Great Villains, and Supporting Actors

To your list of excellent actors, I'll add John C. Reilly. In the last year, he gave amazing performances in Chicago, The Good Girl, Gangs of New York, and The Hours. His work in The Perfect Storm and Boogie Nights was also memorable. I won't be at all surprised if he wins an Oscar!

Macsm,
...That's the way it is sometimes with great supporters. They sneak up on you. now when I see the movies you mentioned most for the second time, I'll say "Oh yeah,him!"

I'd like to also mention actors that played brilliant villianous roles against type....Two that come to mnd are; Andy Griffith, in "Face In The Crowd", and Kevin Costner, in "Three Thousand Miles From Graceland". That may very well be Costner's most impressive role, to me.

I second John C. Reilly. I was impressed by his performances in Boogie Nights and Magnolia. I didn't see the other ones Mac mentioned.

The villain I shall never forget was Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death". (when he pushed the old lady in the wheel chair down the steps and his hysterical giggle ). Who would have ever thought he would escape that type-casting to continue in films as a really decent guy?

That had to be one of the nastiest scences in movie history...A true classic

Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear.

LOVED Alan Rickman in that 'Robin Hood' remake - over the top.

Humphrey Bogart started out playing the bad guy, something that seems to be overlooked.

JoanneDorel

You have chosen one of filmdom's most classic 'bad guy" roles of all time.

I will offer two; but there are countless other memorable "baddies"!

An Oldie:

Jack Palance in "Shane".

When Jack Palance stepped onto the boardwalk just outside the saloon, and gunned down Elisha Cook jr. (in coldblood) he sealed his fate in motion picture history.

Recently:

Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast".

This performance (though he missed an academy award) was truly something out of the ordinary for screen characterization of a bad guy.


But yes! Mitchum in "Cape Fear", deserves the Oscar!

Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter, and Vincent Price in anything.

As far as character actors, I like Philip Baker Hall, in addition to the ones you mentioned above, Reilly and Hoffman.

Booman<

Thank you for this thread. Some of the posts have brought back fond cinematic memories.

For the record, I would like to post here that Walter Brennan is Hollywood's most honored Supporting Actor. Three (that's three) Best Supporting Actor Oscars were won by Mr. Brennan. The dates and films are:

1936, Come and Get It
1938, Kentucky
1940, The Westerner

Unfortunately, Mr. Brennan is probably best remembered for his role as Amos in TV's silly sitcom, The Real McCoys.

James Coburn!

Modern Day: John Turturo.

Rickman was deliciously villainous in HBO's "Rasputin" and in "Die Hard." Of the older villains, Raymond Burr and Peter Lorre (especially in "M") come to mind.

HAve you noticed that there are some performers who you fail to recognize in movie after movie until the credits roll and you say, "Oh! (s)he is always good!" That chameleon ability to go unrecognized is one of the hallmarks of talent.

Brian Dennehy usually plays good guys. I wish I could remember the name of the film in which he played the villian...but all I could remember was feeling crushed.

During my kidhood, in the Chuck Connors film Cochise (Connors as blue eyed Indian), the man who played the soldier in pursuit of Chochise was so villianous that when he died, the audience applauded.

Brian Dennehy was a bad guy in Presumed Innocent - but almost everyone was in that!

Andrew Robinson - Scorpio in Dirty Harry. Is there anyone who didn't want to see him die a slow death by the end of that movie?

Christopher Walken - in anything. Great villian in The Prophecy, Sleepy Hollow, True Romance, The King of New York.....the list goes on and on.

Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects and Seven

And then, of course, there's me.
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lol, Sugar!

Kevin Spacey was the creepiest villain we'd had for a while in Se7en.

I know he's a leading man now, but he did great supporting work in several films before he got there.

Villains-really evil

John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons and In the line of Fire, Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Patrick Mc Goohan as Longshanks in Braveheart, Alan Rickman -Die Hard, Robert Mitchum- The Night of the Hunter - really scary

Villains-Tongue in cheek

Alan Rickman in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Unsung heroes-Micheal J Pollard, Tom Wilkinson

Hiama beat me to Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter, and brought to mind the least likely actor to play a most evil villain:

Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In the West