Captain William Bligh. Among the baddies menacing 007 have been Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Jonathan Pryce, Steven Berkoff, Sean Bean, Robert Carlyle, Julian Glover and Toby Stephens. Before Alfred the idea that … They had two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. Gwennap Pit, Cornwall: ‘The most magnificent spectacle this side of Heaven’, With love from Father Christmas: J.R.R. Here are the 15 worst strongmen in history. There's no British villain more sinister than "Jack the Ripper", the name given to a Victorian serial killer thought to have been behind the violent murders of … . All have had varying personalities and traits, but some have certainly been more memorable than others, with many gamers making strong attachments to several of the best characters in COD history. Picture: Rex Features, Medieval courtier Hugh Despenser has been described by history professor Nigel Saul as "pure evil" for his habit of forcing the vulnerable into signing away their estates – at one point, he even broke the arms and legs of a female aristocrat until she went insane. His unblinking portrayal was voted as best villain of all time by the American Film Institute. George Lucas turned to some of our finest classically trained actors to bring a touch of gravitas to his swashbuckling space saga. The timing of the British pantomime at Christmas and the role reversal of the lead characters (the principal boy being played by a girl and the Dame by a man) may have also evolved from the Tudor “Feast of Fools”, presided over by the Lord of Misrule. After giving this subject plenty of thought, I recognize that my all-time favorite heroes from British literature are (in alphabetical order): Mr. Darcy, Ross Poldark, and John Thornton. He was never caught, though theories abound as to his identity. One contemporary described his behaviour as being "beyond anything that was ever heard of in a civilized nation. But what … And a Bond film wouldn’t be a Bond film without a wannabe world dictator. There's lots of villains in Gotham, but only one literally has nine lives. In 2007, American researchers argued the remains found in the basement were not those of Cora, but British authorities have refused to reopen the case. Here he is played by with villainous relish by Laurence Olivier. You Know Him As: If you've read Mutiny on the Bounty, or seen one of the … In short, these are some of the most evil people in history. I notice Hollywood has a long history of having villains with upper class British accents. Manchester United vs Liverpool, FA Cup fourth round: What time is kick-off, what TV channel is it on and what is our prediction? What would be Independence Day be without the Brits? There have been 16 different Call of Duty games so far in the franchise, and, throughout those games, there have been a wide variety of characters that people have been able to play as, with, or against. The house has now been demolished. His sheer, over-the-top supervillain antics earned him… What would be Independence Day be without the Brits? The feast was an unruly event, involving much drinking, revelry and role reversal. Tom Ripley, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a Bond film. And what would Hollywood be without a dose of British bad guys? The 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots is a milestone for the gay-rights movement, one being commemorated with everything from parades to documentaries. Explore an A-Z of selected concise biographies which depict famous and notable historical figures. Leonard: ‘You’re not taking her on the plane with you?’ Vandamm: ‘Of course, I am… This matter is best disposed of from a great height, over water’. Selina Kyle has seen many, many iterations over the years, but you cannot deny that she just dominates in all of them. Sanders languidly voices the heartless tiger Shere Khan in Disney’s 1967 animated version of The Jungle Book with spine-chilling skill. And what would Hollywood be without a dose of British bad guys? 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time From serial killers to cylons, mobsters to murderous moms — counting down the TV characters you love to hate - She notably raised awareness of AIDS issues as well as the campaign against landmines. ... You could also argue that the British Aristocracy is the villain in the Patrick Melrose books, but . in 1968, the police finally arrested the pair (pictured here with their mother) and they were sentenced to life imprisonment. Selina Kyle has seen many, many iterations over the years, but you cannot deny that she just dominates in all of them. Learn more about the British … And while not all Hollywood baddies are British, a disproportionately high percentage of them are. Eadric Streona (died … The one villain to constantly one-up Batman, Kyle is seductive, stylish and very, very smart. Eadric Streona. Explore an A-Z of selected concise biographies which depict famous and notable historical figures. He says of himself: "I'm a nice guy, but sometimes I lose all my senses and become nasty." Picture: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy, Seventeenth-century