Top 20 Actors Who Always Play Villains

There are few actors out there who can pull of a dastardly, devious and oh-so-campy villain performance like the star of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Legend,” and the original TV miniseries version of Stephen King’s “It.” With a knack for over-the-top but still engrossing performances dripping with manic menace, this English actor has had villainous turns across the big and small screens, in live action and voice-over roles. He’s menaced the internet as Kilokhan in “Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad” and been a toxic blight in “FernGully: The Last Rainforest”, and we’ve had as much fun watching him in each role as he clearly did playing them.

He started as an “Easy Rider,” but we think Hopper’s angst and disturbed demeanor are best suited to villains. Sure, donning a bizarre haircut to play King Koopa and an eye patch to play The Deacon may have been odd career choices, and Howard Payne may be a stereotypical – yet effective – baddie, but the sadistic serial killer Frank Booth from “Blue Velvet” is definitely a psychotic masterwork. Hopper’s manic performance as this split personality gangster gave audiences chills, and remains one of the scariest villains brought to life on the silver screen.

And speaking of actors with a particular enthusiasm for diving head-first into campy villain fun, this “Harry Potter” alumnus is remembered not just for her frequent collaborations with ex-husband Tim Burton, but for a long and storied career filled with villainous turns. Whether she’s playing the dastardly Bellatrix Lestrange in “Harry Potter,” going after Alice’s head as the Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” or turning people into pies in “Sweeney Todd,” this actress approaches every villain role she’s offered with gusto. While the actress has joked that her recent villainous roles are thanks to her age, we think that it comes down to a pure talent for being delightfully bad.

This Oscar winning actor has covered a ton of ground over the years, from theater to live action to animation. With an unconventional look that goes from sexy to scary without much effort, and an accent most actors would kill for, Irons has patented the sarcastic villain. We still think his uber-weirdo uber-warlock deserved a better send-off, but Scar more than makes up for that. No matter the era, accent or motive, his lines drip with disdain, even when he’s just playing a simple game of “Simon Says.”

Many audience members first met this Irish actor when he appeared as The Scarecrow in the first film in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. With piercing eyes, cheekbones that could cut glass and a subtle Irish brogue, there aren’t many actors who can imbue a role with as much sinister energy as he has. Which isn’t to say that he can’t also go completely off the deep end when the role calls for it. It’s that ability to go from icy cool to short-fused and violent at the drop of a hat that makes this actor one we’ll always love to see playing big-screen baddies.

How do you rank evil-doing? Being Harry Potter’s no-nosed nemesis is bad; so is playing the god of the underworld; and a serial killer called the Tooth Fairy is definitely up there. But portraying a war criminal who gets excited at the thought of gunning down unsuspecting victims is worst of all, a role he received several nominations for. Not a one dimensional actor by any means, Fiennes can actually play a good romantic lead, but he’s got the skills and latent sinister-factor to go either way.

Who else but Doctor Hannibal Lecter could take this spot on our list? Since his groundbreaking appearance in “Silence of the Lambs”, this English thespian has carved out a sizeable niche playing cool, unflappable but effortlessly sinister villains across film and television. He’s returned to the role that made him famous multiple times, but the award-winning actor is hardly coasting on past victories. Just recently, we’ve been delighted to watch his turn as Dr. Robert Ford, the director of the futuristic theme park that serves as the setting of HBO’s “Westworld”. Much like the show itself, he’s full of sinister secrets and shocking turns, a perfect fit for the legendary actor.

On screen, Malkovich can be a bit weird. And creepy. Although he’s played loads of normal roles over the years having appeared in over 70 films, he has a knack for playing villains. That menacing stare has a lot to do with it, but his too-silky voice also plays a big role. Chilling, disquieting, intense and spooky are also words we’d use to describe him, whether he’s portraying a dangerous womanizer, a would-be presidential assassin, a criminal mastermind, or a Russian mobster. Hell, he’s even scary when he’s reading a Christmas story.

Long before he tended the deep-fryers at Los Pollos Hermanos, Giancarlo Esposito had made appearances in Spike Lee films like “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X”. But he really came into his own with the AMC crime dramas “Better Call Saul” and “Breaking Bad”, playing the meth mastermind and business owner Gustavo Fring. Fring is a cold and ruthless drug kingpin, despite the clean public image he works tirelessly to maintain. It was only fitting then that Esposito was cast as the evil Galactic leader Moff Gideon in “The Mandalorian”. Esposito may not have played as many villains as some others on this list, but it can't be argued that each baddie he's played is a total icon.

Another “Harry Potter” alum who’s just oh-so-good at being oh-so-bad, this British actor is far more than just the guy underneath Lucius Malfoy’s silvery locks. He’s played baddies of every sort, from Captain Hook in the 2003 “Peter Pan” movie, to Lex Luthor himself in the animated movie “Justice League: Gods and Monsters”. Just recently he even had one of his best turns yet in Gore Verbinski’s “A Cure for Wellness”. In the film, the actor once again demonstrates his villainous chops as the head of a seemingly benevolent but very sinister medical center. If he was our doctor, we might just stick to bedrest and chicken soup.

