QUESTION - The Top 5 Best Male Movie Main Villain Acting Performances ?

Brian Cox - "Manhunter"
Vincent Price - "The Masque of Red Death"
Anthony Perkins - "Psycho"/"Psycho 2"
Dabney Coleman - "Nine to Five"
Patrick Houghton - "The Omen"  (the "little priest" who wanted God to forgive him)

Jack Nicholson - Batman

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Anthony Perkins - Psycho

Robert Englund - Nightmare on Elm Street

Woody Harrelson - Natural Born Killers

Anthony Perkins, Psycho
Jack Nicholson, The Shining
Al Pacino, The Devils Advocate
Alan Rickman, Die Hard
Christopher Lee, Horror of Dracula

I like your first four picks, but the fifth one is too Hollywood cliché of "my sadist can out-sadist your sadist".


I'll take:
1. Paul Cavanagh in TARZAN AND HIS MATE, so well motivated and likable, yet willing to be evil when motivated

2. Humphrey Bogart in DEAD END. It's the part where he shows his insecurities with his mother that makes this great. Bogie is also special in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Black Legion, and Caine Mutiny, showing the insecurities that make his villain credible, but it's debatable whether he's the main villain in those.

3. Fred March in HOMBRE. He's the main villain, not Boone.


4. Van Heflin in GUNMAN'S WALK. Again, he's the main villain, not Tab Hunter. This is what is making their villains so great, the fact that they play them so well, and they're written so well, that some don't realize they're the main villains. Two characters even have lines to effect that his character is the villain, and Heflin still snake oils his way into making the viewer buy that he isn't the main villain

5. James Cagney in SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL. 

Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon
Humphrey Bogart in The Petrified Forest
Jack Palance in Shane
Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains (tie) in The Adventures of Robin Hood
Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo

Heath Ledger- The Dark Knight
Anthony Hopkins- The Silence of the Lambs
Daniel Day-Lewis- Gangs of New York
Tom Hardy- The Revenant
Javier Bardem- No Country for Old Men

"Shivers" is a good description. At times on a hot summer day, I will recall his line, "You see, Mr. Gits, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and in the right place, they're capable of anything!" - and I will get chill bumps. I pray that is not true but fear it might be. A truly great performance of a truly evil man.