Christopher Walkenis one of the few Hollywood stars who are better known for playing villains. It’s, therefore, easy to assume he has always been stuck in the typecasting puddle like John Voight or Christopher Lee. However, that’s not the case. In fact, only 10% of the characters he has played can be labeled malicious. The rest of Walken’s other roles consist of heroes and antiheroes.
Still, the perception surrounding the actor makes sense since he has given some of his best performances when he was portraying baddies. Whether it’s an evil stare or a subtle threat, the actor understands what it takes to make someone look terrifying and intimidating. The following are thus some of the best malevolent characters that the Oscar-winning actor has played throughout his six-decade career.
10Mr. Smith – Nick of Time (1995)
Mr. Smith fromNick of Timedespises the methods used by infamous shooters in history like Lee Harvey Oswald and John Hinckley Jr. Rather than just show up with a gun in hand ready to kill the California Governor, Eleanor Grant, he arm-twists the accountant Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) into doing it. Smith lets him know that if he doesn’t comply, he’ll be happy to kill his daughter.
The character thus grants himself a supervisory role and maintains it throughout the movie. Whenever Gene tries to act smart and seek help, Smith thwarts the attempt, reminding him that the clock is ticking. As despicable as he is, his dedication and meticulousness are impressive. To him, the mission has to be accomplished whether Gene feels like it or not.
9Max Shreck – Batman Returns (1992)
Batman Returnsis aperfect Batman film, majorly because it has a dark tone and partly because it has two amazing villains: Penguin and Max Schreck. Though he plays the lesser-known Shreck, Christopher Walken still shines, thanks to his commanding screen presence and how smoothly he delivers his lines of dialogue.
The character stays intriguing by bullying and manipulating everyone around him. He convinces Oswald Cobblepot to run for Gotham Mayor, aware that this will benefit him more than the sewer-based villain. He also attempts to kill Catwoman twice and in one memorable scene, he throws her out of the window. Shreck eventually ends up dead, but he leaves quite a lasting impression.
8Marcus Porcius Cato, aka, Cato the Younger – Julius Ceasar (2002)
The life of Julius Ceasar has been covered in numerous movies and TV shows, yet the TNT miniseries,Julius Ceasarhas a better story because of how deeply it digs into the motivations of the legendary ruler’s enemies. One of the foes is Cato the Younger, played satisfactorily by Christopher Walken.
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Driven by envy and personal ambitions, Cato does his best to curb Ceasar’s growing influence. He badmouths the man to put a dent in his reputation and even allies with Pompey to form a stronger military faction. Unfortunately for him, Ceasar turns out to be too formidable an opponent, causing Cato to take his own life to avoid facing his enemy’s wrath.
7Vincenzo Coccotti – True Romance (1993)
True Romanceis primarily a movie about thedangers of love, but it keenly explores crime too, hence the reason Vincenzo Coccotti stands out. The consigliere for the Detroit mobster “Blue” Lou Boyle enjoys delegating, so he himself hardly appears on-screen. Still, the single lengthy scene he is featured is the movie’s highlight.
“You tell the angels in heaven you have never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you,” he says before pumping bullets into one of the people who knows the whereabouts of the drugs he is after. Interestingly, Coccotti thinks of himself as an honorable man. He claims to have not killed anyone since 1984 and argues that this particular action was very necessary.
6Max Zorin – A View to Kill (1985)
Roger Moore’s final ride as Agent 007 saw him face off against one ofthe evilest Bond villains, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). Described as the product of a Nazi experiment meant to create hyper-smart babies, Zorin puts his focus on the tech industry. His goal is to destroy Silicon Valley so that he can remain the only supplier of microchips, but Bond’s presence makes the job a lot harder for him.
Zorin commits plenty of atrocious acts throughoutA View to Kill.In one shocking scene, he guns down all construction workers who are attempting to flee while he is in the process of destroying Silicon Valley. He also drops a Soviet Spy into a turbine and murders an investor who isn’t willing to go with his plan to monopolize the chip market. Even Zorin’s own people aren’t safe, and when he gets the chance, he is quick to betray his henchwoman and lover, May Day.
5Archangel Gabriel - The Prophecy (1995)
Gabriel is introduced inThe Prophecyas one of the highest-ranking figures in heaven and is described as the angel of vengeance, annunciation, and death. After a disagreement with God, he comes to Earth to seek an evil soul that will help him conduct and coup and be the new leader.
Like many other villains that thirst for power, Gabriel is shown to be petty. His feud with God is inspired by the creator’s adoration for humans, despite their flaws. Over the course of the film, he keeps referring to humans as “talking monkeys” as a way to demean them. Nonetheless, he remains an interesting character in all of his scenes. His witty bible-related jokes all land well while his angry reactions from not knowing how to operate Earth’s technology are fun to watch.
4Toomey – Biloxi Blues (1988)
Among the numerouscritically acclaimed military comediesthat have been made,Biloxi Bluesis more recommendable because of the dynamic between the drill sergeant, Toomey (Christopher Walken), and his trainees. Modeled after Sgt. Hartman fromFull Metal Jacket, Toomey thrives by being condescending and making everyone fear him.
Since he is ever eager to punish lawbreakers,Biloxi Bluesis littered with scenes where Toomey asks an unknown culprit to “step forward.” He keeps clashing with the junior officers and while he mostly gets to dominate him, they eventually get the upper hand, making him realize the error of his ways and vow to change.
3Hatcher – The Rundown (2003)
The Rundownfeatures Dwayne Johnson in his early Hollywood. In it. He plays a bounty hunter who heads to Brazil to retrieve his employer’s son, but standing in his way is a capitalistic mine operator named Hatcher (Walken). He is the typical tycoon type of villain who has hundreds of men working for him and won’t bulge on any of his demands.
For most of the film, Hatcher terrorizes villagers and employees alike, making audiences eager to see his downfall. His numerous clashes with the protagonist are mostly defined by clever dialogue rather than punches and shootouts and as someone with the perfect baddie voice, Walken shines in such scenes. The character eventually dies, but not before he causes all kinds of havoc in the small mining town.
2Shanks – Scam (1993)
Lorraine Bracco’s work is hard to find outsideThe SopranosandGoodfellas, yet she has had numerous good roles, notably that of the con artist Maggie in the Showtime TV movie,Scam. Maggie has a great run parting people with their hard-earned money until she meets the psychopathic Jack Shanks (Walken), who forces her to participate in his own criminal activities.
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Walken’s role has some similarities with that of Mr. Smith inNick of Timebecause both characters are basically puppeteers. They enjoy seeing their captives suffer as they do jobs for them. As expected, the relationship between the two characters soon descends into mayhem, forcing Shanks to regret everything he put his victim through.
1Alex ‘Shondor’ Birns – Kill the Irishman (2011)
Like Martin Scorsese’sThe Irishman,Kill the Irishmanalso focuses on a union leader who gets in bed with the mob. Walken plays the notorious real-world Jewish mobster Alex “Shondor” Birns, who was once named “Public Enemy Number 1” by law enforcement authorities in Cleveland.
In the movie, Birns is the typical evil mob boss. He prefers whacking people instead of ironing out differences via dialogue and is very brutal to his debtors. Like Vincenzo Coccotti inTrue Romance,Birns doesn’t have too many scenes inKill the Irishman, yet his few appearances leave a lot to be desired, thanks to Walken’s charisma.
