British people play bad guys in Hollywood movies all the time. Maybe it's because of the Revolutionary War, or maybe it's because their delightfully condescending delivery makes them so detestable. Even though crumpets are delicious (go ahead, try one!), it seems that Brits are destined to play the big, bad characters in movies until the end of time. Every hero needs a dastardly villain, and these six bad Brits are the worst of the worst!
Alan Rickman plays bad guys about as well as anyone in the world. He's also the lone bright spot in the otherwise lousy Kevin Costner vehicle "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," Bryan Adams ballads included. Rickman is at his scene-chewing best as the Sheriff of Nottingham, managing to be so despicable that audiences could actually root for Costner's Robin Hood. When in history did Robin Hood sound like he was from Nebraska, Kevin? If only the Sheriff had succeeded in cutting out Robin's heart with a spoon like he promised.
Even sociopathic murderers and rapists can be charismatic as Malcom McDowell proved with his role as Alex in "A Clockwork Orange." Alex's love of the old ultraviolence and his shabby treatment of his droogs makes him pretty damn evil, even if audiences couldn't help but be drawn to his magnetic personality. People even felt a little bad for Alex after his release from prison and mental health treatment left him a shell of a human being. Still, Alex did some rotten things, so maybe turnabout is fair play after all, eh?
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor of the stage and screen.
He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His breakout performance was as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman is known for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins, and Metatron in Dogma.
Rickman has also had a number of other notable film roles such as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply, P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure and Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. More recently, he played Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.