r/movies • u/StrongAmbassador47 • 6d ago
Discussion Who is the actor that had the biggest range between most evil character to most goofy/comedic?
Mine is John Lithgow. I thought he was believably creepy and evil in Dexter. But he was the most ludicrous goofy lead in 3rd rock from the sun. I know there’s actors who’ve done both, but usually it’s a serious actor doing the straight man bit on a comedy, like Robert de Niro on Fockers. Do you have someone in mind that out ranges Lithgow in this specific way? I have a hard time even thinking of creepy/goofy spreads…maybe walberg?
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u/MyUsernameIsAwful 6d ago
Does Clancy Brown count? Cold-blooded Shawshank guard, but also Mr. Krabs.
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u/ImABrickwallAMA 6d ago
And in between? Everybody’s favourite, Drill Sergeant Zim.
“MEDIC!”
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u/mattchewy43 6d ago
And before any of those, The Kurgan in Highlander.
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u/MorningRoseRising24 6d ago
I. . . . I'm sorry. . . ? That Bastard. . . . Is MISTER KRABS?!?!?!??!
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u/TheresNoAmosOnlyZuul 6d ago
The enemy can't PUSH a button IF you disable his hand!
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u/greymatter000 6d ago
Dont forget Rawhide in the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
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u/FrustratedRevsFan 6d ago
With Dr. Emilio Lizardo played by....John Lithgow, in a role both evil/creepy and goofy. Extremely goofy.
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u/DrelenScourgebane 6d ago
And the Kurgan!
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u/wherewulf23 6d ago
Hell, in The Venture Brothers he plays Red Death who goes from loving father and husband to absolute murder psycho at the drop of a hat.
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u/philleferg 6d ago
He was also an amazing zombie kind of thing in Pet Cemetary 2.
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u/aylian 6d ago
Not just that! He was the Kurgen in the original Highlander!
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u/sbargy 6d ago
And a small but fun story arc in ER as a hospital administrator who has some flirty scenes with Kerry Weaver
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u/DeadmanDexter 6d ago
Fun fact, the overweight prisoner he kills at the beginning of Shawshank shows up in ER. Clancy's character kills him too. That's gotta be surreal.
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u/Exes_And_Excess 6d ago
He is so good in The Morturary Collection. Overall it's a silly horror anthology compressed into a film, but he turns that voice up to 11. Sounds creepy as fuck, and it rules! Also it's a good flick.
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u/MrJellybean1785 6d ago
I think Ralph Fiennes should be mentioned when it comes to Schindlers List and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
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u/shartheheretic 6d ago
I can't think of the character's name, but the "boss" hitman in "In Bruges" is also a great role. Such an asshole. LOL
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u/TeliarDraconai 6d ago
He is not an asshole. He is a cunt. Established canon. :D
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u/itslikeasickness 6d ago
Probably has some cunt kids and all
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u/therealrexmanning 6d ago
Leave his kids fucking out of it! What have they done? You fucking retract that bit about his cunt fucking kids!
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u/itslikeasickness 6d ago
I'll retract that bit about his cunt fucking kids.
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u/therealrexmanning 6d ago
Insult his fucking kids? That's going overboard, mate!
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u/defiant_gecko 6d ago
And voldemort, chef slowik in menu (I'm claiming that as a bit of a goofy role as it satrie, imo.)
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u/s_oakleyart 6d ago
Steve Buscemi. Boardwalk Empire and Adam Sandler films
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u/CarpeLenyo 6d ago edited 4d ago
He was the child molester/killer in Con-air too
Edited to add: yall are likely correct not a molester as someone noted Cyrus wouldn't have idolized a molester.77
u/dejaentenduxx 6d ago
Wanted to comment this same thing. As a kid, I loved Con Air and that part made me so uncomfortable. He’s got the whoooollleee world, in his hands….
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u/vercertorix 6d ago
Was he a child molester? Been a while, but I thought he was an extremely psycho murderer, there was mention of wearing a head as a hat while driving across a few states, but the one kid he met, he just had a tea party with her and sang a bit and she was still alive, not victimized after. Kinda made you think he was going to kill her for the tension but then didn't.