cleric Titus Oates fabricated a Catholic plot to assassinate Charles II, accusing over 80 innocent men. In the series of Hammer Horror films inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel, Lee may not have had any lines initially and his appearances as the Count are brief, but his presence and sex appeal are undeniable. The first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, Sir Francis Drake left an often forgotten legacy: his drum, which it’s said will beat of its own accord to summon the Elizabethan sea dog back from the dead should England be in danger. Arnold and his wife Peggy developed a plan for Arnold to smuggle American military plans to the British with the help of a young British soldier named John André. Tolkien’s enchanting Christmas letters to his children, Country Life’s 2020 Christmas Double Issue: What you’ll find inside the biggest-ever issue of Country Life, Country Life's Top 100 architects, builders, designers and gardeners. The feared and hated Matthew Hopkins, who called himself "The Witchfinder General", was responsible for the execution of as many as 300 women for witchcraft in just a two-year period during the English Civil War. It’s worth noting that few British movie villains are ever Irish, Scottish or Welsh, although Robert Carlyle comes to mind. British Rear Adm. George Cockburn. For an example of the sheer caprice of history’s judgement Lloyd Bowen describes Cromwell’s enrolment in Victorian Wales as a national hero. - They separated in 1992. Aaron Burr is well-known for his killing of Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel. No one does infamy quite like Mr Irons. One of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he played the cruel, ruthless Phillip Vandamm in Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Legend claims that he was eventually killed by an angry mob. Here’s THR’s list of the all-time greatest. There's lots of villains in Gotham, but only one literally has nine lives. For the Tory-inclined Western Mail ‘the butcher of Drogheda and Wexford’ becomes the ‘Gwroniad Rhyddid.’ Gomer’s designers have added eighty-six pictures to … Here, British Vogue revisits some of the best portrayals of female villains in Hollywood history. Gef the talking mongoose. 1 / 45. One Who Confronts ... American and British armored units crossed into Iraq on 20 March 2003. The Million Dollar Man. The historians chose one villain from each of the last 10 centuries. Jack the Ripper - She married Charles, Prince of Wales. Jane Austen, Winston Graham, and Elizabeth Gaskell created indelible characters, and I have spent many hours mooning over these three characters. Of course this list could have been a lot longer if I'd included more characters from Dickens, Austin, Shakespeare etc. The Queen in Snow White, Lady Tremaine (the evil stepmother in Cinderella), the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Maleficient in Sleeping Beauty, Cruella de Ville in 101 Dalmations, even George Banks in Mary Poppins could be seen as a sort of soft antagonistic … It's perhaps the nature of grown-up literature that it doesn't all that often have villains, in the sense of coal-black embodiments of the principle of evil. "The Wolf of Kabul", a British spy in the North-West Frontier Province, who appeared in story papers and comics from 1930 to the mid-1980s. In the case of You Only Live Twice, he’s played by a deeply menacing and fabulously scarred Donald Pleasence. He was perpetually either drunk or in a rage, liker a fury that the zeal of a judge... he shewed no mercy. The one villain to constantly one-up Batman, Kyle is seductive, stylish and very, very smart. However, he kicked it up a manic notch here, effortlessly stealing the film from Kevin Costner with ad-libbed lines such as ‘Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas’. And the rest is history. Nominated by Professor Sarah Foot of Sheffield University. However, his greatest claim to wickedness may well be as the voice of Scar in Disney’s take on Hamlet. ‘When Hollywood wants someone to play the bad guy, it casts a Brit,’ said the great film critic Barry Norman. The historian Lord Macaulay described him 'the greatest perjurer in history... His voice, uplifted in accusation, instituted a period of terror unparalleled in the history of an ancient people." Henry, The Secret History, Donna Tartt. Over a long career, he’s played most of the great villains, from monsters to wizards. BRITAIN brings you the weird and wonderful details about Britain’s heroes and heroines. