Greatest movie villain.
Oh, yes, correct; I was not the first to mention Javier Bardem in No Co. But admittedly he wasn’t getting the love that he deserved.
Another top pick of mine is actually probably a more bizarre choice, but allow me to explain: Lady Eboshi from Miyazaki’s Mononoke-hime (1997). The reason I single her out is not because she was particularly terrifying, but because I think she was the first villain I ever saw that could be seen as a hero as well. Sure she is greedy and manipulative and dangerous, but everything she does she does for the many people that depend on her to survive, and the sickly lepers who would have been cast aside and left to die without her help. While any good movie villain should have his/her own motive, I like Lady Eboshi’s because her reasons were stunningly noble. GREAT film; I cannot stress this enough.
javier bardem was great too. the good ol witch is a classic antagonist. but denzel to me was a super villain the way that he was a cop, a person that typical america calls when in distress, soon he starts warming up the rookie, but ends up murdering, stealing, from his long time buddies in order to save his own ass.
Ha.
Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West. Period. The greatest, meanest, smartest most vicious villain in film. She’s completely implacable, and still frightening. When she starts puzzling out how to separate Dorothy from those ruby slippers, thinking aloud that these things must be done delicately, I can only imagine what she’s got in mind. It isn’t going to be pretty, something that would make that guy in the SAW movies toss his lunch.
Plus the sheer delight she takes in her malice. That ghastly glee with which she says that the last to go will see the first three go before her. God hin heaven. She’d make a beehive out of Darth Vader and stuff a pillow with Anton Chigurh.
…not sure about all that, but she does have the most memorable death scene for a villian in any film, and as evil as she was it makes her simple, quick death all the better. great bad guy, but, y’know-she didn’t kill anyone either.
Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or how I….
or
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in Die Hard
or
Robert Patrick as T-1000 in Terminator 2
Have to go with Darth Vader.
Since nobody else did, I’ll name the obvious. Malcolm McDowell as Alex in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
shirley temple
well, how much tooth decay did she cause with that song “Good Ship Lollipop?” A whole generation of fans owes their dentures to that little sugar-peddling wench.
All those pyschopaths, your Normans and your Hannibals—they were doing what they had to do.
As for Heath Ledger’s Joker, I don’t fear children. Never have.
But real villains, that would be anyone who abused that poor little elephant in DUMBO.
J’accuse, clowns!
Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch has indeed probably scared more people than all the others mentioned! (I saw Wizard of Oz in a theatrical rerelease in the 70’s when I was very young – christ almighty, I was scared!)
Most powerful villain: Lang’s Doktor Mabuse, ’cause he can basically do anything, crash the economy etc. etc.
1. Tie…Vader and The Wicked Witch of the West
3. Carl Denham
4. “Boss” Gettys
5. Michael Moore
Here are a few who always elicited a hiss from me:
Nurse Ratched in Cuckoo’s Nest.
The mechanical shark in Jaws. Only those who saw that film in a theater on its original release in 1975 can fully appreciate this simple truth. On a related note, the Xenomorph from Alien (1979).
Ed Norton before his redemption in American History X.
Mapache in The Wild Bunch.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Colin Clive, Peter Cushing, etc.)
Paul Freeman as Bellogg in Indiana Jones was a nice turn.
Daniel Day Lewis – Gangs of New York
The Shark – Jaws
A lowbrow choice, I know, but those utterly vicious pricks who shot up Robocop: never forgot that scene. And Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs is still seared into the brainpan.
Walter “Jack” Palance and Bruce Dern. Evil on the hoof ( and both are actually really nice people in real life!)
TOP (or bottom?) TEN:
Angela Lansbury – The Manchurian Candidate
Strother Martin – Cool Hand Luke
Orson Welles – Touch of Evil
Orson Welles – The Third Man
Louise Fletcher – …Cukoo’s Nest
Olga Baclanova – Freaks
Lotte Lenya – From Russia with Love
Richard Widmark – Kiss of Death
Laurence Olivier – Marathon Man
Piper Laurie – Carrie
Robert Mitchum in The Night Of The Hunter
Darth Vader…
Peter Lorre in M. God he made such a great villain. Why wasn’t he cast as a villain in his American movies?
Dead on with Peter Lorre in M…it is strange that he’s most famous US roles are those of sniveling goons/henchmen…although he made a pretty good villian in Island of Doomed Men (it was on TCM about a month ago).
most of the big ones have been said, but rutger hauer in the original the hitcher was pure evil
he was a good villain in blade runner too, but not even close to the hitcher
Wallace Shawn in Manhattan.
Coach in Mysterious Skin…..lol
villians with one eyes are typically the most badass. observe:
am i right? yea, i’m right…
hahaha yeah you’re right…
how about Kathy Bates in Misery.. she did a damn good villain..
Billy Mitchell (The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters)
norman bates
heath ledger as the joker
scarface
Alot o' marQ
actually i think two people brought him up already, but i think its agreed: Anton was blood-curdling, bad-haircut badass.
call me a fanboy or a band-wagon jumper if you must, but i think the Joker as played by Heath Ledger was fuggin amazing. he kind of did away with the Ceaser Romero style of joker from the ‘60s cartoon and took the joker back to the anarchist/heartless/reasonless/kill-happy murderer from the comic books and graphic novels. to me the reason why the Joker was Batman’s greatest villian is because he represented the exact opposite of Batman, more so than his other villians. that’s something that was addressed perfectly in the film (the Joker: i can’t kill you, i NEED you!) and some of the better Batman stories i’ve read. Batman has a code he follows and refuses to break, the Joker has no code—he’s just evil for the sake of being evil. as Alfred said in the movie, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” although all his chaos is for a “purpose” i suppose, in the end he’ll change his mind, his code, his morals, so long as chaos continues. Batman will do almost anything to save the day, the Joker will do absolutely anything to destroy it.
Bill the Butcher, Hannibal Lecter (only in Silence of the Lambs, not that lame-ass Hannibal shit!), Darth Vader (in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back), and Norman Bates round out my top 5. yayy!