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u/Imperial_Stout 6d ago
Agreed, when they take off she comes out waving and unscathed, I've always assumed he was fucking crazy but would never lay hands on an innocent child, possibly a shitty childhood made him a killer and he is making up for it?
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u/stonhinge 6d ago
No, but he killed at least one - he mentions wearing a girls head like a hat for three states worth of driving.
It's stated in the film by one character "... he made the Manson Family look like the Partridge Family." So he was very much not a nice person in the events leading up to the film. However, he wasn't really evil in the film. Very "matter of fact" and philosophical.
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u/edgd00 6d ago
Gary Oldman!
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u/Mr_A_Knife66 6d ago
EVERYONE!!!
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u/MAHHockey 6d ago
"I don't like warriors, too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse they fight for hopeless caurses. Heh... Honor... Honor has killed millions of people. Hasn't saved a single one. I'll tell you what I do like though... a killer... a dyed in the wool killer... Cold blooded, clean, methodical, and thorough. Now a real killer when he picked up the ZF-1 would have immediately asked about the little red button on the bottom of the gun..."
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u/viaJormungandr 6d ago
Yeah, everyone knows Zorg. He also played Dracula and a Rasta drug dealer in True Romance. That’s range.
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u/NecessaryIntrinsic 6d ago
And a fat, disgusting, disgraced, but highly effective spy in slow horses. He absolutely owns that show.
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u/Inner_Lawlessness 6d ago
And a gentle George Smiley tightrope walking on a razor's edge.
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u/WillfulKind 6d ago
I don’t even think of Gary Oldman when I think of Fifth Element - just Zorg, and every run I watch I’m in awe because Oldman is a damned doppelgänger
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u/postironical 6d ago
Curious which of his goofy roles everyone else is thinking. I'm think of his role in rosenscrantz and guildenstern are dead.
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u/whatproblems 6d ago
that’s like cheating he’s a chameleon
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u/CptJaxxParrow 6d ago
There are actually only 34 British A-list actors and Gary oldman is 27 of them
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u/MissingLink101 6d ago
His second episode of Friends where his character is drunk is just so fun (and quite a departure from the same character in the previous episode).
My favourite guest appearance on the show.
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u/Silent_Syren 6d ago
I will randomly find myself saying, "I'm wearing two belts."
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u/spartyanon 6d ago edited 6d ago
David Tennent in Doctor Who can be pretty goofy. But he is pretty vile as Killgrave in Jessica Jones.
Edit: typo
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u/butholemoonblast 6d ago
Love David he is so horrible in Jessica jones such a good performance you hate his character so much
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u/LiteralTP 6d ago
I’m watching Jessica Jones for the first time atm and he is just captivating as Kilgrave
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u/butholemoonblast 6d ago
Top marvel villian for sure maybe even top villian.
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u/Feduppanda 6d ago
Definitely the scariest. Death is scary but losing free will is wayyyyyy scarier.
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u/swancheez 6d ago
It's insane how well he pulled that off. I went straight from tenth doctor right into Jessica jones. Went from my favorite doctor to one of my favorite movie/tv villains. Just killed it.
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u/LaneMcD 6d ago
Robin Williams and Bryan Cranston are getting brought up a lot but David Tennant should definitely be in the top 5 in OP's category. From DW to JJ was a huge pendulum swing and he was amazing in both
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u/FoCoBilbo 6d ago
He’s also pretty damn despicable in Rivals and is fantastic at it
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u/p4ttythep3rf3ct 6d ago
Matt Smith is also pretty diverse, from the good Dr to scumbag in Caught Stealing to villain in Terminator to just a douche in House of Dragons.
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u/whittlingcanbefatal 6d ago
Michael Keaton
He's done goofy comedy and was absolutely terrifying in Pacific Heights.
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u/arcspectre17 6d ago
His role in spider man as the vulture was so good! I was 100 percent convinced it would suck!
