My Favorite Movie Villains

25.
Lina Lamont, Singin in the Rain



Jean Hagen steals every scene she is in as an arrogant silent screen star in denial about the fact that her leading man Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is not in love with her, so she sets about destroying his romance with true love Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), as well as her budding movie career. Hagen's performance is a master class in film comedy that was so on the mark that she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the only cast member who received a nomination...and she should have won.

24.
Warden Norton, The Shawshank Redemption



Bob Gunton is appropriately slimey as a corrupt prison warden whose "My way or the highway" sensibility eventually turns out to be his downfall...God, I hated this guy.

23.
The Child Catcher, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang



I have never seen Robert Helpmann in any other movies, but this character was probably the first movie character that gave me genuine nightmares...this character scared the crap out of me, which was a little troublesome as he was in a musical aimed at children.

22.
Regina Giddens, The Little Foxes



Bette Davis creates a character here that absolutely drips venom...the scene where her husband Horace (Herbert Marshall) is dying and Regina dryly stands over him withholding his medication just chills me to the bone.

21.
Addison De Witt, All About Eve



George Sanders gave the performance of his career and won an Oscar in the process playing an acid-tongued theater critic who manages to manipulate the lives of all the characters in the story with surprisingly little effort and absolutely no guilt.

20.
Frank Hackett, Network



Robert Duvall gives a blistering performance as a television network executive whose quest for ratings at any cost forever alter the lives of anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), programmer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway), and news producer Max Schumacher (William Holden). I still believe that if Duvall had received a Supporting Actor nomination for this performance instead of Ned Beatty, this might have been the first film in history to win all four acting Oscars.

Network was a screenwriting masterpiece and without it's brilliance, Duvall's character would be nothing. I kind of agree with you on this one because truly he is a very underrated villain in my opinion.

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I don't know if you saw my "My Favorite Screenplays" thread, but Network was # 1.

19.
The Baroness, The Sound of Music



One of Hollywood's cheeriest musicals featured one of Hollywood's nastiest villains...Eleanor Parker delivers a beautifully controlled performance as a wealthy dowager who tries to steal Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) from his new governess Maria (Julie Andrews). Whether she's gleefully helping Maria pack when Maria realizes she's in love with the Captain or confiding in partner in crime Max Detweiler (Richard Haydn) about planning to ship the Captain's children off to boarding school, this character brings new meaning to the word "bitch".

18.
Jack Napier AKA The Joker, Batman (1989)



Jack Nicholson pulls out all the stops in a dazzling performance that, for my money, was the best lead performance by an actor in 1989.

16.
Sport, Taxi Driver



Harvey Keitel delivered one of his greasier characterizations as a vicious pimp who treats his best girl, 13 year old Iris (Jodie Foster) like a queen outwardly but doesn't go down easy when Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) makes saving Iris from this life a personal mission.

15.
Eve Harrington, All About Eve



I love this performance because the character does not start out as a villain. Anne Baxter's richly complex performance vividly brings to life this alleged innocent waif who worms her way into the life of an aging Broadway diva (Bette Davis) for her own agenda, which unfolds very slowly. Baxter hits all the right notes here, making the character's transition from ingenue to villainess completely believable. Baxter was nominated for Best Actress but I think the fact that Davis was also nominated probably hurt her chances at a win.

14.
Darth Vader, Star Wars



Does this choice require any explanation?

13.
Lex Luthor, Superman



Gene Hackman brings a deliciously flip quality to this criminal mastermind who treats his mistress (Valerie Perrine) like dirt and his stooge (Ned Beatty) like a slave in the midst of his plan to bring Superman (Christopher Reeve) to his knees.

12.
Cyrus the Virus, Con Air



As mentioned in my review of the film, John Malkovich walks a perfect line between funny and menacing as the leader of a group of prisoners who hijack a federal transport plane...Malkovich has rarely been this entertaining onscreen.

11.
Evelyn, Play Misty for Me


Jessica Walter gave the performance of her career as a psycho obsessed with a sexy late night deejay (Clint Eastwood).

10.
Marsellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction



Ving Rhames created one of the most bad-to-the-bone villains ever here.

9.
Annie Wilkes, Misery



Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her performance as the deranged spinster who becomes obsessed with her favorite author (James Caan) after nursing him back to health after a car accident. Yes, this villain is scary, chiling, and even funny at times, but what makes Bates' performance so special is the element of sadness she brings to the character. It's weird how a character can evoke sympathy and chill you to the bone at the same time.

8.
The Joker, The Dark Knight



Heath Ledger proved he was more than a pretty face with this dazzling, in-your-face performance that brought us a villain who was evil, slightly psychotic, but was also vividly human.

7.
Jack Torrance, The Shining



Another character who didn't start out as a villain but made a very believable transition through the film's running time. Jack Nicholson offers one of his best performances that made us forget how little the film resembled Stephen King's novel.