Alan Ford as Bricktop in Snatch.
Hard to beat Frank, but I’d also nominate Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart (which I just happened to see again last night). Some of the worst teeth in cinematic history.
A few I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
Henry Fonda as Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West
Vernon Wells as Wez in The Road Warrior
J. E. Freeman as Eddie Dane in Miller’s Crossing.
:smack: And I like The Fifth Element!
Agreed. Robert De Nero was also fantastically scary and chilling in the remake.
Heh. Best line from the 101 Dalmatians remake:
Cruella: “What kind of obsequious toady are you, anyway?”
Aide: “What kind of obsequious toady would you like me to be?”
Another I haven’t seen mentioned:
Oliver Reed in Oliver! There are few performances that actually evoke a fight or flight response in my central nervous system, but that’s one of them. His violent persona is so intense I can’t help but think he must have scared most of the people working on set with him. I have a hard time buying a lot of Hollywood performances of violent characters, especially having know some truly violent men in real life. There is something missing in so many actor’s attempts to portray this type of man; just comes off as pathetic. But Reed has a real sense of danger behind his acting, something that can’t be faked. It’s engaging to see, to say the least.
But even he was outshone by DeNiro as Capone.
And if Dr. Frank N. Furter is the “villain” of The Rocky Horror Picture Show . . . at any rate, he certainly was the most scene-stealing thing in it.
Wortham Krimmer as Emperor Cartagia in Babylon 5. He can steal a scene even from Peter Jurasik/Londo Mollari, and that takes some doing!
Reviewing this thread, I’m thinking it’s always more fun, and offers more scope for display of thespian talent or at least scenery-chewing hamminess, for an actor to play a villain than a hero.
In The Sopranos, most of the main characters are evil, etc. – what else, it’s about La Cosa Nostra. But the one who lights up the screen the brightest is James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, with Joey Pantoliano as Ralph Cifaretto running a close second.
But, in his quiet, understated, screen-darkening way, Federico Castelluccio as Furio Giunta is scarier than all the rest put together.
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men
Andrew Scott as Motiarty in Sherlock
Hal in 2001. Bonus points for literally lighting up the screen sometimes
Michael Emmerson as Benjamin Linus in Lost
There’s an old made for TV movie version of the Black Arrow I used to love as a kid. The film as a whole doesn’t hold up all that well but Oliver Reed remains excellent in his role as the villain.
Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat is my favorite example of this trope, by a long shot. He’s so awful and horrible and icky bad evil, but at the same time, he’s got great chemistry with everyone.
(doesn’t hurt that Marc Alaimo also speaks French in the TNG episode Time’s Arrow)
Ooh, good one. He’s a major scene-stealer, which is saying something when all the other actors are so brilliant. He was mesmerizing in the pool scene.
I always thought that on the evil spectrum of that show, characters like Ralph were supposed to be the worst. He’s irredeemable, incapable of being honest with anyone, and likely to kill somebody just for sport. Tony is a tragic character because he and the audience are constantly shown how he could have been something different, but he becomes more and more immoral as time goes on; characters like Ralph were born that way, and should inspire only fear rather than pity if encountered in real life.
Furio is very cold about violence but we see his sensitive side, too, and it’s implied that he left the Mafia entirely during his exit from the show and is probably off working as a cheesemaker or a chef in Europe somewhere. The idea that someone is capable of functioning as a non-goon makes them less scary, and we get the strong sense that most of the characters on the show lack that ability.
Blessed are the cheesemakers!
I’m Furio, and so is my wife.
Back to TV, I’ll nominate Emily Gilmore from “Gilmore Girls.” 