MOVIES
Critical Response - AFI
50 Greatest Villains
This list features movie villains that have been rated as most iconic by the American Film Institute.
RANK | CHARACTER | ACTOR | FILM | YEAR |
1 | Hannibal Lecter | Anthony Hopkins | The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 |
2 | Norman Bates | Anthony Perkins | Psycho | 1960 |
3 | Darth Vader | David Prowse (voiced by James Earl Jones) | The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 |
4 | The Wicked Witch of the West | Margaret Hamilton | The Wizard of Oz | 1939 |
5 | Nurse Ratched | Louise Fletcher | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 |
6 | Mr. Potter | Lionel Barrymore | It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 |
7 | Alex Forrest | Glenn Close | Fatal Attraction | 1987 |
8 | Phyllis Dietrichson | Barbara Stanwyck | Double Indemnity | 1944 |
9 | Regan MacNeil (as possessed by the demon "Pazuzu") | Linda Blair (voiced by Mercedes McCambridge) | The Exorcist | 1973 |
10 | The Evil Queen | Lucille La Verne | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 |
11 | Michael Corleone | Al Pacino | The Godfather Part II | 1974 |
12 | Alex DeLarge | Malcolm McDowell | A Clockwork Orange | 1971 |
13 | HAL 9000 | Douglas Rain | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 1968 |
14 | The Alien | Bolaji Badejo | Alien | 1979 |
15 | Amon Göth | Ralph Fiennes | Schindler's List | 1993 |
16 | Noah Cross | John Huston | Chinatown | 1974 |
17 | Annie Wilkes | Kathy Bates | Misery | 1990 |
18 | The Shark | "Bruce" | Jaws | 1975 |
19 | Captain Bligh | Charles Laughton | Mutiny on the Bounty | 1935 |
20 | "Man" | N/A | Bambi | 1942 |
21 | Mrs. Eleanor Iselin | Angela Lansbury | The Manchurian Candidate | 1962 |
22 | The Terminator | Arnold Schwarzenegger | The Terminator | 1984 |
23 | Eve Harrington | Anne Baxter | All About Eve | 1950 |
24 | Gordon Gekko | Michael Douglas | Wall Street | 1987 |
25 | Jack Torrance | Jack Nicholson | The Shining | 1980 |
26 | Cody Jarrett | James Cagney | White Heat | 1949 |
27 | Martians | Various | The War of the Worlds | 1953 |
28 | Max Cady | Robert Mitchum | Cape Fear | 1962 |
29 | Reverend Harry Powell | Robert Mitchum | The Night of the Hunter | 1955 |
30 | Travis Bickle | Robert De Niro | Taxi Driver | 1976 |
31 | Mrs. Danvers | Judith Anderson | Rebecca | 1940 |
32 | Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker | Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway | Bonnie and Clyde | 1967 |
33 | Count Dracula | Bela Lugosi | Dracula | 1931 |
34 | Dr. Szell | Laurence Olivier | Marathon Man | 1976 |
35 | J.J. Hunsecker | Burt Lancaster | Sweet Smell of Success | 1957 |
36 | Frank Booth | Dennis Hopper | Blue Velvet | 1986 |
37 | Harry Lime | Orson Welles | The Third Man | 1949 |
38 | Caesar Enrico Bandello | Edward G. Robinson | Little Caesar | 1931 |
39 | Cruella De Vil | Betty Lou Gerson | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | 1961 |
40 | Freddy Krueger | Robert Englund | A Nightmare on Elm Street | 1984 |
41 | Joan Crawford | Faye Dunaway | Mommie Dearest | 1981 |
42 | Tom Powers | James Cagney | The Public Enemy | 1931 |
43 | Regina Giddens | Bette Davis | The Little Foxes | 1941 |
44 | Baby Jane Hudson | Bette Davis | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | 1962 |
45 | The Joker | Jack Nicholson | Batman | 1989 |
46 | Hans Gruber | Alan Rickman | Die Hard | 1988 |
47 | Tony Camonte | Paul Muni | Scarface | 1932 |
48 | Roger "Verbal" Kint / Keyser Söze | Kevin Spacey | The Usual Suspects | 1995 |
49 | Auric Goldfinger | Gert Fröbe (voiced by Michael Collins) | Goldfinger | 1964 |
50 | Detective Alonzo Harris | Denzel Washington | Training Day | 2001 |
RANK | CHARACTER | ACTOR | FILM | YEAR |
References
