I loved Robert Patrick’s cold, smooth, terrifyingly efficient T-1000 in Terminator 2. Being a robot, I don’t know that you could call him malicious, but he was definitely the villain.
Several good ones mentioned already, like Alan Rickman in Die Hard and Robin Hood, Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal, Heath Ledger as Joker, and McGoohan as Long Shanks. One that I think is worth mentioning that I didn’t see is Joaquin Phoenix as Emperor Commodus.
You mean other than the post above yours?
Well on the distaff side, there’s Kathleen Turner’s deliciously evil vamp in “Body Heat.” And Linda Fiorentino did a great job as a bad, bad lady in “The Last Seduction.”
Maleficent from Disney’s classic animation film, Sleeping Beauty. “You’re a disgrace to the forces of evil.”
Ursula from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Kind of a tragic villain ultimately, but Ricardo Montalban as Khan in “Wrath of Khan” was a big enough villain for even Kirk.
My daughter loves it when I sing “Poor, Unfortunate Souls” because I get right into it
Gene Hackman as John Herod in The Quick and the Dead. He’s a consummate badass who drips menace in nearly every scene, but we also see moments in which he shows affection and vulnerability, though he does his best to hide them. I’ve always felt this was a seriously overlooked performance.
Hackman was equally vile in Unforgiven but it’s my understanding that he didn’t want the part at first. Eastwood had to persuade him.
In any case “he deserved it” in the end.
Oh god, Frank Booth goes to the top of the list. Creepiest ever.
Bette Davis as Regina in The Little Foxes, who watches her husband die of a heart attack. Also Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
I’ve been mentally running through movies for other candidates for the thread and suddenly had the thought that if you wanted to include anybody from the big-ticket gangster movies (Godfather series, Goodfellas, Once Upon a Time in America, etc.) you’d pretty much have to include most of the cast. Either there are no villains, or they all are. Heavy thought.
I’m going to have to go with Alan Rickman anytime he’s the bad guy.
What about Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix?
And sort of an odd choice, but I also like Paul Reiser as Carter Burke in Aliens.
What made him such a great villain was not that he wanted to blow up the universe, but that he had a personal score to settle at all costs.
Nancy Marchand as Livia Soprano was eviler and better than all the above IMO.
Am I the only one who saw The Astronaut’s Wife and thought Johnny Depp was amazingly, subtly creepy? The premise was a little wonky in parts, but man…he was so quietly scary.
Wes Studi as Magua in The Last of the Mohicans was absolutely mesmerizing - unstoppably, ruthlessly set on revenge. Shoulda won an Oscar.
For recent ones, Lana Parilla as Regina on Once Upon a Time and Madeline Stowe as Victoria on Revenge.
Speaking of Revenge, while she is ostensibly the “good guy” or “good girl” considering the fact that she shows absolutely no remorse about ruining the lives of countless people to damage a small number of “guilty people” Emily Van Camp as Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke is awesome.
Or as the Red Skull in Captain America. After those two, I’ll be happy to watch any movie where he’s the bad guy.
Forgot :smack: that super-nasty DI in GI Jane… later known as Aragorn. Or if you’ll go by what his papers say, Viggo Mortensen. There’s many things I don’t like about that movie but he does a helluva job.