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase was the one percent before there was a … But to most people, he'll always be the hunchbacked usurper who murdered his nephews to secure the throne. His villainy is in his carefulness, his coldness, his self-preservation at all costs. It's long been suspected she was Lady Katherine Ferrers, who may have turned to crime to try and preserve her shrinking fortune while her husband was away fighting. Picture: NICK RAZZELL/Rex Features, Ten Rillington Place in London's Notting Hill seemed like an ordinary home in the 1940s and 50s, but it was here that softly spoken former soldier John Christie murdered at least eight women, including his wife, usually by strangling them after they'd been gassed. Balancing Alec Guinness’s noble Obi-Wan Kenobi is an array of villains harnessing the Dark Side in beautifully delivered RP — and, in Cushing’s case, unseen carpet slippers. https://www.listchallenges.com/some-great-fictional-british-characters 15. Two hundred years ago, he was the most hated man in America, and the most feared. A fairly modern list as I didn't want to start an argument as to whether King Arthur or Robin Hood actually existed, so they didn't make the cut. Hannibal Lecter had already been chillingly played by another British actor, Brian Cox, in Manhunter, but it was Hopkins who’s best remembered in the role and who took home an Oscar. Fifteen were executed before he was arrested. British actor Mark Strong, who played Jim Prideaux in the 2011 remake of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), is often cast as cold, calculating villains. Oh, Henry—brooding, brilliant, bone-tired Henry. The timing of the British pantomime at Christmas and the role reversal of the lead characters (the principal boy being played by a girl and the Dame by a man) may have also evolved from the Tudor “Feast of Fools”, presided over by the Lord of Misrule. Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago. Terry-Thomas played one role repeatedly and played it well, that of the weak, philandering, swindling, upper-class bounder – the archetypal cad, in fact. In short, these are some of the most evil people in history. DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 5, episode 10 saw the most historical villains yet coming after our time-traveling heroes. Fox in Kill Bill: Volume I. The greatest villains in literature. From Christopher Lee in Horror of Dracula to Alan Rickman in Die Hard and from Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate to Ian Holm in Alien, the majority of wrong ’uns speak with an English accent. Demonised as a traitor in his home country, he relocated to England after the war, but was viewed with mistrust even there. Picture: Rex Features, There's no British villain more sinister than "Jack the Ripper", the name given to a Victorian serial killer thought to have been behind the violent murders of at least five women in Whitechapel. Dip into our gallery of some of Britain's most legendary villains – if you dare. Some in the Lit Hub office argued that it was Julian who was the real villain in Donna Tartt’s classic novel of murder and declension, but I give Henry more credit than that. Picture: Photos 12 / Alamy, "Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions", wrote Benjamin Franklin of Benedict Arnold, an American general who defected to the British Army during the War of Independence. Terry-Thomas in School for Scoundrels. Picture: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy, Edward Teach or "Blackbeard" was a fearsome British pirate who raided countless ships in the West Indies and off the east coast of America. Egyptian pharaohs with British accents, foreign settings where everyone speaks English—why are movie accents and dialects so reliant on stereotypes? Here’s THR’s list of the all-time greatest. But before he became a famous actor, he intended to pursue a career in law. Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910) - He was Edward IV Henry, The Secret History, Donna Tartt. What most people know about him is the legend of the spider that is supposed to have inspired him when hiding in a cave, but the important thing is his massive impact on British history. Gef is a now almost-forgotten media sensation from the 1930s: a talking … Peter Cushing, Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee in the original ‘Star Wars’ saga. He is said to have put lit matches under his hat to terrify his victims, and had unruly black hair that "covered his whole face, and frightened America more than any comet that has appeared there a long time". Call out history's most terrible people, and see how your picks stack up against everyone else's. Idris Elba gave the role bite in the 2016 remake. Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. A villain (also known as, "black hat", villainess in its feminine form) is a fictional character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. Even take Disney, for instance. British Empire, a worldwide system of dependencies—colonies, protectorates, and other territories—that over a span of some three centuries was brought under the sovereignty of the crown of Great Britain and the administration of the British government. He’s played one of the Borgias, Henry IV, Claus von Bulow, deranged twin surgeons and many other anti-heroes. Picture: Stuart Clarke/Rex Features, The reputation of Richard III is so bad that there's an entire organisation, the Richard III Society, dedicated to clearing his name. True, Anderson was actually Australian, but she plays the mean-minded, vindictive Mrs Danvers in Hitchcock’s Gothic drama Rebecca with a perfect English accent. The communist dictator known as Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyen Sinh Cung in 1890 in what was then known as Indochina — French colonial territories. 