I believe his medical diagnosis is “Fookin’ Nuts!” But I’ll claim inclusion under the “malicious” and “despicable” clauses. To argue the evil is to get into existentialist debate, and I’m not sure I’m up for it tonight.
I loved Patrick McGoohan as King Edward Longshanks, in Braveheart.
And Joe Don Baker as the Mob enforcer “Molly” in Charley Varrick.
In the second season of Justified, Maggs was a tremendous villain: this obese grandmotherly hillbilly, speaks softly, and when you get on her bad side HOLY SHIT. One of the things I love about that show is how compelling the villains are–even dumbshits like Dicky are great fun to watch.
nm… I should really start reading the OP’s.
Some wonderful choices above.
I’ll add:
Lee Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the title role. Even his sidekicks were magnificant: Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef.
Kate in East of Eden. One of literature’s greatest villianesses.
James Cagney in White Heat.
Darth Vader and his boss Darth Sideous.
The Terminator as played by The Governator.
Michael Corleone.
Noah Cross as played by John Huston in Chinatown.
Margaret Hamilton as The Wicked Witch of the West.
Paul newman as Hud, not a single redeeming moment, can’t take your eyes off him.
Alan Rickman, Klaus Kinski and Lee Van Cleef any time.
Jack Nicholson’s Joker, which I have in my list of “times when the actor was physically miscast yet a superb choice for the role”.
Sergi López in Pan’s Labyrinth, although rather than “light up the room” I’d say he eats up the light. Dude’s like a black hole of evil in that movie.
I love Michael C. Hall’s Dexter, to the extent that it’s easy to forget what a monster he is – because of his “code”.
Boyd Crowder in Justified. I could listen to him talk all day long.
The Major from Hellsing.
It took over a dozen posts to get to the Joker?
That’s almost…funny.
And I’m the first to say Malcolm McDowell’s Alex of A Clockwork Orange!
Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle was quite the delight in The Wicker Man.
Could also be that it wasn’t that special a performance. I personally think if Ledger hadn’t died, his stint as the Joker wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.
Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo in Tombstone.
koeeoaddi, may I suggest a poll to determine the most villainous actor/role from this thread at some future point?
I’m busy on a similar project on “favorite character actor(s)” at the time but would enjoy the process of voting on these folks and their dastardly work.
Just an idea…
James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom. He makes a great cult leader.
considers the idea…
Nah.
I second Heath Ledger’s Joker.
I’ll add the Devil in Time Bandits.
And Ralph Feinnes’ character in In Bruge. “It’s a fuckin’ fairy tale town, innit?”
Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in “Sexy Beast”, actually you might want to add Ian McShane as well as Teddy Bass in the same film.
Two psychopaths for the price of one.
Hell, the voice of James Earl Jones in Star Wars - David Prowse was the physical presence of Darth Vader, but the voice made the character.