WGN Morning News Blog

You may have caught my top ten list of the best on-screen villians of all time. If not, you can check it out at wgntv.com/deanslist.

It's always hard to whittle a list like that down to just ten characters. Even 25 is too small. Here are some of YOUR early suggestions of would could have been on the list. Feel free to add more.
Dean

name: John
city: Covina, California
Dean, your list of the best villains was great. Uh, but I realize your opinion of the top individual (a deep-voiced Darth Vader complete with full helmet and flowing robe was OBVIOUSLY better than any cool slyness shown from the bald-faced practitioner of coolness known as Hannibal
Lecter) might have been a bit of a slip had I not heard you correctly.
Love the work of James Earl Jones immensely, but to me the lasting impression of his work as Vader did not have the same chilling impact on the viewing public as that of Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Lecter. All you need for proof is in the total nonchalance with which Hopkins' roles following the "Lamb" films has been able to toy with the minds of the viewing public.
"Lasting impression" is what gives Hopkins' Dr. Lecter greater curb appeal than Jones' Vader.
Love your work, Dean. Care for some fava beans and a nice chianti?

name: M. C.
city: Berwyn ,Il. 60402
How about " Chucky "how would you rate him as a villan???? Me!,,,,I give "Chucky" #1

Name: Kenny
city: Chico., IL. 60624
Dean,
How could you forget about (who should be 1a) Lex Luther?!?!

name: George
city: Elmhurts, IL 60126
Just saw your top villians list-and my wife and I feel you missed a key villian "Max Caddy" from Cape Fear-the Robert Deniro rendition-just thought we would share our thoughts

name: Pamela
city: Calumet City, IL 60409
Dean,
I think that you TOTALLY forgot about Denzel Washington's crooked cop gig "Training Day"----he was a real jerk (this won him an Oscar, though).............Christian Bale also deserves a nod for "American Psycho"..........Other than these, your list is not bad at all!!!!!!!! Thanks alot.....

Hi Dean Richards!
I'm Margot. I'm 14... and I just caught your top 10 list.. and when it was over my family was wondering why Voldemort wasn't on there!! He is epic! Ralph Fiennes (I think that's how you spell it?) is amazing in the role... and even if he weren't... the role itself is evil enough to be recognized! Haha... just a thought :] Thanks for reading

name: Cecile
city: Schaumburg, IL 60193
In your search for the most evil in movies - you left out:
Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear and Night of the Hunter Thank you, Cecile

name: Rev. Bob
city: Chicago, IL 60643
Hi Dean,
Enjoyed your Top 10 villain list; I haven't yet seen "No Country...," but I'll trust you that the guy should be in there. My only addition, and I realize he may not rise to the "cinematic impact" criterion you were going for, would have to be Kevin Spacey's horrifying John Doe character from "Se7en." Admittedly, he wasn't actually on-screen very long, but his vicious brutality definitely was, and his creepy sermon in the ride in the cop car made up for his time off-screen! Thanks...

name: Sam
city: Park Ridge, IL
I would think Police Captain Hank Quinlan from a touch of evil would make the most evil character list.

Dean,
I think the Joker is definitely the best villian. The movie just came out and has broken the record, mostly because everyone talks about how crazy he is. Joker is has a lot more personality than Darth Vader. Actually I think Darth is pretty boring. I think that soon, the Joker may be as popular as Darth, or even more popular.
-Alissa

Dean,
Here are my picks.
Darth Vader (Star Wars) - In all honesty, while good ol' Doctor Hannibal Lector is a pretty horrifying individual, Darth Vader steals the cake. Not only is he one of the most well-known characters in film history (let alone villains), he's a complex villain who evolves as the series grows, and is practically a separate being from Anakin Skywalker. And let's not even discuss the big reveal in The Empire Strikes Back.

Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs) - Some may think he's the ultimate villain in film history, and I don't dispute he's one of them. Hannibal is almost inhuman in how terrifying he is, and like some villains have, Hannibal is easily the most important character in the cast of every movie he has ever appeared in. I swear, I even had a nightmare about him - something I've never had with ANY other villain, even Freddy Krueger, the master of nightmarish villainy.

Mr. Potter (It's a Wonderful Life) - Easily the most normal villain on this list, and yet, one of the worst monsters on it as well. Mr. Potter would stop at nothing to control the town, even ruining a poor man's life in the process. Throughout the events of the film, we see how he grows wickeder and wickeder. And yet still, one of his best aspects is that he's not just a fatcat villain twirling his thin moustache - he's THE fatcat villain twirling his thin moustache. And on top of all this, even though he lives to ruin others to help himself, even offering to help the hero who he has attempted to ruin throughout the film for the sake of hurting the greater good, we see him attempting to return a large sum of money to an employee of the hero. He may have decided against it in an attempt to further ruin the hero, but even still, there was that glimmer of good in him that made him more than many other villains.

Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) - Ah, Nurse Ratched. The Wicked Witch of the West may be wicked, but she can't hold a candle to this witch, who has absolute control over the patients in the mental ward she administers, controlling almost every necessity including cigarettes and even food or bathroom privileges. Upon the admittance of R.P. McMurphy, an inmate who fakes insanity to get moved to the psychic ward, she becomes frustrated by his outright defiance of her, and destroying the control she had over her patients. She fights him at every turn, trying to conquer him, and failing each time. The morning after McMurphy throws a party with the and a couple prostitutes, she discovers one of the younger patients, Billy Bibbit, in bed with one of the prostitutes, and while he initially defies her in spite of his timidness (especially towards her), she threatens to tell his mother about this, which makes him succumb. Despite him succumbing, she persists on trying to tear him down, and once she leaves the room, he kills himself by slitting his throat to avoid the shame. It doesn't help that she drove a young man whom she knew to be a suicide risk to killing himself, but she just kinds of shrugs it off and tells everyone to go back to their business. McMurphy, angry at her indifference, attempts to kill her by strangling her, but is thwarted. She ends up with her neck in a brace, and has McMurphy labotomized. She is practically mad in her administration over the ward, and cares more about that control than every single patient in the ward.

HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) - The only non-living being on my list - HAL 9000, the computer onboard the spaceship Discovery. is really not evil; merely misunderstood. All of his actions, while dangerous to the lives of those on the space ship, were not based on malice or motive, but logic - HAL did nothing more than what he believed to be the greater good, which was to keep the knowledge of the ancient monoliths a secret, which it attempted to accomplish by killing the crew, so there would be no one who could be told of the monoliths. The most interesting aspect of HAL is how he grew to have complex emotions, most notably the paranoia as the result of a programming error that led him to kill most of the crew on the ship, and later, the fear of being killed once David began to disable him. Despite his status as a non-living being, HAL is one of the most human villains in cinematic history, and yet the most frightening - extremely intelligent, and a being who believes that the wrongs he is doing are right, with no ability to do anything but accomplish his goal regardless of who gets in his path.