It’s going back a bit but Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter (1955) had very close to no redeeming qualities.
I agree. Also, Orson Welles got mentioned for The Third Man, I also thought he was an excellent villain in Touch of Evil.
He plays the devil in the film The Prophecy. He’s fantastically creepy.
I was about to forget the utter malignancy that was Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs (1992) and some other roles where he was at least more than just “heavy.”
Speaking of the devil, Peter Stormare in Constantine. Not on screen a lot, but gets the job done.
Huh, the scene is cut short. You get the idea, though.
Sideshow Bob.
And Gary Oldman as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element.
My first thought was Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962).
Cate Blanchett was good as an evil government operative in Hanna.
Nicholson was enjoyably wicked in The Departed.
Patrick McGoohan as Longshanks in Braveheart.
Wes Studi as Magua in Last of the Mohicans.
Heath Ledger as the Joker in The dark Knight.
Agnes Skinner in the Simpsons. Breathtakingly apalling!
I agree. I expected a fluffy rock-'em-sock-'em movie from Thor; Hiddlestone gave it a whole other dimension in his complex portrayal of Loki.
And as Carl Stargher in The Cell. Not to mention his last scenes in Full Metal Jacket. Seriously, D’Onofrio does creepy really, really well.
OTOH if you like your villains campy and with snappy putdowns, you can’t do better than Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester.
Good choice.
J.R. Ewing steals every scene. I was enjoying the new episodes of Dallas, but I can’t watch it without J.R.
Damn, I read the whole thread ready to say this and it was in the very last post.
Another two votes for Ian McKellan and Alan Rickman in, well, just about anything. McKellan and Patrick Stewart between them brought a level of subtlety and nuance to the X-Men movies that I don’t associate with big-budget action flicks. As for Rickman, whenever he’s on the screen, I can’t take my eyes off him.
Someone mentioned “Q”, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. That’s John DeLancie, and he’s great in everything I’ve seen him in. Including a stint as an eccentric inventor on … Oh hell, I can’t remember the soap opera he was on in the '80s. Days Of Our Lives, I think.
Also got to mention Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. He and Helen Mirren made Caligula almost watchable. Almost.
Going back a bit, how about Peter O’Toole as Henry II in Beckett and Lion In Winter?
That’s what makes a good villain - you empathize with him or her.
If you dig around in Fresh Air’s archives, you can find a good interview with that actress from last fall.
Yes, it was Days of Our Lives. He played Eugene, and IIRC, he was suspected of being a murderer at one point because he knew stuff supposedly only the murderer would know, but he was sort of psychic.
My picks:
Gollum from LOTR.
The Master (especially the guy who played him during David Tennant’s run) and Davros from Doctor Who.
Gaston from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Joey Herrick from The Practice (on TV). John Larroquette was great. I wanted him to face off against Alan Shore (two guys with no ethics, one good, one evil), but when they brought John Larroquette onto Boston Legal, he was a different character. What a waste.
Spike and Drusilla (during their first few seasons) and Sunday, the Gentlemen, and the Master on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Lindsey on Angel.
I just saw that version but still think Robert DeNiro in the remake would be my choice for this thread.
When I try to envision a character like we’re trying to identify, I try to think of one whose demise was pleasurable to the point of ecstasy.
In that regard, even though Vittorio Gassman was more evil, it was joyous seeing Henry Silva being shot to pieces as he was falling out of that Atlanta high-rise in Sharky’s Machine (I am reluctant to say that that movies is one of the very few I own on DVD.)