Photos: Greatest movie villains of all time

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Photos: Greatest movie villains of all time

Greatest movie villains of all time

Intelligent and evil is a bad combination for humanity, as Anthony Hopkins shows us in 1991's 'Silence of the Lambs.' Hopkins plays the role of Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who, as a cannibal, has a firm understanding of how the mind of a serial killer operates.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, the Godfather features a wealth of fantastic acting performances. But the relatively unknown Al Pacino, as reluctant but brutally effective mafia kingpin Michael Corleone, shows the greatest range in the 1972 classic.

Evil beauty is rarely encapsulated as flawlessly as Barbara Stanwyck managed in the 1944 Billy Wilder film 'Double Indemnity.' Stanwyck, playing the role of housewife Phyllis Dietrichson, uses her prodigious sexual wiles to get naive insurance salesman Fred MacMurray to kill her husband.

Dennis Hopper made a career out of crazy. In the 1986 movie 'Blue Velvet,' the role of Frank Booth -- a violent, drug-addled, sex-crazed sociopath -- fit him like a velvet glove.

Though not an acclaimed actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger's role as an impassive robot sent into the past on an assassination mission is ideally suited for him. The cheesy dialogue is icing on the sci-fi cake.

Jack Nicholson could appear on this list multiples times, but his role as insane hotelier Jack Torrance in 1980's 'The Shining' is his most malefic shining moment.

American actor Louise Fletcher is the nurse no one wants. Her impassive and cruel treatment of patients in 1975's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' earned her an Academy Award, one of five the movie won.

Fortunately, not all nurses are like those on this list. Kathy Bates -- like Louise Fletcher -- won an Academy Award for her role as Annie Wilkes, a deranged woman who 'rescues' an author who breaks his legs in a car wreck near her home and then tortures him for months while holding him captive.

Actress Margaret Hamilton cackled her way to infamy as the The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 musical 'The Wizard of Oz.'

Ralph Fiennes' brought a "sexual evil" to the role of Nazi death camp commandant Amon Goeth in the 1993 war epic 'Schindler's List,' said director Steven Spielberg. He looked and acted so much like the real Amon Goeth that Holocaust survivors "trembled with fear" upon meeting him.

Ricardo Montalban brought genetically engineered space tyrant Khan Noonien Singh to life in a way those familiar with his work on Fantasy Island would never have thought possible. Even in his 60s, the muscular but refined actor proved a physical and mental match for Capt. James T. Kirk in the 1982 film.

Stalkers are inherently scary, but Robert Mitchum (1917 - 1997) as Max Cady in 1962's 'Cape Fear' set a high bar for creepy and dangerous. Robert De Niro did a fine job in the 1991 remake.

Robert De Niro helped make "Taxi Driver" (1976) one of the greatest films of all time. He had plenty of help from an all-star cast, but his portrayal as Travis Bickle, a psychotic Vietnam veteran going on a murderous rampage is convincing.

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Intelligent and evil is a bad combination for humanity, as Anthony Hopkins shows us in 1991's 'Silence of the Lambs.' Hopkins plays the role of Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who, as a cannibal, has a firm understanding of how the mind of a serial killer operates.

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