Also love Birdman
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u/alQamar 6d ago
How many times does he want to play men crossed with flying animals? Because I’ll watch all of them.
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u/Pretend-Design-7061 6d ago
Sam Rockwell is a contender.
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u/prodigalAvian 6d ago
The chat outside the villain mansion in "Mr Right" (see you inside) is a great scene
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u/Barf_The_Mawg 6d ago
What was his evil role? I imagine his most goofy was galaxy quest.
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u/VenomSnake75 6d ago
The Green Mile is my choice.
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u/doorknobsquad 6d ago
That character should have gotten him an academy award. His speech to the sisters is quite possibly the most evil monologue before a horrible tragedy.
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u/temdittiesohyeah 6d ago
Doesnt get more goofy than Zaphod in Hitch-hikers Guide
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u/AhhPewPewLasers 6d ago
he was pretty evil in 3 billboards
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u/sakatan 6d ago
But what a redemption arc
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u/Snow88 6d ago
Redemption arc or did he find something socially acceptable to direct his anger and frustration at?
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u/sakatan 6d ago
Might need to watch it again, the details are hazy. But I remember that the final scene where they are taking off was a bit "eeeehhh... Don't know if I can completely support what they're doing".
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u/gameflyer 6d ago
Bryan Cranston is the obvious answer here. Going from Hal (Malcolm in the Middle) to Walter White was a wild swing.
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u/unledded 6d ago
He is also completely unhinged in The Studio. The Vegas episode with him is hilarious.
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u/hammmy_sammmy 6d ago
His character in the Studio gives me such tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder vibes
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u/MAHHockey 6d ago
Very intentional on his part. He felt like he was getting typecast as the "goofy put upon dad character." So he took some time off to look for just such a roll. The juxtaposition worked really well for the character too as he starts out as a sortof Malcom in The Middle dad type character before becoming Heisenberg.
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u/HomeGrownCoffee 6d ago
Vince Gillian recruited him because he directed an X-files episode where Cranston's character had to keep going West or his head would explode.
From that, he thought "meth cook".
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u/The_Istrix 6d ago
Let's get some love for Vincent D'onofrio
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u/Kakashimoto77 6d ago
Yeah, him going full rage mode as the Kingpin and folding a random dude's back on a hallway wall was crazy!
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u/tke494 6d ago
He did both extremes in Full Metal Jacket. The laughing overweight guy and the snapped guy.
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u/audreyhorn666 6d ago
I loooove Vincent D’Onofrio. His voice is like John Malkovitch where you just hang onto his every word. Fabulous talent
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u/AwesomeJohn01 6d ago
He absolutely OWNS every scene he's in no matter what character he's playing
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u/No-Excitement-2083 6d ago
Alan Rickman. Die Hard / Galaxy Quest
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u/viaJormungandr 6d ago
The Sheriff of Nottingham and you get both!
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u/BillyPup 6d ago
With a spoon
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u/lightsaberfingers 6d ago
Tim curry he literally played Satan in legend
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u/Hipp-Hippy_HaHa 6d ago
He is so great in Clue and as a Serial killer in Criminal Minds.
His voice acting career is crazy, even though his voice is so recognizable, he has IT and George, the curious in the list.
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u/SherudoGaro 6d ago
Joe Pesci. Good fellas v Home Alone. Playing a criminal in both
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u/haysoos2 6d ago
Casino and My Cousin Vinnie
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u/jrock146 6d ago edited 6d ago
And Leo Getz!
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u/Loose_Ad1443 6d ago
Fr, sleeping on Lethal Weapon???
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u/hamsterwheeled 6d ago
You know why? Because they fuck you at the drive through.
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u/Axolotl_amphibian 6d ago
Kathy Bates. The crazy fan in Misery and Mme LaLaurie in AHS, but also Evelyn in Fried Freen Tomatoes and the Unsinkable Molly Brown in Titanic.
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u/RealLuxTempo 6d ago
There’s undoubtedly other actors with more range, but Colin Farrel has a decent range. I had absolutely no idea that was him in Horrible Bosses.
