Movie Villains

[Mr DP]

Without a doubt, Boris & Natasha from The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.....brrrrrr I still shiver when I think of what this duo were up to!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHqy-chPMnM

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Joan Crawford, 'Mommie Dearest' (1981)
Played by: Faye Dunaway
Dunaway ("No. More. Wire. Hangers!" ring a bell?) and keeps daughter Christina in such a state of abject terror.

Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate.

Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It.

Michael Corleone in The Godfarther Part II.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Richard Burton (O'Brien) -- 1984
David Caruso (assorted punks and bullies early in his career)
Richard Dawson -- The Running Man
Robert DeNiro (Louis Cypher aka Satan) -- Angel Heart
Edward Fox -- Day of the Jackal (1973)
Gibson Gowland (McTeague) -- Greed (1924)
Andy Griffith -- Savages (1974 TV movie) -- One of his few bad guy roles. Before he was good guy lawyer Ben Matlock, Griffith played similarly-named, murderous lawyer Horton Maddock whose hobby is hunting hapless gas station attendants/murder witnesses in the desert.
Gustav Grundgrens (Schraenker)* -- M (1931) -- Gründgrens, a controversial figure who rose to stardom in Germany through his associations with the Nazis, was the inspiration for the 1982 movie Mephisto
Jean Hersholt (Marcus Schouler) -- Greed (1924) -- interesting casting as McTeague's hot-blooded ex pal turned enemy as Hersholt was better known for his later portrayals of kindly, sympathetic characters. He was initially turned down for the role by director Erich Von Stroheim who thought Hersholt to be too kindly-looking. But the Danish-born actor cinched the role when he returned the next day in full costume. Von Stroheim, startled by the total transformation remarked, "You are Marcus Schouler!"
Peter Lorre (Becker)* -- M (1931)
Ian McKellen -- Richard III (1995)
Sam Neill (Damien Thorn) -- Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)"
Gregory Peck (Josef Mengele) -- The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Oliver Reed (Gen. Rodolfo Graziani) -- Lion of the Desert (1981). A tour-de-force performance as the ruthless Gen. Graziani who was sent to Libya by Mussolini to put down the Senussi rebellion in the early 1930s. In the film Graziani negotiates with the rebels to stall for time in order to bring in more reinforcements from Italy. There's a scene where Graziani is inspecting the newly-arrived troops and while admiring a tank proclaims, "Gentlemen, we have talked peace and now we shall speak... with eloquence!"
Erich Von Stroheim -- The Original Man You Love to Hate!
Jack Warden -- Any number of films
David Warner -- Any number of films

*Lorre and Grundgrens in M are a bit of a toss-up. Though Lorre plays what would today be called a serial killer he's more of a pathetic character while the crime boss played by Gründgrens -- who harnesses the entire Berlin underworld in a manhunt for Lorre (and even puts him on trial!) because the ineffective police dragnet for the killer is only disrupting their own criminal activities -- comes off as far more villainous.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Oh, yes, Peter Lorre. Kismet in My Favorite Brunette. I named my saluki Kismet because of that Peter Lorre villian.
James Mason in North by Northwest.

James Mason is great in both North by Northwest and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

If Addison Dewitt counts in All About Eve than he's a favourite.

I think the silky smoothness of a villain's voice is superb.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Oh, wow, I just thought of a nasty villain, perhaps mentioned earlier, I don't recall.

HAL the computer from 2001, A Space Odyssey.

I recall an interview with Anthony Hopkins, who was asked how he got his chilling voice when he played the part of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. He said he recalled HAL, with that eerie voice, never showing any emotion, just a steady inflection.

Now, here is another cultural icon, even being used now in a commercial (with a woman's voice this time):

"I can't do that, Dave..."

Also, does anyone besides me think that the look Anthony Perkins gave at the end of Psycho looks similar to the look Dexter has in the TV series?

karol

 

[xwray]

How about Javier Bardem in No Country for old men...he's on the top of my list for just plain mean...

