My Worst Movie Dads List

16.

Grandpa, Little Miss Sunshine



Alan Arkin won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a cantankerous grandfather who finds nothing but fault with his son (Greg Kinnear) and when his granddaughter enters a beauty contest, he choreographs a dance routine for her that makes her come off like a stripper. And when he's not making his son miserable or making his granddaughter look like a stripper, he's sneaking into the bathroom whenever he can in order to snort heroine.

15.

George Jung, Blow



Johnny Depp played drug dealer George Jung, who swore to give up cocaine after the birth of his daughter. Of course, he's unable to do so and ends up in jail for 20 years. Hard to be a decent father father from behind bars.

14.

Colonel Fitts, American Beauty



Chris Cooper plays the former military man who lives next to Lester and Carolyn Burnham (Kevin Spacey,Annette Bening). Colonel Fitts treats his home like a military base which has both his wife (Allison Janney) and son (Wes Bentley) terrified of him. He makes his son take regular drug tests, even though he never catches onto the fact that his son is selling drugs. When he suspects his son is sexually involved with Lester, he disowns him, and then a few scenes later, comes on to Lester himself. This character redefines a term I often use "hot mess."

13.

Noah Cross, Chinatown



There's no justification for the manipulative treatment of his daughter, Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) all of her life.

What bothered me about his character--and I know I wrote this on the previous page--was that the movie treated his character like he was "fun quirky". Maybe it's just that I'm too close to the reality of kids, but I've yet to encounter a child who has been taught adult dance moves (by an adult, not by other kids or by watching TV or something) who wasn't also the victim of sexual abuse from that same adult.

"Manipulative treatment" is a nice way to put it!

I don't really know about most of these roles or characters, but they must be truly terrible if Noah Cross is #17.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

LOL. I thought the same. Like, wow, a whole dozen dads who are worse?!

12.

Buck Weston, Kicking and Screaming



Duvall hits the list again as the uber-competitive son of a businessman named Phil(Will Ferrell) who owns his own sporting goods chain and the coach of a kids soccer team. He has spent his entire life competing with his son...when his son got married, he remarried an even younger woman...right after Phil and his wife had a son, Buck got his young bride pregnant and when Phil asked Buck to put his son on Buck's soccer team, Buck refused because his grandson wasn't good enough for his team. He was more concerned about a winning team than he was about his grandson.

11.

Randy "The Ram" Robertson, The Wrestler




Mickey Roarke received an Oscar nomination for his gut-wrenching performance as a professional wrestler facing the end of his career who is now trying to make up for the time he missed with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) but it's just a matter of too little too late.

10.

Royal Tenenbaums, The Royal Tenenbaums



Gene Hackman was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his charismatic performance as the father of three extremely gifted children who deserted them and his wife (Anjelica Huston) years ago but is now trying to make up for lost time since learning that he is dying, particularly the twin grandsons whom he has never met. This character really doesn't have any redeeming qualities, but Hackman makes the character so damned likable you almost don't notice.

9.

Pete, Downhill



Some might question the high rating of this character, but I just can't justify this guy's actions at all. Pete is vacationing in the alps with his wife and two sons and while sitting at an outdoor cafe, an avalanche hits, and when the snow clears, Pete is observed walking back to his family from the other side of the cafe, making it look like he just abandoned his family when the avalanche hit. He spends the rest of the movie trying to make excuses for his behavior, putting his marriage to Billie (Julia Louis Dreyfuss) in serious jeopardy. He eventually concedes to his cowardice but for some reason, Billie still decides to forgive him for the sake of her sons. God knows why.

8.

Guy Wodehouse, Rosemary's Baby



Nice guy...Guy Wodehouse is a struggling actor whose wife (Mia Farrow) wants to have a baby more than anything so what does he do? Make a deal with satan worshipers for his wife to give birth to the devil. The honeymoon is definitely over.

7.

Lester Burnham, American Beauty



As likable as Oscar winner Kevin Spacey makes Lester, it's pretty difficult to get behind a movie character who comes on to his daughter's best friend (Mena Suvari).

6.

Dwight, This Boy's Life



Robert De Niro turned in a blistering performance playing a garage mechanic who marries a timid young woman (Ellen Barkin) and immediately starts abusing her and her teenage son (Leonardo DiCaprio). The thing with Dwight is that the majority of abuse he inflicted on his family was emotional and psychological, as well as physical. And don't worry...he treated his own children as horribly as he treated his new stepson.

5.

Big Daddy Pollitt, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof



Burl Ives gave a venomous performance in this Tennessee Williams drama playing a wealthy plantation owner who seems to get a kick out of playing puppet master with his two sons. His son, Brick (Paul Newman) is an alcoholic loser who is actually Big Daddy's number one choice to take over his estate when he passes (the man is actually dying but he doesn't know it), but can't get Brick to take his nose out of the bottle or get him to produce a grandchild with his beautiful wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor). He refuses to listen to Brick when he tells him he has no interest in the estate. On the other hand, his other son Gooper (Jack Carson) has given Big Daddy a passle of grandchildren who work his last nerve and sucks up to Big Daddy 24/7 in hopes of getting the estate but Big Daddy just doesn't like the guy and has no problem telling him so. And it should be mentioned that the way Big Daddy looks at his daughter-in-law Maggie isn't exactly model paternal behavior either.

4.

Flap Horton, Terms of Endearment



Jeff Daniels put himself on the Hollywood map playing this truly repulsive character. Flap was a lazy and irresponsible college professor who lost interest in wife, Emma (Debra Winger) after the birth of their first child, Tommy and started cheating on her immediately. Despite his infidelity, Emma actually had two more children with the man, children that he pretty much ignored for the most part. He moved his family twice for new jobs without even consulting Emma. The second time he moved his family was so that he could continue an affair with a pretty graduate student. When he learns that Emma is dying, he doesn't even put up a fight with his mother-in-law Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) when she demands that she take custody of the children after Emma's gone. Aurora warned Emma that Flap was a loser long before their wedding, but Emma married him basically to get away from her smothering mother. Aurora was so adamant that Emma marrying Flap was a mistake that she didn't even attend the wedding.

3.

Col. Bull Meacham, The Great Santini



Robert Duvall received an Oscar nomination for his performance as a marine fighter pilot who treats his family like soldiers, instead of family, especially his eldest son (Michael O'Keefe), who always felt like a loser to his father, but did stand up to him when he catches his father physically abusing his mom (Blythe Danner).

2.

Daniel Plainview, There Will Be Blood



Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Oscar playing a ruthless oilman who treats his son more like a business partner than a son. An explanation for the treatment is revealed during the film, but it doesn't justify the guy making his son drink milkshakes made with whiskey.


Well, that's # 2, before I reveal #1, I do have a couple of honorable mentions:


Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back
Michael Corleone, The Godfather III
Riggan Thompson, Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Buck Hannassy, The Big Country
Joseph Palmer, The Judge

And now...my # 1 choice for worst movie dad:

I agree that Flap Horton should be on this list, but not this high on the list. IMO, there are other dads who were much worse than him. He seemed to care about his kids, even though he didn't fight to keep them. He was more of a worst husband than a worst dad.



For example, Darth Vader actually tried to kill his own son. IMO, that should place him pretty close to the top of this list.

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Counterpoint! Darth Vader facilitated Luke .