Hollywood has produced some classic villains over the years. Whether they were originally brought to life out of the pages of a novel or first made their debut on the big screen, these villains are the best of the best.
The Joker (Heath Ledger) in “The Dark Knight”
No villain list would be complete without this legendary performance. The late Heath Ledger brought his A-Game to this terrifying rendition of the clown prince of crime, and it paid off. Millions were terrified and the world got one of the best villains of all time.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in “No Country for Old Men”
Another Oscar-winning villain, this creep kills almost everyone he meets, stares at you intently and offers a coin toss to determine whether or not you live. That”s the definition of scary.
Bradley Burgess
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in “The Silence of the Lambs”
Even though he spends most of the movie behind bars, Dr. Lecter made everyone”s skin crawl as a brilliant cannibal who tried to help an FBI agent catch a killer.
Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo”s Nest”
Nurses are supposed to help the sick and injured, but this nurse seemed to have missed that memo. She takes sadistic pleasure in making the patients of a mental hospital miserable, and if that means lobotomizing Jack Nicholson, that”s all right with her.
John Doe (Kevin Spacey) in “Se7en”
One of the most sadistic and remorseless serial killers in the history of film, this mystery man followed the seven deadly sins to the letter by killing people to mirror their crimes, including tying a man to a bed for a year until he rotted to death.
The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
The scariest kind of villain is one with no remorse. This liquid metal killing machine is simply there to kill John Conner and there”s nothing scarier than something you can”t reason with.
Bradley Burgess can be reached at [email protected]