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate.

An inspired piece of acting and to think I only knew her for her typewriter and her broomstick.

 

[Edward]

Also, does anyone besides me think that the look Anthony Perkins gave at the end of Psycho looks similar to the look Dexter has in the TV series?

karol

Very much so.... I'd thought that may be deliberate?

And the gruesome twosome,
Kathy Bates as Annie in Misery and Glenn Close as Alex in Fatal Attraction!

Kathy Bates was outstanding in that role. Glenn Close.... well, the only thing that truly made her a villain was her willing participation in such a piece of vile, misogynist trash. I found that film genuinely repulsive. Course, it did't help either that Michael Douglas always makes my skin crawl no matter whether I'm supposed to sympathise with him or not.

One of the most impressive villains I've ever seen was Tim Curry's Doctor Frank'n'Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show by turns aping Dr Frankenstein, Dracula, and many other references (the cloak in which he first appears is, I believe, a deliberate visual nod to Cleopatra in Freaks), this is a villain with such a charm that so many forget or fail to recognise that he is indeed the villain (even Twentieth Century Fox slipped up on this when they advertised the film with a poster bearing "He's the hero. That's right, the hero!" referring to Frank). Milton's Satan writ large perhaps moreso than any other pop culture legend.

Harvey Keitel as the pimp in Taxi Driver.

Both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger turned in stunning performances, both very vintage inspired in their own ways, as the Joker. Nicholson is all too often credited as a villain in The Shinig, but that's a severe misinterpretation. There was only one villain in that film: the Overlook Hotel.

Mary Woronov as Miss Evelyn Togar, the villlainous new headmistress of Vince Lombardi High in Rock and Roll High School.

The character of Baldwin in Cry Baby was the perfect 'love to hate' teen flick villain.

 

[Naphtali]

. . . Course, it did't help either that Michael Douglas always makes my skin crawl no matter whether I'm supposed to sympathise with him or not. . . .

A kindred soul. "Romancing the Stone" was enjoyable despite his presence.

 

[Zombie_61]

Who are your favorite movie and TV villains, those guys --and gals --you just loved to hate?

Ahh, the classics. Actors known for playing villainous roles that I could watch repeatedly:

Lon Chaney (Sr. and Jr.)
Boris Karloff
Bela Lugosi
Vincent Price
Peter Lorre

Standout performances by actors not normally associated with villainous roles:

Claude Rains in The Invisible Man
Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Henry Hull in Werewolf of London

I'm sure there are others in each category, but they're not coming to mind at the moment.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Nicholson is all too often credited as a villain in The Shinig, but that's a severe misinterpretation. There was only one villain in that film: the Overlook Hotel.

You forgot Delbert Grady, the ghostly butler played with elegant menace by Phillip Stone in The Shining. Grady -- who embodies the spirit of the Overlook -- reminds Nicholson of his place in the scheme of things:

"You're the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I should know because... I've always been here."

Then when Nicholson points out that Grady was a previous caretaker who had murdered his family before taking his own life at the Overlook, Grady chillingly explains:

"...my daughters stole a pack of matches and tried to burn the place down but I corrected them. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty... I... corrected... her."

On a side note, Kubrick often used the same actors in his different movies. Phillip Stone was also Malcolm McDowell's father in A Clockwork Orange and Joe Turkel who played the ghostly bartender Lloyd in The Shining can also be seen in Paths of Glory where he was a WWI French soldier who is executed by firing squad.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

A couple more villains

Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love where she gave stilleto heels an entirely new meaning!

There was a 1990 TV miniseries called Drug Wars that was produced by Michael Mann. It was based on the true story of DEA agent Enrique Camarena who was abducted and murdered in Mexico by the drug cartel in 1985. Drug Wars featured an unknown Benicio Del Toro (Wolfman) as Rafael Caro Quintaro, one of the cartel members who ordered Camarena's murder.