I’d like to add Michael Wincott to the list - particularly for his turn at Guy of Gisborne in Prince of Theves and as Rochefort (“Isn’t that a smelly kind of cheese?”) in Three Musketeers.
And speaking of Robin Hood (among others), we cannot forget the incomparable Basil Rathbone. Although, to be fair, I’d have to say he’s played equally as many good guys.
Orson Welles in The Third Man, The Stranger and Touch of Evil. He wasn’t exactly a nice guy in Citizen Kane, either.
He was also quite good in the otherwise forgettable Along Came A Spider.
Actually, I was thinking of Dolores Claiborne. To me, she had the same morality role as Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade — basically a sympathetic villain. But even if you exclude that one, she was a pretty bad bitch in The Late Shift, and in Annie, as Miss Agatha Hannigan, running the orphanage. Speaking of Misery, that one caused the American Film Insititute to rank her as the number 17 villain of the past 100 years.
I’m gonna try to list most of his villainous roles:
Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy. After all, he DID kill her.
Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK.
Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Drexl Spivey in True Romance.
Stansfield in The Professional.
Milton Glenn in Murder In the First.
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The 5th Element.
Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One.
Doctor Zachary Smith in Lost In Space.
Pontius Pilate in Jesus.
Rep. Shelly Runyon in The Contender.
Quite a list.
Does he hold the record for playing the most “real” people? Sid, Oswald, Beethoven, Pilate…?
Brian Cox was Tim Roth’s slimy henchman in Rob Roy. He just about stole the movie Troy as Agamemnon. And he was Stryker in X-2. As a side note, he was the first actor to play Hannibal “the Cannibal” – in Michael Mann’s mostly forgettable adaptation of Red Dragon, entitled Manhunter.
And then, of course, there’s Tim Roth himself, who was so utterly detestable from his first smirk in Rob Roy. He also proved himself quite the nasty in Pulp Fiction, The Musketeer, and Planet of the Apes.
I see Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman have already been mentioned, so I’ll throw in David Bowie - he was great as a villain in Labirynth, and he did a pretty good job as Pilate in the Last temptation of Christ.
Dennis Hopper has already been mentioned, but only in passing … so I’ll say …Dennis Hopper!
Frank Booth from Blue Velvet was terrifying and Dennis’ bold take on King Koopa from *Super Mario Bros.*forever changed the way we look at people with pokey shit growing out of their heads.
(My first two choices were David Warner and Malcolm McDowell, but I see both of them were taken … in the same freaking post!!! Damn you Robot Arm!!!)
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner and as John Ruder in The Hitcher
Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian ‘The White Angel’ Szell in Marathon Man and as Andrew Wyke in Sleuth
:eek: I do hope you’re kidding.
John Malkovich.
Wonderful as Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons,
chilling and brilliant as Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire, and
also has played baddies in Rounders, Con Air, and undoubtedly other movies I’m forgetting.
Willem Dafoe, as the Green Goblin in the Spiderman movies and Max Schreck in “Shadow of the Vampire”.
Since he’s fresh in my mind from other threads, Harvey Korman as Count De Monet in History of the World Part 1, and Heddy…err Hedley Lamar from Blazing Saddles.
Also one my favorite villainous actors Gene Hackman.
Unforgiven
Runaway Jury
Absolute Power
Extreme Measures
Superman
Antz
The Quick and the Dead
Probably a few more that I can’t remember.
And the bad guy from Nighthawks that hijacks the Ski Gondola.
Good one! Also Moriarty in The Seven Percent Solution, and IMO his best turn as the baddie - Marcus Crassus in Spartacus
More:
Tim Curry. Dr. Frank N Further in Rocky Horror, the Dark Lord in Legend, and the evil voice of too many cartoons to even list.
Robert Shaw. Assassin in From Russia With Love, gangster baddie that got conned in The Sting, lead henchman in The Taking of Pellham 1,2,3, the bad guy from The Deep.
Julian Glover. Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Michael Caine as Dr Robert Elliot in Dressed to Kill and as Mortwell in Mona Lisa
Terence Stamp has played at least two (very different) great villains:
– the creepy young man who kidnaps women in The Collector
– General Zod in Superman 2
(I’m sure he’s done other good stuff, but these stick out in my mind…)
Interesting, how many of our favorite villains are English…
Rutger Hauer also played the villian opposite Rambo and Lando Calrissian in Nighthawks.
Christopher Walken also played the villianous angel Gabriel in The Prophecy and The Prophecy 2. In the last Prophecy movie (either 3 or 4), Gabriel was redeemed as was the hero. One was OK, and was notable for featuring Viggo Mortensen as Satan. If you missed the others, do not rush to Blockbuster or Netflix to find them.
As for GREAT villians, I’ll nominate Jack Elam. A long career as a bad guy in B westerns. Plus, he made the turn to comedy quite nicely.
Like that movie where he was a jewel thief?
Being John Malkovitch?
Robert Shaw was one of the good guys in The Deep–Lou Gossett was the bad guy.