12 Actors Who Always Play Villains

Many actors complain about being pigeonholed into playing the same role in all their movies, but these actors seem to be very happy with the type of roles they get hired for! After all—playing a villain is always exciting. You can count on having an evil monologue, a lot of screen time, and a memorable character.

Here are 12 actors and actresses that often get cast to play villains!

Christoph Waltz

Christoph Waltz really took off as the go-to cunning villain after his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards. He was a truly harrowing character in that movie. He was scary not because he was a Nazi, but because he was simply a person who was really good at his job doing his job to help the Nazis. Since then he’s acted in Tarantino’s Django Unchained, the Tarzan movie, and was cast as the cardinal in the 2011 remake of The Three Musketeers.

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is a brilliant actress. I honestly haven’t seen a single move with her where I wasn’t absolutely blown away by her acting. Her villainous streak started with her role in the Oscar-winning Monster. Since then she’s played the villain in a Fast & Furious franchise installment and the evil itch in Snow White.

Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee is the fantasy-nerd’s favorite villain actor. He played Saruman in Lord of the Rings, he played Count Dooku in Star Wars, in addition to his role as Dracula in the 1958 movie and a Bond villain in Man with the Golden Gun!

Javier Bardem

While we’re on the subject of Bond, let’s talk about how brilliant Javier Bardem was as a Bond villain in Skyfall! Not only was Skyfall a brilliant movie in and of itself (basically a Home Alone for adults!), but the villain was scary too! He was a sociopath and psychopath. He just wanted to cause chaos and see the world burn, without any selfish motives.

But his true most villainous role was in No Country for Old Men, where he depicted Anton Chigurh. Sure, I might be a fan of this role because we share the same first name, but also Anton Chigurh is an all-time Top 10 Best Villains in movies!