A new OFCS Top 100 is coming soon: our “100 Best First Films” celebrates the best in directorial debut efforts. Voting is currently underway, and the list will be announced Monday, October 4. To celebrate the arrival of the new list – our first since 2004 – we’re taking a trip back in time, reposting our previous Top 100s.
The OFCS Top 100 Villains of All Time was announced in 2002. Read the list after the jump.
October 1, 2002: The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), the international association of the leading Internet-based cinema journalists, is sharing its love with the character we’re supposed to hate. The OFCS has announced its new list celebrating the Top 100 Villains of All Time and the greatest screen villain of all time, according to the 132 members of the OFCS, is Darth Vader played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones in the original Star Wars trilogy.
In polling the OFCS membership for this survey, with a list of more than 400 potential villains to choose from, the society invited its members to consider some of the most wonderfully charismatic examples of celluloid evil. “The Villains list spans the history of motion pictures, from Max Schreck’s landmark performance in the 1922 silent version of Nosferatu to Anthony Hopkins reprising his Hannibal Lecter role yet again in the new Red Dragon feature,” says Erik Childress, editor of eFilmCritic.com and a member of the OFCS Governing Committee. “In many ways, the villains are the most important aspect of classic films–what would Star Wars be without Darth Vader or The Wizard of Oz without ‘The Wicked Witch of the West.’ With this list, we can unapologetically say that we love a great villain!”
The OFCS Top 100 Villains of All Time
1. Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones, Star Wars, etc.)
2. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs, etc.)
3. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins, Psycho, etc.)
4. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, Die Hard)
5. Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet)
6. Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum, The Night of the Hunter)
7. HAL 9000 (Douglas Rain [voice], 2001: A Space Odyssey)
8. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz)
9. Graf Orlock (Max Schreck, Nosferatu)
10. Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
11. Alex (Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange)
12. Keyzer Soze ([actor’s name withheld], The Usual Suspects)
13. Harry Lime (Orson Welles, The Third Man)
14. Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes, Schindler’s List)
15. Michael Myers (aka The Shape) (Nick Castle, Halloween)
16. The Joker (Jack Nicholson, Batman)
17. Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
18. Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury, The Manchurian Candidate)
19. The shark (Himself, Jaws)
20. John Doe (Kevin Spacey, Se7en)
21. T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator, etc.)
22. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, Misery)
23. John “Jack” Daniel Torrance (Jack Nicholson, The Shining)
24. Frank (Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West)
25. Salieri (F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus)
26. Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre, M)
27. Chad (Aaron Eckhart, In the Company of Men)
28. The alien (Himself, Alien, etc.)
29. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt)
30. Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street)
31. Col. Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando, Apocalypse Now)
32. Noah Cross (John Huston, Chinatown)
33. Alex Forrest (Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction)
34. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket)
35. Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer, Blade Runner)
36. Mr. Smith (Hugo Weaving, The Matrix)
37. Dracula (Bela Lugosi, Dracula)
38. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man)
39. T-1000 (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
40. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore, It’s a Wonderful Life)
41. Pazuzu (Mercedes McCambridge [voice], The Exorcist)
42. Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles, Touch of Evil)
43. Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman Léon/The Professional)
44. Max Cady (Robert De Niro, Cape Fear)
45. Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe, Goldfinger)
46. King Richard III (Ian McKellan, Richard III)
47. Bruno Antony (Robert Walker, Strangers On a Train)
48. Albert Spica (Michael Gambon, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover)
49. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity)
50. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, American Psycho)
51. John Ryder (Rutger Hauer, The Hitcher)
52. Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, Goodfellas)
53. Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter, All About Eve)
54. Rhoda (Patty McCormack, The Bad Seed)
55. Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death)
56. Arthur “Cody” Jarrett (James Cagney, White Heat)
57. The queen (Lucille La Verne [voice], Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
58. Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson, Rebecca)
59. Max Cady (Robert Mitchum, Cape Fear)
60. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove)
61. Dr. Evil (Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, etc.)
62. Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro, Taxi Driver)
63. Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct)
64. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
65. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, Wall Street)
66. Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon, Rosemary’s Baby)
67. Mountain men (Bill McKinney and Herbert “Cowboy” Coward, Deliverance)
68. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington, Training Day)
69. Jane Hudson (Bette Davis, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?)
70. Cruella De Vil (Betty Lou Gerson [voice], 101 Dalmatians)
71. The evil Maria (Brigitte Helm, Metropolis)
72. The truck driver (Carey Loftin, Duel)
73. Booth (John Malkovich, In the Line of Fire)
74. Erik (Lon Chaney, The Phantom of the Opera)
75. Wendy Kroy (Linda Fiorentino, The Last Seduction)
76. Henry (Michael Rooker, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer)
77. Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast)
78. Roat (Alan Arkin, Wait Until Dark)
79. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen, Reservoir Dogs)
80. Aguirre (Klaus Kinski, Aguirre, the Wrath of God)
81. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club)
82. Catwoman (Michelle Pfieffer, Batman Returns)
83. Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth, Rob Roy)
84. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft, The Graduate)
85. Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt, Casablanca)
86. Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, Back to the Future, etc.)
87. Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
88. Roger Smith (Himself, Roger & Me)
89. Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman, Unforgiven)
90. The monster (Boris Karloff, Frankenstein, etc.)
91. Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow, Flash Gordon)
92. Henry Morrison/Jerry Blake/Bill Hodgkins (Terry O’Quinn, The Stepfather)
93. Mystery Villain ([actor’s name withheld], Primal Fear)
94. Jack Wilson (Jack Palance, Shane)
95. Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm, Peeping Tom)
96. Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton, Mutiny On the Bounty)
97. The Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry, Legend)
98. Krug (David Hess, The Last House On the Left)
99. Clare Qu
ilty (Peter Sellers, Lolita
100. Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
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