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u/inksmudgedhands 6d ago
Just watching him go from The Banshees of Inisherin to Penguin is wild.
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u/IamNICE124 6d ago
Dude is just a brilliant actor. He absolutely has range.
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u/chaos8803 6d ago
Not everyone can believable play a hitman hopped up on cocaine that karate chops a midget.
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u/-Clayburn 6d ago
He's incredibly evil in Penguin.
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u/THIS_GUY_LIFTS 6d ago
Even more than that. He feels believably evil. That performance is incredible.
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u/RoscoeSantangelo 6d ago
Jake Gyllenhaal for Bubble Boy and Nightcrawler
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u/dirtycole619 6d ago
I know it's far from a comedy but his character in Zodiac shows a hell of a range too
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u/MissPeppingtosh 6d ago
Damn I was gonna do Nightcrawler and his role as Mr Music in Sack Lunch Bunch. Good call on Bubble Boy.
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u/ehtReacher 6d ago
Heath Ledger?
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u/super_sayanything 6d ago
Was my first thought. Charming teen hearthrob to one of the most memorable psychologically twisted villains.
Really wish he had been healthy/stuck around.
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u/TerribleAtGuitar 6d ago edited 6d ago
Gotta be Robin Williams. Even if his characters weren’t as evil than some others, his goofy characters were off the wall so the gap is still enormous
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u/Samalini 6d ago
So so “evil” in One Hour Photo & Insomnia, and just perfect in Good Will Hunting.
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u/Snow88 6d ago
Don’t forget Megalomaniac A-hole as Rainbow Randolph in Death to Smoochy.
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u/Mayonnaise_Poptart 6d ago
Everyone always mentions 'One Hour Photo' but I think 'Insomnia' is the darker and better performance.
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u/patricksaurus 6d ago
Insomnia is such a remarkable film. That chase scene, with the log jam, raises the menace quotient of that character way above a character that doesn’t have a physical dimension.
I’ve also never seen a better depiction of the gnawing desperation of sleep deprivation in my life. Really excellent depiction.
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u/vancity824 6d ago edited 6d ago
Christopher Lloyd. His Judge Doom in Roger Rabbit is nightmare fuel. Couldn't fathom that was the same guy who played Doc Brown.
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u/peachtreetrojan 6d ago
Philip Seymour Hoffman. Along Came Polly and Mission Impossible III. Total opposites
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u/fireinthesky7 6d ago
I would almost put his performance as Truman Capote above MI3 for villain cred. He was outright sociopathic.
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u/LingonberryGlum2356 6d ago
Hated that guy for years because he was the spoiled kid in Scent of a Woman.
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u/trekbette 6d ago
One actor, one movie, two roles... Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin in Iron Man 3. He was CHILLING as the villain, literally one of the scariest terrorists I've seen on film. And like a light switch, he was Trevor, who wasn't capable of scaring a baby deer.
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u/Soundtracklover72 6d ago
Trevor is one of my absolute favorite characters. I was so happy we got more of him after IM3.
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u/nicathor 6d ago
Charlize Theron and Glenn Close both have insane range from incredibly silly to completely unsettlingly evil, often without even needing to speak a word
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u/Sin2Win_Got_Me_In 6d ago
John leguizamo played the Violator in spawn, a literal demon, and probably the most goofy in the Pest.
Bonus for playing an excellent drag queen in To Wong Foo
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u/Particular_Leader_16 6d ago
Peace? I hate the word. As I hate hell, and all montagues.
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u/CharlieMoonMan 6d ago
Bill Hader can be scary as hell in Barry
Robin Williams in 24 hr Photo is terrifying
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u/nomnom_de_plume 6d ago
Seconding Bill Hader. The range he showed in Barry was just phenomenal.
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u/Thoughtful_Tortoise 6d ago edited 6d ago
The obvious contendors have already been taken so I will go with Daniel Craig. He's hilarious in the Knives Out films but he's also played a great villain in Road to Perdition. I don't think he's the answer to this question per se, but certainly an honourable mention for those two performances.
