Victor Buono the most memorable Batman villain as King Tut
Bruce Gordon had the stereotypical dem and dose gangster down pat. There was one “Untouchables” episode that had Bruce Gordon as Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti and Buono as the weekly bad guy, a counterfeiter. Buono pulls the stunt that Eddie Murphy does in “Beverly Hills Cop”: confronts the agent following you to by giving him a ticket on the plane and telling him not to miss our flight. Rico slams his newspaper in disgust.
As your link makes clear, Sid Haig ISN’T always the Baddie. But if he isn’t, he’s usually Very Weird. (In Spider Baby and Galaxy of Terror, for instance)
Anthony Zerbe is almost invariably the Bad Guy, and plays it with aplomb.
I was very surprised, in fact, when he played Councillor Hamann of Zion, an undeniably Good Guy, in the Matrix movies.
Ralph Fiennes?
Alan Rickman
James Woods
J. T. Walsh
Kevin Tighe
Jason Isaacs
It seems like there was a movie or tv mini-series where someone played a very evil Nazi, but I can’t think of the actor nor movie.
Joe Pantoliano.
To the OP - you’re asking who plays the villain roles really well, not who always seems to play a villain, correct?
E.g. Ben Kingsley played a ferociously scary mobster in “Sexy Beast” but he was also Ghandi.
Agreed. I really like him, and his “Bad Guys” have some depth to them, in The Matrix, Memento, and the first Percy Jackson movie.
He had a couple of TV series where he played the Good Guy, but they never lasted more than about a dozen episodes. I guess people want him as the Baddie.
Ralph Cifaretto!
Since Reservoir Dogs, I’ve been permanently scared of Michael Madsen.
I apparently blocked this trauma from my mind… What a depressing piece of news.
We’ve got this far without mentioning Garrett Dilihunt? Scary as hell. He did have one role in Raising Hope in which h he showed surprising comedy chops, but that is the only thing I’ve seen him in where he wasn’t psycho bad.
good one. apparently his portrayal of Amon Göth in Schindler’s List was a little too convincing:
"When Fiennes, in full Hauptsturmfuhrer regalia, was introduced by Spielberg to Mila Pfefferberg, a Schindler survivor depicted in the film, the old lady trembled. “Her knees began to give out from under her,” Spielberg recalls. “I held her while Ralph enthused about how important it was for him to meet her – and she vibrated with terror. She didn’t see an actor. She saw Amon Goeth.”
My immediate thought too, the charm that lets you forget the evil.
There are Hammer movies where he’s ostensibly a good guy but I just can’t shake the feeling that’s he’s just taking sides to enable a third, more evil party.
Vladek Sheybal.
I seem to recall Roger Ebert’s review of Rooster Cogburn, where he noted that the main villain was played by “Anthony Zerbe at his slimiest”. That was pretty much Zerbe’s shtick.
I’m going to pick someone obscure–Carolyn Seymour. She’s British, and I’ve only seen her in television roles–but I’d bet she’d make a great James Bond villain. In fact, I really wish the Bond producers would finally pick a British actress to be the main Bond villain. Does anyone else agree?
Heather Flanagan?
Tilda Swinton
Nancy Davis played a great villain in the 80’s.