I couldn’t help but notice that he shared very little screen time with Cruise in that movie. I have to wonder if that’s because PSH is a hugely more talented actor than Cruise is. You definately didn’t pay much attention to Cruise when the two of them were on the screen.
Christopher Walken as Gabriel in The Prophecy.
I think her last name is actually “De Vil”. They were basically calling her the devil.
I’ll nominate one from a bad movie that no one has ever seen, but which holds a place in my bad-movie-lovin’ heart: pirate captain Dawg Brown, from Cutthroat Island, played by Frank Langella. In this clip, you can see one of his more fun lines: “We can’t leave yet, captain. We haven’t got enough food on board.” “We need less mouths.” (shoots the complaining deckhand)
Excellent choice! I would also like to second the mention of Harry Lime from The Third Man mentioned previously.
My nomination has to be Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.
In that case, we should add Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair – but the only film adaptation I’ve seen does not play her that way, for some reason.
Gary Oldman in The Professional.
I am hopeful it will be Adrian Veidt in Watchmen
“Do it? Dan, I’m not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”
Another great one: Donald Sutherland in Eye of the Needle. No fuss, no speeches, but anyone who gets in his way is dead in a snap.
And another: James Cromwell in LA Confidential. Yes, the same actor who played goofy Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family, taciturn but endearing Farmer Hoggett in Babe, and the drunken but brilliant Zaphram Conchrane in ST-First Contact can play a stone killer. His eyes were COLD. Cold as a circle of hell where it snows helium on souls not even worthy of of the devil’s punishment. “Do you have a valediction, boyo?” <shudder>
'Cause we really needed that joke explained. I think they were also trying to say she’s cruel.
And yet she doesn’t scare me.
Josef Goebbels in Downfall. Scarier because he was real.
At least in Ep. IV, I think Gov. Tarkin was scarier than Vader. I mean he blows up a whole planet just because he can’t wait to play with his new toy.
I think Kiefer Sutherland has played some good villains:
Robert Doob - Eye for An Eye - “You know I really don’t like Kiddy p***y, but what I’m willing to make an exception.”
Freddie Lee Cobb - A Time To Kill - "You can’t blame a nigger for being a nigger, no more than you can blame a dog for being a dog. But a whore like you, co-mingling with mongrels, betraying your own. That makes you worse than a nigger. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll leave you tied up here naked. First, it’ll just be bugs eating at ya. One day, maybe two. That sun’s gonna be cooking you. And animals… they’re gonna pick on your stink. They’ll come looking for something to eat. "
Bob Wolverton - Freeway - “That’s not all I did to grandma!”
Lt Jonathan Kendrick - A Few Good Men - "Pfc. William Santiago is dead, and that is a tragedy. But he is dead because he had no code. He is dead because he had no honor, and God was watching. "
Ace Merill - Stand By Me - "You got two choices. You leave quietly, we take the body. Or, you can stay, we beat the shit out of you, we take the body. "
Amon Göth in Schindler’s List.
Lord Voldemort in the Potter movies (same actor, Ralph Fiennes)
I’m also a fan of Gary Oldman’s Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, although some probably regard it as too lightweight a movie.
Thulsa Doom, James Earl Jones, in Conan the Barbarian?
Donald Sutherland in* Eye of the Needle*? Yes, yes, yes!
Pierce Brosnan in The Fourth Protocol. Beautiful and nasty.
'Cause you don’t have an attractive fur pelt that she can make into a coat.
Timothy from A Long Kiss Good Night. He’s the vamp to Geena Davis’ action-heroine. He’s smarmy, good-looking, and you can tell he relishes his job. He throws knives at Samuel Jackson’s crotch. He even gets a chance to partially redeem himself by sparing his daughter Caitlyn, thinks about it a moment, and decides to let her die along with her mother.
Another Kiefer Sutherland villain – David from The Lost Boys (still the best vampire movie ever made).
My all-time favorite.
I’d have to go with Darth Vader, the xenomorph from Alien, HAL9000, Norman Bates, Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, the Terminator, and Ernest Stavro Blofleld.
Why them? They are the villains that are so iconic, so memorable, so distinct, that you dare not duplicate them lest you be accused of plagiarism. Even a nod in their direction suggests an homage.
The cinematic embodiment of evil is undeniably (go ahead try and deny it) Noah Cross from Chinatown.
Rosa Kleb SPECTRE Agent #3 in From Russia With Love. (Along with Blofeld, Kronsteen, and Red Grant)
Gene Hackman as John Herod in The Quick and the Dead.