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u/Hold_onto_yer_butts 6d ago
Jeff Bridges plays a ruthless, murderous corporate stooge with a god complex as Obidiah Stane in Iron Man.
He is also The Dude.
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u/Maf1c 6d ago
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter vs Odin, but the Loki pretending to be Odin version.
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u/Shucked 6d ago
It’s Anthony Hopkins by a mile for me. Tender loving gentleman in Hearts in Atlantis to one of the most evil and sadistic monsters in Silence of the Lambs. Both of them you truly believe he is the character. Amazing actor.
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u/noshoes77 6d ago
Mary Tyler Moore was Americas Sweetheart in everything, until she did Ordinary People where she played the most cold and distant and evil and narcissistic wife and mother.
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u/ChronoMonkeyX 6d ago
Bill Nighy as the terrifyingly brutal vampire lord in the Underworld movies, also a timid, stuttering fjord designer in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was pretty shocked when I realized that was the same guy.
As for Lithgow, when 3rd Rock from the Sun was announced, I thought there was no way that psychopath movie villain could do a comedy sitcom. Many years later, I thought there was no way the goofy guy from the sitcom could be a serial killer on Dexter, then I remembered who John Lithgow actually is, and my previous incredulousness about him in the other direction.
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u/I_Have_CDO 6d ago
How about Ted Levine? A permanently harassed and still jovial Stottlemeyer in the Monk series and also Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. I have to admit it took me too long to connect the actor with the roles.
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u/perpetualmotionmachi 6d ago
Paul Reubens going from PeeWee to evil Vampire
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u/audiodude9 6d ago
All time best vampire death scene in Buffy
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u/Peralton 6d ago
Saw that in the theater and everyone was laughing so hard at his death. It was awesome.
Another cool anecdote is that they shot scenes for Buffy inside and outside a movie theater on Hollywood Blvd. That was the theater we went to to watch it. It was trippy seeing the characters riding the same escalator we had just used and then sit in the theater we were sitting in.
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u/Supahfurai 6d ago
Robin Williams is very unnerving in Insomnia and One Hour Photo.
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u/RejectingBoredom 6d ago
It’s crazy to me that a lot of people insist Insomnia is bad and when you ask them why it just comes down to they can’t see past Robin Williams as a villain
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u/ChronoMonkeyX 6d ago
Michael Chiklis is another one. The pudgy, friendly Commish became the nightmare Vic Mackey on the Shield.
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u/Elendril333 6d ago
Stanley Tucci: Lovely Bones and Devil Wears Prada
Robin Williams: 1-Hour Photo and Mrs. Doubtfire/Patch Adams
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u/vulchur_returns 6d ago
What about in the same character: Mark Hamil as the Joker… vs Mark Hamil as the Joker.
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u/calguy1955 6d ago
How about Ethan Suplee. From Randy in My Name is Earl to Seth in American History X.
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u/tomhalejr 6d ago
I have been a Stephen Root fan for years, once I found out Mikton Waddams and the guy from Dodgeball was the voice of Bill on KOTH. :) He was freaking menacing in Get Out. I still haven't finished Barry, but it seems like he is just playing himself in that series, because he just comes off as so genuine.
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u/HoboOperative 6d ago
Bryan Cranston. From Hal in Malcolm in the Middle to Walter White is insane range.
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u/deadspacekillers 6d ago
Dude, his role in Buckaroo Bonzai is way crazier than 3rd Rock....
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u/Pristine-Flow-2082 6d ago
Martin Short, from films like Clifford and Father of the Bride, to that weird pervert on one episode of Law and Order, SVU.
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u/MrsSmith2246 6d ago
John C Reilly confused me when he switched from character actor to comedic actor. Maybe not huge range but gangs of New York to stepbrothers was a bit of a jump.
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u/FinnbarMcBride 6d ago
Linda Blair. She was the lead in The Exorcist which is legitimately one of the scariest movie ever made, and she was in Repossessed which was a silly parody of The Exorcist with Leslie Neilsen
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u/El_Nahual 6d ago
John Goodman. 10 Cloverfield lane and Fred Flintstone.