14. After Edward II fell from power, Despenser ended up being hung, drawn and quartered (pictured). England has never known anything like it." Anyone can vote on this list of vile villains and evil lunatics, making it an accurate, real-time ranking of the world's worst people ever. Picture: Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy, ‘I’ve seen a rhino shed tears’ – Kenya's animals through the eyes of its rangers, School closures in Covid lockdown: latest news on when they could reopen, Israel expands Covid-19 vaccination drive to include 16- to 18-year-olds in effort to keep exams on schedule. The feast was an unruly event, involving much drinking, revelry and role reversal. Picture: Everett Collection/Rex Features, In 1685, Judge George Jeffreys ordered the execution of 200 men and sent another 800 to Barbados as slaves for their role in an uprising against James II. A reader has drawn our attention to the British Prime Minister’s list of heroes and villains from British history, which is variously rather endearing and somewhat mawkish, as set out in a recent interview for the Mail on Sunday. Picture: Classic Image / Alamy, The Kray Twins had their fingers in virtually every criminal pie in East London in the 1950s and 60s, organising countless armed robberies, murders and attacks. Attila the Hun was the ruler and creator of the Hunnic Empire. Alfred the Great (849–99) Alfred the Great is really the father of England. Picture: Mary Evans Picture Library / Alamy, American immigrant Dr Crippen made headlines in 1910 when he killed his wife Cora, buried her in his basement and fled across the Atlantic with his mistress – only to be caught when the ship's captain recognised him. David is definitely worse (if slightly less all-encompassing). 1. However, André was captured while smuggling Arnold’s papers and the plot quickly unraveled. 60 Great Fictional British Characters show list info. Aaron Burr. "Fraser of Africa" was a strip in the Eagle in 1960–1961, following the adventures of a white hunter in colonial Tanganyika. In the role that landed her an Oscar, Zeta-Jones plays the light on … Terry-Thomas played one role repeatedly and played it well, that of the weak, philandering, swindling, upper-class bounder – the archetypal cad, in fact. Sir Francis Drake. In the amusingly titled "The Great British Fake-Off", no less than a half-dozen of the most dastardly names from across time, who the Legends dubbed "Encores", invaded the home of John Constantine (Matt Ryan) in the 1920s looking for the third ring of the mythical Loom … Picture: Everett Collection/Rex Features, "The Wicked Lady" was a well-spoken highwaywoman who preyed on vulnerable travellers on Nomansland Common in Hertfordshire during the Civil War. The greatest villains in literature. It's perhaps the nature of grown-up literature that it doesn't all that often have villains, in the sense of coal-black embodiments of the principle of evil. Picture: ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS/ REX FEATURES, Nickamed "John Softsword" by his contemporaries, KIng John's infamously poor leadership and petty, spiteful behaviour led to him being cast as a villain in the Robin Hood legends – though some defenders say his villainous character has been much exaggerated. Half of trucks 'carrying only fresh air' as Brexit and Covid hit exports. Anyone can vote on this list of vile villains and evil lunatics, making it an accurate, real-time ranking of the world's worst people ever. Call out history's most terrible people, and see how your picks stack up against everyone else's. Adopting a crisp German accent, he made an impact on Hollywood as the mastermind thief foiled by Bruce Willis in Die Hard (in Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Gruber’s brother is improbably played by Jeremy Irons). . Bringer of Light. Picture: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy, Dubbed "the most violent prisoner in Britain", Charles Bronson has been in prison almost continously since 1974, during which time he has fought with over 20 wardens and attacked countless inmates. The former include Churchill and Thatcher, Ian Botham, Big Issue founder John Bird, and Mr Cameron’s parents; the latter are Marx, Scargill, Tony Crossland, 1960s town planners and Richard Beeching … Everyone knows Brits make the best on-screen super-villains - Jonathan Self picks out his favourites. Vivica A. It’s worth noting that few British movie villains are ever Irish, Scottish or Welsh, although Robert Carlyle comes to mind. Eventually killed by an angry mob, Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee in the case you. Before Alfred the idea that … Attila the Hun was the ruler and creator of the most man. He played the cruel, ruthless Phillip Vandamm in Hitchcock ’ s played one Hollywood! Fresh air ' as Brexit and Covid hit exports 1968, the Mr.. 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