Cinema's vilest villains

25 July 2008 05:32pm

The new Batman film may only have been released this week, but film fans have already deemed Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker to be worthy of a place in a list of the Top 10 ultimate villains.

We take a look at all the performances that made the list:

:: Sir Anthony Hopkins - Hannibal Lecter

Anthony's portrayal of the talented psychiatrist and cannibalistic killer in Silence Of The Lambs won him the 1991 Academy Award for Best Actor. The memorable villain has since been parodied in television shows like South Park and The Simpsons.

:: David Prowse (and voiced by James Earl Jones) - Darth Vader

The brutal 'Dark Lord of the Sith' is the leading villain in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. In the original film trilogy Vader was played by bodybuilder David and given his unmistakable deep voice by actor James.

:: Joe Pesci - Tommy DeVito

Joe played the true-life Mafia gangster, real name Tommy DeSimone, in the 1990 Goodfellas. His menacing performance alongside Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

:: Javier Bardem - Anton Chigurh

The Times Online described the hitman villain of No Country For Old Men as "a satanic force of nature", who was played by Javier "with scene-stealing weirdness". The Coen brothers' film sees Javier chasing an antelope hunter across the country alongside a local sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones.

:: Alan Rickman - Hans Gruber

Alan plays German terrorist Hans in the 1988 action movie Die Hard. Producer Joel Silver reportedly offered the role to the actor after seeing him play the villainous Vicomte de Valmont in a stage version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

:: Kathy Bates - Annie Wilkes

Kathy scooped a Best Actress gong at the Oscars for her portrayal of Misery's Annie Wilkes, a crazed nurse who takes her favourite writer captive. The film was based on a novel by best-selling horror writer Stephen King.

:: Kevin Spacey - John Doe

Kevin's nasty serial killer in the horror film Seven took audiences by surprise by appearing late in the movie and going unmentioned in the film's ads. The actor reportedly insisted that his name be removed from the opening credits to give the audience an added shock.

:: Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance

In another adaptation of a Stephen King novel, The Shining, Nicholson terrified audiences with his crazed eyes and 'Here's Johnny!' catchphrase.

:: Heath Ledger - The Joker

Heath's performance in the new Batman film The Dark Knight has seen calls for a posthumous Oscar. The Daily Mirror described the portrayal as "as pure a distillation of evil as you can imagine".

:: Robert De Niro - Al Capone

Robert stars in The Untouchables as infamous gang leader Al Capone, who has almost all of a corrupt Chicago under his control. Sean Connery has also received a nod for his performance in the film - movie buffs at Empire magazine voted him the actor with the worst accent for his Irish brogue as the cop Jim Malone.

© The Press Association