Andy Griffith has played a bad guy several times, and very effectively; that good ol’ boy persona cuts both ways.
See A Face in the Crowd, where he played a completely cynical, absolutely selfish, power-hungry entertainer who manipulated and used people. He was also in two different tv movies (one was called “Pray for the Wildcats”, with Bill Shatner) in which his character left somebody for dead in the desert. And in a tv-movie with Johnnie Cash, he played a ruthless murderer who believed he could kill the poor black workers on his farm with impunity (if I remember correctly); Cash played the sheriff who just wouldn’t quit going after him until he made a case; they were both very good.
Andy Griffith: So none of the other three people besides me who saw Rustlers’ Rhapsody read the SDMB, I take it.
Admittedly, he wasn’t much of a villain, but…
And for Intaglio Russell Crowe: He was a pretty nasty villain in Virtuosity. Decent flick, I thought.
Patrick Stewart also played Sejanus in I, Claudius. In fact there is a thread here that mentions it.
I would like to see Santa Claus, the Teletubbies, and Barney as a villainous team aimed at global domination. They start with the children, you know.
I would also like to see Val Kilmer in more villainous roles. Some people don’t like him but I find him to be a talented actor who has done his share of bad films.
I think Tom Cruise can play an excellent slime ball, like he was in Rain Man. I’m thinking when he plays the egocentric, harsh-on-lackeys, world-revolves-around-ME-baby-ME type, he’s playing himself.
I’d like to see Ben Stiller play a heel. He’d be annoying, obnoxious, and continually falling on his ass, but he’d be hilarious!
Robin Williams has done two in a row now – in Death to Smoochy and Insomnia, obviously in an attempt to wash off the diabetes-inducing syrup of his many previous films. Neither was successful, but I think Insomnia at least was a less conspicuous bomb, and got him some positive reviews. I’d like to see him in a corporate or government weasel role… Something like Paul Reiser’s great turn in Aliens.
My original submission to the list would be Winona Ryder. The closest she’s really done would be her supporting roles in The Age of Innocence and The Crucible. In both those and her vampirc possession scene at the end of Bram Stoker’s Dracula she displayed a little diabolic twinkle in her eye that hinted at greater villanous potential. Perhaps a Black Widow-like role where her usual aura of earnestness conceals more mercenary or sociopathic motivations.
After contributing to this thread yesterday, I thought little more about it (other than to worry whether I spelled Orson Welles’ name incorrectly which Archiveguy so politely pointed out that I did). Then at 2 a.m. I woke up and said out loud “Clint Eastwood” referring to someone who would be a great villian.
Of course, my wife was just enough awake to turn to me and ask, “You’re having dreams about Clint Eastwood?”
I tried to explain, but she fell back asleep before I got it sufficiently put into words. I keep hoping I will not overhear her calling her sister to say that I’m having erotic dreams about Dirty Harry.
Russell Crowe was the only good thing in Virtuosity. He was in full hammy villain mode, but he was the only interesting thing in the movie, a bad thing for a movie starring Denzel Washington.
I’d like to see Robert Redford play a real bad guy. Indecent Proposal and Demi Moore got on my nerves, so I’ve never been able to watch it all. He has played characters who do cowardly or nasty things, but has he ever played a true villain?
Well, he was pretty evil in Interview with the vampire wouldn’t you say? An unapologetic sociopath who kills many before the movie’s end…
How about Janeane Garofalo? She’s done some dramas already, which were refreshing, but her being evil would be different. (unless she’s evil in Steal this movie which I haven’t seen yet.) Oh, or maybe some child actors- and doing a better job than Macaulay Culkin- being vilians could be interesting…
In addition to Conspiracy Theory, Patrick Stewart plays Loomis, the villian in a buddy action/comedy flick called Gunmen (1994) starring Mario van Peebles and Christopher Lambert. In the first scene, Stewart orders his unfaithful wife to be buried alive. He’s a real charmer.
Garafalo’s performance in Steal This Movie isn’t even slightly villainous, unless you have a Hoover-ish dislike of hippie radicals.
As for child actors Rick (formerly Ricky) Schroder appeared as a gun-toting Columbine-type nutcase that goes on a rampage in a high school in Detention: The Siege at Johnson High (1997), alternate title: Hostage High.
