major League. He’s an asshole, of course, but what makes him one of the film’s antagonists is that he simply doesn’t care about baseball or winning anymore: he’s much more interested in his finances, and has stopped playing hard out of fear of being injured, especially because he believes he has a future in acting and endorsements, and doesn’t want to damage his face.
And with respect to Ghostbusters, it was pretty stupid on Peck’s part to shut down the system with no knowledge whatsoever or what would actually happen.
Those two actors: William Atherton and Jeffrey Jones, made mini-careers for themselves in the '80s and early '90s, playing the archetype of the “not really evil, just an asshole” antagonist.
Heck, for most of Die Hard, Atherton’s character was just a reporter chasing down a huge story, he didn’t become an asshole until he put the McClane’s kids on TV.
Jeffrey Jones gives off that vibe in everything I’ve seen him in*, even when he’s playing a character that’s not especially an asshole. In Beetlejuice, based purely on his actions he should be the 3rd or 4th least likable character, after Beetlejuice, Otho, and possibly Delia. Yet he comes across as more hateable than any of those characters. The same thing goes for Who’s Harry Crumb, where he comes across as a whole lot more creepy than the equally villainous characters played by Annie Potts and Tim Thomerson.
As for William Atherton, I especially enjoyed a guest appearance he had on Murder She Wrote, in an episode that also featured Terry Kiser (who should probably also be on this list). Atherton’s character was the murderer.
*. Given that he was eventually found to be a pedophile, my guess is that he isn’t a true actor, but rather that he plays himself in all his roles.
In the Way-Way Back, Steve Carrell plays the most punchable step-Dad imaginable. He’s an asshole and a philanderer but he’s really nothing more than just a shitty guy making half-assed attempts to hold things together.
They are really good at making you hate him, though.
I haven’t watched that, but he definitely comes across as as a jerk in Star Trek TNG in his role as Captain Jellico. His character is just a hard but professional Federation captain who is running the Enterprise as best he can in Picard’s absence. But he still manages to make Jellico a hated character.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’d say intentionally shutting off the oxygen to an entire colony, thereby suffocating the entire population, just to maintain your business monopoly qualifies as actually evil.
Kiefer Sutherland in Stand By Me. Yeah, he’s a jerk who bullies the younger kids a bit, but ultimately he just wanted what the kids wanted - to see the dead body, and get some bit of fame for being the one who found the lost kid.