Top 10 Brits Who Always Play Villains

While he’s well known for his TV role as Sherlock Holmes, the mostly well-intentioned master detective, Benedict Cumberbatch has a bunch of more sinister acting credits to his name. He took on the Enterprise as Khan in 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness”, and he’s the voice of Smaug, the Necromancer and Sauron in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy. Aside from Middle Earth he’s Shere Khan in the 2018 adaptation of “The Jungle Book”, he was The Creature in a Danny Boyle stage production of “Frankenstein”, and even his ‘good guy’ characters carry an intimidating streak. Stephen Strange is an arrogant surgeon before his accident and injury, while Sherlock is a self-confessed ‘high-functioning sociopath’.

Of all of today’s top ten, Sir Ian McKellen is arguably the most difficult to categorise. This guy’s got it all in his acting locker, from troubled film directors to long-bearded wizards. But his booming vocals seem custom-built for bad guy roles, the most famous of which comes in the “X-Men” franchise. Starring as Magneto he’s hell bent on a mutant uprising. Michael Fassbender is another who might’ve featured today, not least for his role as junior Magneto, but McKellen moves heaven and earth just a little more menacingly. Other evil marks in McKellen’s back catalogue include the conceited Sir Leigh Teabing in “The Da Vinci Code”, a Nazi-in-hiding in “Apt Pupil” and the power-hungry title role in “Richard III”.

Another with an impressive acting range, Helena Bonham Carter specialises in period and alternative roles, with many of her characters housing outwardly, indirectly or unconventionally unjust motives. There’s manipulative Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations”, the self-centred Kate Croy in “The Wings of the Dove” and the entirely inhospitable Madame Thernardier in “Les Miserables”. As Miss Lovette in “Sweeney Todd” she makes literal mincemeat out of the demon barber’s victims, and as “Alice in Wonderland”s Red Queen she makes the meanest of monarchs. But HBC’s high point of villainy has to be the “Harry Potter” series. As Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldermort’s most loyal Death Eater, she’s malevolence incarnate with the evillest of evil cackles.

We stay within the wizarding world for our next entry; the man who made Lucius Malfoy one of the most easily hateable characters in modern cinema. Introduced at a Gilderoy Lockhart book signing in Diagon Alley, it’s immediately clear where Draco gets it all from. But there’s more to Isaacs than enslaving house elves and inflicting the Cruciatus curse. He also spooks as Captain Hook in 2003’s “Peter Pan”, and he even voiced Superman adversary Lex Luthor in a 2015 direct-to-DVD DC animation. He plays a brutal soldier in the Mel Gibson epic “The Patriot”, and a leading role in the mid-2000s Showtime series “Brotherhood” saw Isaacs shine as a ruthless gangster. Do not double cross this guy.

Of course, not all villains wear capes, and Tilda Swinton’s better than most at finding what makes a baddie tick. With parts in “Constantine” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” she has all supernatural bases covered, while a role as the ominous ‘Social Services’ in “Moonrise Kingdom” brings out a bureaucratic aspect to her craft. She can be ruthless [“Michael Clayton”], unabashedly cruel [“Okja”] and Swinton herself has described her character in 2013’s “Snowpiercer” as ‘monstrous’ and ‘maniacal’; in the film she feeds insect-filled protein bars to starving train passengers. And that’s before we even get to the White Witch in Narnia, one of the most notorious villains in all of children’s literature and the reason we’re all terrified of Turkish Delight.

As with many actors on today’s list, the voice is vital for a convincing villain. And Jeremy Irons is pitch perfect. His well-rounded accent sent spines of all ages a shiver in “The Lion King” where he roars as the evil uncle Scar. And, given that most of his menacing is relayed through a phone, his vocals are just as key in the third “Die Hard” film. Irons also plays Pope Alexander VI in “The Borgias” (a high-ranking figure of questionable moral standing) and Michael Fassbender’s chief foe in 2016’s “Assassin’s Creed”. He even gets to assume to the part of Snape in a French and Saunders Harry Potter spoof, briefly stepping into the shoes of another celebrated serial antagonist…

From Air Force One to Azkaban, Gary Oldman makes every role his own with remarkable versatility. Count Dracula is perhaps his most iconic ‘evil’ character, in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 adaptation, but throughout the early ‘90s Oldman proved a prolific villain in general. One year previous he was Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, while in ’93 he stepped out as dreadlocked pimp Drexl in “True Romance”. He earned yet more rave reviews as the unhinged Norman Stansfield in “Leon: The Professional”, before terrorising “The Fifth Element” and hijacking the President’s plane. The 2000s saw Oldman become the Ministry of Magic’s public enemy number one, but he still found time to star as Lord Shen in “Kung Fu Panda”.

The Harry Potter party shows no signs of letting up, as Ralph Fiennes is probably best known for his role as Daniel Radcliffe’s soul-splitting nemesis. Throughout the saga, Voldermort is always on hand with an Avada Kedavra or two, and there’s usually an evil laugh to follow. But Fiennes is famed for more than just He Who Must Not Be Named. In “Red Dragon” he plays a serial killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, and in “In Bruges” he barely controls his anger as crime boss Harry Walters. However, for many, the role which truly sticks is Fiennes’ portrayal of the Nazi war criminal Amon Goeth in “Schindler’s List”. It’s another level of evil.

Vampires, monsters, Sith Lords and sorcerers; you name it, Christopher Lee played it. A regular on the roster for Hammer Horror Films in the early parts of his career, Lee’s turns as Dracula and The Creature are still hailed by critics, and he simply never lost his touch. He battled Bond as the ‘man with the golden gun’, went toe to toe with the Jedi as Count Dooku, and got on the wrong side of Gandalf in Middle Earth. At this point it’s only fair we mention Peter Cushing, who also starred in the ‘50s “Frankenstein” films, “The Mummy” and “Star Wars”, but it’s Lee who’s scared himself to second place. Even as Willy Wonka’s dad, he’s damned frightening.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Tom Hardy

Ben Kingsley

Robert Carlyle

A celebrated character actor who crossed generations, Alan Rickman is our villain extraordinaire. On the one hand he could appear criminally uninterested, exasperated or annoyed; on the other he’d play a primed mastermind, controlling and composed. Depending on your age he’s either best known as Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” or Severus Snape in “Harry Potter” (the last Potter link, we assure you!). And yes, he came good for Harry in the end, but not before years of veiled threats and in-class put downs. Elsewhere, Rickman plays the Sheriff of Nottingham, a heartless judge in “Sweeney Todd” and a husband led astray in “Love Actually”. He’s the best of a delightfully bad bunch.