# Most despicable movie characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 27, 2026, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585 "2026-04-27T04:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/21 "2026-04-28T01:53:15Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Who do we think are the most despicable characters in movie history? I don’t mean most evil or scariest. I mean the ones we find most loathsome, most deplorable. Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men” is terrifying, but not despicable in the sense I’m looking for. I found Hans Landa to be despicable. A self-proclaimed “Jew Hunter” who after all of his evil…betrays the Nazis and tries to secure an American citizenship and stipend/salary from the US government. When we learn that he isn’t even loyal to the Nazis…it just seems so much even more despicable. Evil just for self-gain all the time. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/22 "2026-04-28T02:37:39Z")
Max Cady in each of the versions of _Cape Fear_ (Robert Mitchum or Robert De Niro). Yes, he’s pure evil, but at no point in the movie do I think he is anything _but_ despicable. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/23 "2026-04-28T19:24:32Z")
Hollis Mulwray (_Chinatown_) was a pretty horrible character. The scene at the end of the movie where he is leading his grand/daughter away into the night makes your skin crawl. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/24 "2026-04-28T19:29:49Z")
From **Matilda** : her parents and Miss Trunchbull. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/25 "2026-04-28T19:50:35Z")
That’s Noah Cross. Hollis Mulwray was the mustachioed guy in glasses who turns up drowned in the reservoir. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/26 "2026-04-28T19:51:08Z")
Flap Horton in _Terms of Endearment_ was a weak, childish, philanderer. He didn’t get anyone killed, he didn’t kill anyone, he was just despicable. Never be a Flap. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/27 "2026-04-28T19:56:02Z")
Ah, yes! Thank you. Serious Brain-Fart! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/28 "2026-04-28T20:44:38Z")
Archibald (Tim Roth) in Rob Roy was fantastic. Honorable mention, Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/29 "2026-04-28T20:51:56Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > One slight mitigating factor in her despicability is that she’s an agent of The System, so the awful things she does aren’t so much her own actions as The System itself. She can be easily replaced by someone else who’ll do the same thing. Yes, she’s an agent of The System, but what she does to Billy goes above and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/30 "2026-04-28T21:16:00Z")
Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) is despicable in Miller’s Crossing. He’s about as bad as William Macy in Fargo or Paul Reiser in Aliens — maybe a tick below, ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/31 "2026-04-28T22:12:34Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) is despicable in Miller’s Crossing. He’s about as bad as William Macy in Fargo Hey, if we’re doing Coen Brothers villains, the most despicable was probably Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) in _O Brother Where Art Thou._ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/32 "2026-04-28T22:33:07Z")
Worse than Karl Mundt, the serial killer from _Barton Fink_, also played by John Goodman? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/33 "2026-04-28T22:35:31Z")
I actually spent a while thinking about that. I think, on balance, that Dan is worse - Karl at least has the excuse of being batshit insane. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/34 "2026-04-28T23:12:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Perhaps Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) from _The Devil Wears Prada_ can start the female leading role for this thread. Or Joanna Kramer in _Kramer vs. Kramer_. Abandons her young son, then goes to snatch him back after he’s happily adjusted to life without her, with the aid of sleazy legal tactics. Bruno Antony - spoiled, psychotic playboy in _Strangers On A Train_. Phillip Vandamm in _North By Northwest_ (“This matter is best disposed of from a great height, over water.”) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/35 "2026-04-28T23:17:47Z")
Col. Jessup in _A Few Good Men_. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/36 "2026-04-28T23:36:31Z")
Somewhat in the vein of the OP, Paul Giamatti’s character in _Sideways_ steals cash out of his mother’s sock drawer. That’s rather despicable behavior. The movie then tries to portray him as a somewhat sympathetic character, but it’s kinda too late. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/37 "2026-04-29T00:32:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Hey, if we’re doing Coen Brothers villains, the most despicable was probably Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) in _O Brother Where Art Thou._ I place Big Dan in a bucket with Homer Stokes — rotten and murderous but not slimy and _despicable_. Opinions vary. And although Stokes and Teagues are horrible, they’re are presented as somewhat comic (as is George Nelson, the cow killer). Bernie blackmailing his savior is loathsome, as is his pragmatic murder of a lover (which he later chuckles about). ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/38 "2026-04-29T01:08:04Z")
Doyle Hargraves, played by Dwight Yoakum, in _Sling Blade_ is despicable and evil. One cheers when he meets his grisly end. And Bill Cutting, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, in _Gangs of New York_, is an evil murderous SOB. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/39 "2026-04-29T05:32:52Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Or Joanna Kramer in _Kramer vs. Kramer_. Abandons her young son, then goes to snatch him back after he’s happily adjusted to life without her, with the aid of sleazy legal tactics. YES!!! I’d forgotten about that character. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despicable-movie-characters/1029585/40 "2026-04-29T16:40:18Z")
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