I’ve read several times over the years that many actors prefer playing villains to playing heroes because the roles tend to be much more interesting, and allow them a freedom of expression that heroic roles often can’t, by their nature, allow. If you think of many of your favorite movies, often there has been a villain (or, perhaps more accurately, an antagonist) without whom the hero wouldn’t have much to do. Often, the villain steals (no pun intended) the show.
While the late 1960’s and ’70’s gave us the anti-hero (think of virtually every Jack Nicholson film through around 1984), more recent on-screen fare has seen a return to the traditional archetypes: Hero, Shadow, Jester, Mentor, etc. (think Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.)
Therefore, for our purposes, we will list only those characters who are clearly, unabashedly evil. We will exclude “bad” animals, such as the shark in Jaws, cartoon characters that are not at all to be taken seriously (Wile E. Coyote), and horror movie killers who are more a force of nature than an actual living, breathing human (Michael Myers in Halloween.)
Here, then, are my top ten bad guys in movie history:
Brian Cox as Hannibal “Lecktor” in Manhunter. Cox was the first actor to play the character. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
1) Darth Vader (Well, he once was human)
2) Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper, in “Blue Velvet”)
3) The Joker (Heath Ledger, in “The Dark Knight”)
4) Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis, in “Gangs of New York”)
5) Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox, in “Manhunter”)
6) Chief Detective Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman, in “Leon: The Professional”)
7) Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum, “Night of the Hunter”)
8) SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes, “Schindler’s List”)
9) Vincent the Hitman (Tom Cruise, in “Collateral”)
10) Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, “Misery”)
If you thought Anthony Hopkins portrayed a terrifying Hannibal Lecter, you should try Brian Cox’s interpretation on for size. Where Hopkins’ Lecter is cool, suave, and sophisticated, Cox’s Lecter is equally intelligent, just as cunning, but far more menacing. In short, Cox’s version is less the Hollywood caricature of the English psychopathic villain, and much more the real thing.
I wanted to also include Robert Mitchum’s character in “Cape Fear,” (Max Cady), but I decided to limit my list to one performance per actor.
Bill's Top Ten Lists 