Unforgettable Bad Guys in Movies

Forest Whitaker Last King OF Scotland MovieWe were watching Last King Of Scotland on television 2 nights back and it reminded me of what a great job Forest Whitaker has done in that movie. His portrayal of Idi Amin is so believable and does appear fearful.

It got me thinking about other great performances by actors portraying bad guys and how they actually injected fear into your head during and after the movie. Some of the ones I could think of were:

Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs,
Jonathan Scott-Taylor as Damien Thorn - Omen 2
David Prowse James Earl Jones (voice) - Star Wars 4,5,6
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Terminator 1
Robert Patrick - Terminator 2
Alan Rickman - Robin Hood and Die Hard
Denzel Washington - Training Day
Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York
Jack Nicholson - A Few Good Men
Joaquin Phoenix - Gladiator
John Travolta - Broken Arrow
John Malkovich - Con Air
Gary Oldman - Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Michael Douglas - Wall Street
Arnold Vosloo - The Mummy / The Mummy Returns
Jack Nicholson - The Shining
Ian McKellan - X-Men
Michael Madsen - Reservoir Dogs
Wesley Snipes - Demolition Man

I am sure I have left out some other great performances, let me know if you think there are other good performances to mention.

Recommended Articles

June 6, 2008 | Filed Under General, Movie Facts and Trivia, People 
Tags: , ,

Comments

9 Responses to “Unforgettable Bad Guys in Movies”

  1. JB on June 6th, 2008 4:15 pm

    I totally agree with the list, but I would have added Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs!

    Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (hard to picture her as anything but nice crime-solving granny!) and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West to start balancing the gender bias. Those were some scary ladies (the former especially, considering what I know her best for.)

  2. Reel Ninja on June 6th, 2008 5:49 pm

    Thanks JB, Unforgettable Bad Girls in Movies was going to be our follow-up post :)

  3. kipram on June 7th, 2008 1:05 am

    I agree with JB, Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs!

  4. SizzlingPopcorn on June 7th, 2008 12:04 pm

    At first, I was puzzled by the name of the actor who does the voice of Darth Vader. I was going to say, “Wow! What a long name! David Prowse James Earl Jones!”…but I did my research and found that it’s James Earl Jones in Star Wars: New Hope and David Prowse in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jeidi.

    Did you know David Prowse is 6′5″? Pretty tall man!

  5. Monkeyface on June 10th, 2008 1:54 pm

    I agree 100% about Michael Madsen! I think QT does a terrific job of casting his bad guys. Two of my recent favorites have to be David Carradine and Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill. She was a total bitch and pretty bad ass with a blade… he on the other hand seemed like this nice, old guy, but to be able to put a bullet in the woman he loved was just ruthless!

    I also loved Kurt Russel in Death Proof. I had my reservations about him being in that part, but after seeing the movie I loved his performance.

  6. Reel Ninja's Wife (RNW) on June 10th, 2008 7:54 pm

    I still have nightmares of Kurt Russell from Death Proof… we watched it a couple of months back… freaky stuff… trust no one ;)

  7. Jaden @ Screenwriting for Hollywood on June 17th, 2008 7:27 am

    Great list.

    I was so happy that Forest won the Oscar. His performance was leaps and bounds better than all the rest of the nominees. It would have been a crime to have given that award to any of the others. His performance is one of the best ever in that movie. Truly terrifying. Like a documentary.

  8. Madhu on August 26th, 2008 2:04 pm

    Great list but how abt russel crowe in “A beautiful mind”, anybody??

  9. Reel Ninja on August 28th, 2008 2:51 pm

    Russell Crowe was a bad guy in Beautiful Mind?

Got something to say?