The 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards launch June 17 with host Zachary Levi. In honor of that, we're looking back at previous award winners in various categories. Today: Best Villain. As one of the awards that's been given out since the get-go, Best Villain has seen its Golden Popcorn go to villains both legendary and befuddling, but it hardly ever disappoints. Here are the Best Villains, ranked.
John Doe has the upperhand on most of the other villains in this list, and Kevin Spacey's performance in "Se7en" was all the talk in 1995. But after all of the allegations against Spacey came to light over the past year, we're not looking at any of his awards or performances the same way we did 20 years ago.
Ben Stiller's White Goodman is more of a jerk and bully than a villain. Sure, his rival gym owner is up to no good, but he's vanquished easily enough and hardly ever taken seriously. That year, he beat out Rachel McAdams' Regina George from "Mean Girls," and that character is easily a bigger jerk and bully.
As a dentist with a penchant for workplace harassment, Dr. Julia Harris makes life difficult for Charlie Day's Dale. But the group doesn't even deem her necessary to kill, so she's probably not even the most horrible boss in the movie.
As the title cable guy in question, Jim Carrey isn't so much a villain as he is misunderstood and lonely, so we can't really rank him any higher.
As a psycho nanny, Rebecca De Mornay's Peyton is the nightmare of overworked new parents everywhere. However, she pales in comparison to most of MTV's Best Villains.
This is another lonely, misunderstood Carrey villain. At least he goes so far as to steal Christmas before his redemption.
Tom Felton won back-to-back Golden Popcorns in "Halfblood Prince "and "The Deathly Hollows: Part 1." While Draco Malfoy did some nasty things, he was really a kid in over his head, being forced into action by his parents, who were forced into action by Lord Voldemort. Seeing that Tom Felton beat out Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" and Leighton Meester in "The Roommate" to win these awards, we can't say the voters got it right either.
Matt Dillon's Pat Healy is a real scumbag, but a villain? Hardly. He's simply one of the many people who fell too hard for Cameron Diaz's Mary and didn't have the emotional intelligence to handle being rejected. He's the third-worst dude in the movie, tops.
Before "Oz the Great and Powerful," audiences really only knew Mila Kunis' Theodora (the Wicked Witch of the West) as a ruby-slipper-delivery device. Even so, she receives more depth in the movie but is still manipulated into being bad by the Wicked Witch of the East when you think about it.
Teens with crushes can do some terrible things, but ruining Cary Elwes' life because he rejected you is a terrible thing for young Adrian to do. The movie itself is trashy and fun, though, and we wish Alicia Silverstone was still around, frankly.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan of TV's "The Walking Dead" beat out a loaded category in 2017, besting no less than Allison Williams ("Get Out"), the Demogorgon ("Stranger Things"), Jared Leto ("Suicide Squad") and Wes Bentley ("American Horror Story"), proving bad guys aren't just found at the movies. They're just as horrifying week after week on TV.
A barber with murder in his heart who also makes literal mincemeat (pies) out of victims sounds pretty spooky, but it's Johnny Depp and it was a musical, so he isn't so bad. Plus, most of London could use a good blood-letting in those days if you ask us.
Mike Myers took home two Best Villain Awards for Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" franchise. While he's a memorable character (with some great lines, for sure), his attempts to take over or extort the world never really get that far.
Deacon Frost is a pretty good villain! He torments Blade and even betrays his own vampires as part of his evil plot. However, since he technically tied with Matt Dillon for the award, how great a villain can he really be?
Tom Hiddleston's Loki is rather bad. He kills Agent Coulson and unleashes alien invaders on Midtown Manhattan, but he ultimately gets the Avengers to work together to defeat him. Plus, he's really just another one of Thanos' lackeys.
Frank Costello is an iconic Jack Nicholson role, but he's not really that menacing in the movie. Sure, he hams it up, but not in that scary a way. No, Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan, the dirty cop who isn't afraid to knock off some inconvenient witnesses, is the much bigger scum.
As a new roommate who starts copying Bridget Fonda's life, Jennifer Jason Leigh's Hedra is a real nightmare tenant and a pretty classic villain.
O-Ren Ishii is definitely one of Lucy Liu's best characters. She wields a katana like few others and isn't afraid to take over the Yakuza. However cool she is, she's not nearly as ruthless as some of the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad whom she beat for this award.
We won't know for sure how bad of a bad guy Kylo Ren is, but Adam Driver's performance is plenty good enough in our opinion. Plus, anyone who [redacted] Han Solo can jump in a Sarlacc Pit.
Noooooooooo! Darth Vader may be the greatest villain of all time, but Hayden Christensen's portrayal of the Dark Lord of the Sith was not.
Meryl Streep beat out Rosamund Pike's "Gone Girl" character, so we know the voters got it wrong that year. However, as a witch who is quick to curse people for inconveniencing her, The Witch is plenty scary, even if it all happened in another Sondheim-adapted project.
" Speed" is such a great action movie because Dennis Hopper makes such a great villain. While he's not nearly as unhinged as he is in "Blue Velvet," his ex-cop playing cat-and-mouse with Keanu Reeves is one of the best villains MTV has ever recognized.
Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger is to Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa as Magneto is to Professor X and a true foil to the hero. The black-ops trained enforcer turns sadistic killer with patient calculation of a revenge arc to reclaim his name and standing in Wakanda's history. Unfortunately, his drive for liberation also included taking over the world.
Alonzo Harris is a great cinematic villain and a performance that nabbed Denzel Washington several other awards. He's iconic and memorable and so, so bad. Villains don't come much better than this.
Don't let the outward cuteness fool you: Samara is a bad little kid. She scared people out of using VHS tapes, leading the rise in DVDs. How many villains on this list damned physical media and made you double-check that your TV was off?
The Joker is an all-time villain, and Heath Ledger's The Joker as agent of chaos is the all-time iteration. Sure his plans are overly complicated, but he succeeds at his ultimate one, turning Harvey Dent to the darkness, making him the most evil of the villains on this list.
David Matthews writes and tweets from Brooklyn.
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