Posted on 07/29/2008 1:55:51 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
Heath Ledger’s role as The Joker in the new Batman film earned him a place in the top 10 of screen villains.
More than 2,500 movie fans were asked by Lovefilm.com to vote for their favourite movie madmen and Ledger’s character came in a respectable number nine.
But the top spot went to Anthony Hopkins for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, which won the Oscar-winning star a whopping quarter of the votes.
Other evil characters included Darth Vader from the Star Wars films, who came second in the poll, while Joe Pesci’s quick-tempered Tommy DeVito in mobster classic Goodfellas came third.
The only lady villain to make it into the top 10 was mallet-wielding Annie Wilkes in Misery, played by Kathy Bates.
And Kevin Spacey aptly came seventh for his turn as John Doe, the sinful serial killer in the movie Se7en.
Jack Nicholson’s role in The Shining came eighth, while Robert De Niro’s gang leader Al Capone came 10th.
Where did the dull, crazy man from An Inconvenient Truth wind up on the list?
I guess playing hide the salami while wearing a cowboy hat is a great career move in hollywood
Gosh he’s like a legend
If he had his way, it would adversely affect the lives of millions, if not billions.
The Kurgan from the original Highlander movie was the baddest villain of all time IMHO
I’m guessing you haven’t seen “The Dark Knight.”
Glen Close from Fatal Attraction
Malcom McDowell from A Clockwork Orange
Ralph Fiennes from Schindler’s List
DeNiro in Cape Fear
Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet
Joan Crawford for Mommie Dearest
Of course we cannot forget Robert Englund aka, Freddie Krueger
Joker’s not as bad as the villain in “No Country for Old Men.” Most (not all) of Joker’s victims were other hoods.
Well, I think he's a villain...
Good one.
Makes Nurse Ratched look sane.
FWIW, I thought his role in "Angel Heart" would have been a better qualifier for this list, though he was quite nasty as Max Cady.
My personal favorites ...
(1) The Joker, The Dark Knight; (legendary)
(2) Darth Vader, Star Wars;
(3) Agent Smith, The Matrix;
(4) Hans Gruber, Die Hard;
(5) General Zod, Superman II;
(6) T-1000, Terminator 2;
(7) Doc Ock, Spiderman 2;
(8) Toht, Raiders of the Lost Ark;
(9) Kahn, Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn;
(10) Biff Tannen, Back to the Future.
H
Andy Robinson as the psychotic killer in the first “Dirty Harry.” Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker in the first “Robocop.” Al Letterieri in “The Getaway.” Give me time, and I’ll come up with a lot more.
It's just a movie role. It had no bearing on his private life.
If someone paid me $5 million to be someone's gay partner in a movie, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Gosh he’s like a legend
Have you seen "The Dark Knight?" To say that he nailed the role doesn't even come close to it. While I really liked Jack Nicholson's role as "The Joker" from the earlier Batman movie, This guy was brilliant. His acting in the part was incredibly subtle - not the "Super-Villan part, but the evil, scheming manipulator behind the villan. And the longer it's been since I saw the movie, the more I've come to understand the role. I rarely go to see movies more than once, but I am going to see this again, just to make sure that I "got it."
Mark
BTW, do you say the same sort of thing about Patrick Swayze?
They're both actors. They were acting... Is Billy Bob Thorton a murderer because of the role he played in "Slingblade?"
Mark
Captain Howdy/Pazuzu - The Exorcist, a personal favorite.
I saw Dark Knight, last night. I went in with a prejudice against Ledger, but I must say he played a great villain and deserves to be in the top 10. I really liked the movie and the music was big. Lots of fun.
I agree. I am a huge Nicholson fan, but Ledger was better in this role. He was great.
Nuns...no sense of humor.
I saw it too,awesome move. The joker was a bad boy!
Kurgan was good, but the movie overall was a bit hokey.
Here’s a few good ones in no particular order...
The English King “Longshanks” in Braveheart
Boggs from Shawshank Redemption
Joker from The Darl Knight
The Spanish captain in Hans Labyrinth
Hannibal Lecter
Deniro in Cape Fear
Pans Labyrinth that is
the scene with the almanac and the bottle still chills me.
Faye Dunaway sure fooled you!
Don’t forget it will also allow you to get the role of The Joker in the new Batman. Chris Nolan has said he had a list of one actor for The Joker and Heath was the only one on it because he was not scared of the role in Brokeback Mountain. For someone who had mostly played teen heartthrob roles, that could have been career suicide.
And by the way, your Lawrence quote is spectacular. "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", I presume.
I don’t know, maybe I’ve become jaded against Hollyweird.
The wife and I saw this movie last weekend and while we both admit Ledger’s performance was good, it wasn’t “Oscar worthy”. At least not in our opinion.
I think the all the hype for an Oscar nomination has more to do with his being deceased, then with his actual performance.
I’m closer to your camp on this one. We saw The Dark Knight the other night and while I thought the movie was pretty good, I came away a little disappointed. Based on the hype, I was expecting something a lot more. Ledger’s role was very well done, but I think if there’s a posthumous Oscar in the works, it will have more to do with the story behind the story than the acting. Although, Ledger’s role and his acting ability outshined the rest of the cast.
Part of my disappointment probably also had something to do with the director’s inability to make a decision on when to end the movie. It seemed to drag on just a little too long. But, cudos to Michael Caine, I thought he was a fine “Alfred”.
And yes, the quote is from T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) from his book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." Thomas E. Lawrence
Hmmm... here’s my personal list, which is partially a result of watching too much sci-fi and not enough classic movies:
1 - Darth Vader
2 - The Joker
3 - Agent Smith
4 - Hannibal Lecter
5 - Alex Forrest (Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction)
6 - Keyser Soze
7 - General Zod
8 - Khan (Star Trek)
9 - Doc Ock (Spiderman)
10 - Emperor Palpatine
you are right and I stand to be corrected- I did not mean to imply that he was in his personal life what he played on-screen.
But that hideous movie (the cowboy one) was promoted as the best thing in cinematic history and the producer and director and actors were fawned over as if they had discovered the new world.
Ted Levine must be tearing his hair out as he's reading that article.
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