For many, this English actor’s careers playing villains began with his turn in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “A Clockwork Orange”, but it goes back a bit further. Before making cinema history, and forever ruining “Singing in the Rain” for us, the actor appeared in a similarly sinister role in Lindsay Anderson’s “If…” as a charismatic public school student who incites a full-on student uprising. Since then he’s played villains in a number of movies, including “Tank Girl” and “Star Trek: Generations”. If we had to pick a favorite of his recent work, we’d definitely pick his turn as the head of the villainous Enclave in “Fallout 3”.

You may not recognize the name, but you’ve no doubt seen him as a villain. It’s all about his terrifying voice. Aaaand his face. Weaving is elf-like, and can dazzle as a drag queen, but those’re about the only good guy looks he can pull off. Between kicking Captain America’s butt and making Neo wish he’d taken the blue pill, Weaving just gets under our skin. Sure, V is ambiguous, but we’ll never get the way he says “Mr. Anderson” out of our heads.

There aren’t many actors who could appear as a human-looking and shoeless Satan and completely pull it off, but this Swedish-born actor is one of them. Oozing a threatening and slightly sleazy energy, the “Fargo” and “8mm” star has made a living playing criminals and unsavory characters in TV and film. He’s menaced The Dude with a pair of scissors in “The Big Lebowski” and more recently stared down a very unhappy John Wick in “John Wick Chapter 2”. But we can’t help but keep coming back to his brief but memorable scene as Lucifer himself, also opposite Keanu Reeves, in 2005’s “Constantine”. The Prince of Darkness has never been this creepy!

Any Bond villain gets a lifetime membership to the bad guy hall of fame. Despite his natural comedic timing, sense of humor and dancing skills, Walken is one creepy dude with bulging eyeballs and a quirky manner of speaking that’s perfectly suited to evil roles. Able to act unfeeling, intelligent, vicious, or just plain crazy, Walken plays mobsters, archangels or exterminators with equal flair.

Ever since exploding onto the scene as the monstrous Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”, this actor has taken over the villain business. Since his breakout role, he’s played baddies opposite screen icons like James Bond, played real-life monsters like Léon Rom in “The Legend of Tarzan” and portrayed literary villains like Cardinal Richelieu in “The Three Musketeers”. If his role in Tarantino’s blood-stained war movie proved anything, it’s that the Austrian actor has the kind of sinister charm that makes for an amazing onscreen villain, and he’s gone on to prove that time and time again in subsequent roles.

This guy’s such a chameleon, we’re always surprised when we figure out it was him in that movie. And to be honest, that happens A LOT. He plays good guys, bad guys, good guys who seem bad, guys who kill presidents, guys who suck blood and guys with weird haircuts. His villains always have different motivations, styles and even accents, but you can be sure they’re all equally terrifying.

It takes a lot of qualities to play a good villain, and this star has all of them. Despite his first role as a somewhat hapless gangster in Nicolas Winding-Refn’s “Pusher”, this Danish actor became a villainous force to be reckoned with in the wake of his appearance as Le Chiffre in “Casino Royale”. Thanks to his intense bearing, velvety-smooth voice and top-notch acting skills, he’s landed villain roles like Kaecilius in “Doctor Strange”. And did you know he even voiced the chameleonic Randall in the Danish dub of “Monsters, Inc.”? And obviously we can’t overlook his performance as Hannibal Lecter on NBC’s “Hannibal”. Who honestly could?

Hans Gruber: need we say more? Fine. Rickman wants to shed his reputation as a villain, but with iconic baddies like the Sheriff of Nottingham it’s damn-near impossible. Snape may’ve been okay in the end, but he sure is mean and creepy. Why is Rickman so evil-looking on screen? Is it the squinty-eyes?Or his voice? Also have you seen him as a romantic lead? Unsettling is an understatement.

Of course this actor is great at playing antagonists, it’s right there in his name. Dafoe, The Foe? He’s worked with directors including Sam Raimi, Wes Anderson and others, and they’ve all come to the same conclusion: that the Wisconsin native makes for a terrific villain. Another actor with a penchant for going all-out, he’s contorted his face into enough manic, sadistic grins that it’s surprising he hasn’t played The Joker by now. But while his villains may frequently be over-the-top, there’s always just enough lurking below the surface to make them memorable and sometimes even sympathetic, in addition to flat-out fun.




Before we get to our top pick, here are some honorable mentions:

Jack Nicholson

Ben Mendelsohn

Tim Roth

Michael Ironside

Javier Bardem

We’ll say it: British guys make the best villains. Christopher Lee’s deep voice and towering frame help make him a great bad guy, but it’s his ability to turn on a dime from slick and charming to fiery and furious that put him over the top. We can’t list all his villains, but we’ll say this: he played Dracula so often we lost count, he fought James Bond, the Fellowship of the Ring and Jedi knights, just to name a few