You mean he isn’t??
I think so. If I remember right, the movie was done in black and white, and “Lonesome Rhodes” rings a bell as the character name.
Paul Rudd usually plays low-key nice-guy characters, but there always seems to be something going on beneath the surface. I think he’d be chillingly convincing as a calculating killer.
No, Patrick Stewart played Sejanus in I, Claudius. Different villain. Macro was played by John Rhys-Davies.
He played a Nazi war criminal turned serial killer in Apt Pupil.
Alan Tudyk, known normally for playing comic relief and sympathetic nice guy types (or, in some cases, both), was terrifying as Alpha in “Dollhouse.”
Was he a bad guy about it, or was it a story of his remorse and redemption? I remember when it came out, but I don’t think I ever saw it.
McKellan also played Richard III in the film adaptation of the play set in fascist 1930s Europe.
Or it could have been the more recent Rustler’s Rhapsody, where Griffith played the main villain, Colonel Ticonderoga.
I never saw it either, but it’s based on a Stephen King short of the same name, in I’m thinking Different Seasons. Anyway the protagonist/antagonist is a teenager who figures out who the McKellan is a former Nazi and then proceeds to force him ack into his Nazi persona for his personal amusement. Its a character driven type story as you watch both descend into evil. I hear the movie makes some changes though. Funny I can’t remember how it ends.
Dan Goodman as a corrupt Tammany Hall type city boss. Someone who doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, just sit back and smoke his cigars while others do his dirty work, but who you’d definitely NOT want to have to fight mano-a-mano.
Another vote for Patrick Stewart. That same grandfatherly, friendly, warm kind of approach, but in persuit of really nasty stuff.
I could go for seeing Ian Holm play a a nice-on-the-outside kind of guy who turns out to be a real bad dude or a psycho or some such.
He recently played Claudius opposite David Tennant in HAMLET, and pretty much did it as you suggest.