Names of actors who have played sinister villians

George Raft, Edward G. Robinson?

Good ones, let us not forget Vincent Price who was campy but scary when I was a kid.

Bruce Dern, Bella Lugosi, Robert Mitchum

I think Arnorld Swartzangger was a bad guy once.

Heh! He was always bad.

Dennis Hopper, John Malk0vich

Rap

Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, as Travis Bickle, Raging Bull, as Jake LaMotta)
Marlon Brando
Jack Nicholson
Al Pacino
Dennis Hopper, (for starters Blue Velvet as Frank Booth, Apocalypse Now, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant)
Peter Cushing (Star Wars, Dracula, Tales From the Crypt, Dr. Phibes, The Mummy, Frankenstein)
Christopher Lee (Star Wars, Dark Shadows, Frankenstein, Dracula, Fu Manchu )
Heath Ledger (Dark Knight as the Joker)
Peter Boyle (Monster's Ball, Tail Gunner Joe as Senator Joe McCarthy, Taxi Driver as Wizard, Joe, as Joe Curran)
Robert Mitchum , numerous roles
Humphrey Bogart , numerous roles

Willem Dafoe
Tim Curry
Malcolm McDowell

Anthony Hopkins

Now, that was sinister.

Yep. Especially when he played C.S. Lewis! Too sinister to bear!

Hugo Weaving - Agent Smith, The Matrix

I didn't realize how infectious Weaving's portrayal of Agent Smith was until he showed up in The Lord of The Rings by surprise (I hadn't checked the character lists ahead of time) and I half expected the hobbits to run when they saw him.

Couldn't agree more.

My daughter is a real Harry Potter fan. She would take great exception to what you posted. Snape is not a villain, he's an anti-hero. He tells Harry to take his tear during his death scene, (Snape's memories were contained in his tear, so Harry could work out what to do) Snape was a double agent, just pretending to be bad all along.

Ralph Fiennes was a passable Voldermort, but a brilliant mob boss in In Bruges.

I just reserved a library copy of In Bruges for a rewatch. I just love that movie.

Both Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes gave Oscar worthy performances in that film.

I love black humour, and it's got some of the blackest.

Laird Cregar

Peter Lorre:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022100/combined

You're right, certainly about the Harry potter films, but he has played villainous characters and loopy characters. I'm pretty sure (didn't double check) he was a villian in on of the "Die hard" movies.