Where are the next good villain actors?

['Foretold' Joker]

I was thinking a major stumbling block to good action movies at the moment is there seem to be very few quality villain actors in one-off action films. Mark Strong is about the only one.

Back in the 80s/90s you got some very charismatic actors who were just plain nasty or evil and it came across on screen:

Micheal Ironside
Alan Rickman
Ronny Cox in Robocop & Total Recall
John Malchovich
William Atherton (Die Hard or Ghostbusters)
Gary Oldman
Chritopher Lee
Steven Berkoff (Beverly Hills Cop or Octopussy)

Too name a few, but I don't see who the new villain actors are going to be or are. Anyone agree or are there current actors who I have missed who do well in villainous roles?



*I'm not really considering superhero villains as they are either big stars (Jeff Bridges, Heath Ledger, Kevin Spacey, Liam Neeson) or the villain is made sympathetic (Doc Ock, Lizard, Sandman, Magneto, Backlash) (Exception being Tom Hiddleston as Loki who is great)

[darthalexander]

I think there are many actors out there that could be great as villains if given a good script to work with or are willing to take the chance to play villians. I can't wait to see Dicaprio in Django Unchained because it will be interesting to see how he handles the part.

Aaron Eckhart played Two-Face, but a much better villain role for him was in the film "In The Company Of Men". To this day I can't look at him the same way (even though he's supposed to be one of the nicest guys around).

The 80s type of villain doesn't seem to exist as much anymore.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

A good villain actor going today? Cillian Murphy.

[Spankymac is sick of the swiss]

Aug 22, 2012 7:16:19 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

A good villain actor going today? Cillian Murphy.

Yup. Dude is just amazing at playing a total creep.

[Alexander The So-so]

Could Eric Roberts be counted here? He always plays the villain, and that's because he's damn good at it. He played a great heel in The Dark Knight and The Expendables; he's great at coming across as the ultimate ruthless, smug douchebag.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Eric Roberts is pretty old, though. he's from the same generation as all the guys in the op.

['Foretold' Joker]

True he is from the same generation, but he wasn't exactly known for playing a villain back then, so yeah Eric Roberts is one ... any others?

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Michael Fassbender was a pretty damn good villain in Hex. Not sure how old he is but he's only recently seemed to start getting leading type roles in big movies.

Edit: And of course he was great as Magneto in X-Men: First class

[stinger]

I think Tom Felton has promise at playing baddies. Really young, long career ahead of him. Was not only good in HP, but also in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

[Yami Daimao]

The first person I immediately thought of was Tom Hiddleston. That guy just f***ing rocks.

[JoDaNa1281]

I think I would put Charles Dance in the OP's 80s/90s list, he was good in Golden Child & Last Action Hero & is currently great on Game of Thrones.

[Gus Richlen Was Wrong]

Aug 22, 2012 10:43:52 GMT -5 Yami Daimao said:

The first person I immediately thought of was Tom Hiddleston. That guy just f***ing rocks.

First one I thought of too.

[FinalGwen]

Toby Jones has played his share of malevolent characters, albeit not really action films, for the most part.

[riseofsetian1981]

The deal is a lot of villains in films are just too cool to hate and to badass. I think it would be great to just get a straight out horrible villain who you want to see get his ass kicked.

Perfect example I think was the guy who played Percy in The Green Mile. He was literally the perfect heartless, whiney, and nasty prick who literally had you wanting to jump into the screen and kick his ass. Thats the type of villain that needs to be created again.

[Dr. T is an alien]

I would like to point out that there are plenty of guys who are not particularly young that have been fantastic as villains in the very recent past: Ralph Fiennes (49) and Tim Roth (51) can still do action scenes as a villain while guys like Tom Wilkinson (64), Marc Alaimo (70), Dean Stockwell (76), Steve Buscemi (54), Peter Stormare (58), and Jeremy Irons (63) can all still pull off very intriguing villainous masterminds.

[AFN: Judge Shred]

What did Dean Stockwell do?

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Michael Shannon is a villain or atleast a corrupt Prohibition Agent in Boardwalk Empire, now he'll be a corrupt Cop in Premium Rush and next year plays Zon in Man of Steel.

[543Y2J]

Daniel Day Lewis is incredible as a villain, he is 55 but I still think and hope he has a lot more years left in him.

[The OP]

I think James Van Der Beek would be good, actually. The first time I saw him was as the bully in Angus, and I've hated him ever since. It's always been hard for me to accept him as anything but a character I'm supposed to hate, even though I can't think of a single other time he's played the antagonist.

[Perd]