In an earlier blog, I was talking about favorite movie villains. Entertainment Weekly put together a list of the top 50 bad guys in cinema history.
But, all the villains on the list weren’t guys. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Hedy Carlson character from Single White Female also got a nod from EW. I love Jennifer Jason Leigh and think that she is one of the most underappreciated actresses of my generation. Another female baddie was Annie Wilkes aka Kathy Bates from Misery. This is another movie I never saw, but it just makes my ankles hurt writing about it.
I am sure many of you remember Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho. You almost wanted to feel sorry for the angelic looking Perkins. I mean after all, his mama dealt enough emotional abuse on him as a child that would be enough to drive any of us crazy. But, it was hard to forgive him when he started dressing like her and we found out he kept her corpse in the house with him. Perkins had his own demons to deal with in real life, but you can read more about that in my Price of Fame blog.
Another of my favorite villains is David Carradine from the Kill Bill series. I was never a fan of David Carradine’s and for one reason alone – he replaced Bruce Lee (my childhood hero) as the star of “Kung Fu.” Now even as a 9 year old, I couldn’t understand how David Carradine, obviously Caucasian, was chosen to play an oriental guy in a television show. I just never forgave David for that until I saw him as the charismatic Bill. Bill was a cold-hearted killer who lead a group of cold hearted killers, but just like Lecter, he had some dignity about him. So he put a bullet in pregnant Beatrix’s head, Bill’s character is so captivating, you almost wanted to write it off because she left him brokenhearted. Tarantino did what no other man could do – made me love David Carradine.
Up next, more movie villains!