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Culturegasm: Scariest TV and Movie Gangsters?

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  1.  (10047.1)
    So, who's played the most menacing bad guys over the years? Edward G Robinson as the greasy standover man? Kevin Spacey as the grasshopper in Ants? James Gandolfini as the alpha male in The Sporanos? Danny Trejo in Fuck You I'm Danny Trejo?
    • CommentAuthorJECole
    • CommentTimeJul 17th 2011
     (10047.2)
    Joe Pesci, in Goodfellas. Scary because NOONE was safe around him.
  3.  (10047.3)
    From the right side of the pond:

    Gangster 55 (Paul Bettany and Malcolm MacDowell) in Gangster No.1.
    Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins), The Long Good Friday.
    Everyone in Performance who isn't female or Mick Jagger - especially John Bindon, who was an actual villain with connections to various Kray-era London faces.

    And I have especial love for Ralph Feinnes as Harry in, er, In Bruges.
  4.  (10047.4)
    Raymond Cruz as meth distributor Tuco in Breaking Bad. He fucking oozed menace in every scene, and he beat an associate to death with his fists over a social slight.
  5.  (10047.5)
    Lawrence Tierney - who by all accounts was just as terrifying off screen as on. Will Wheaton sometimes recounts a fairly traumatizing encounter with him when he guest stared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and he scared the cast and crew of Seinfeld so badly that they never asked him back after one guest appearance.
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      CommentAuthorsebfowler
    • CommentTimeJul 17th 2011
     (10047.6)
    As scary as he is in a lot of things, Malcom McDowell in I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is absolutely terrifying. It still haunts me.
  7.  (10047.7)
    Lawrence Tierney was another. He was a hard bastard off screen as well as on, and never got invited to do a guest spot a second time.
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      CommentAuthorFauxhammer
    • CommentTimeJul 17th 2011
     (10047.8)
    Jeremy Renner as Jem Coughlin in "The Town". I knew guys like that back there, and they scared the piss out of me.
    • CommentAuthorValente
    • CommentTimeJul 17th 2011
     (10047.9)
    Tierney
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      CommentAuthorNeilFord
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.10)
    Gangster No.1 -Malcom McDowel is chilling in that. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210065/
    • CommentAuthorPow
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.11)
    snoooop

    might depend on your definition of a gangster, but goddamn she's scary.
    • CommentAuthorcardo
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.12)
    Sir Ben Kingsley in 'Sexy Beast'.
  13.  (10047.13)
    @NeilFord: Malcolm McDowell descends into self-parody in Gangster #1. Paul Bettany was terrifying but I laughed whenever McDowell was on screening chewing things up.

    The most recent great scary gangster performances I've seen were from Jacki Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom.
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      CommentAuthorLazarus99
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.14)
    Bricktop in Snatch is fairly creepy, but then so is Hatchet Harry in Lock Stock...

    Why has no one mentioned the Joker...okay, insane Bat-Nemesis and all, but technically still a gangster...
    • CommentAuthorMathias B
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.15)
    @Pow: Amen to that. Marlo Stanfield's not so shabby either.
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.16)
    Joe Pesci does the same kind of scary gangster job in Casino as well, loved that film.
    • CommentAuthormanglr
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2011
     (10047.17)
    I'll go off the reservation and say Simon Yam in 'Election' and 'Triad Election'...but then I usually take my gangsters in Hong Kong dosages.

    If you substitute 'badass' in place of 'scary', I'd go with Anthony Wong in 'Exiled', 'Vengence', and 'The Mission'.
  18.  (10047.18)
    Sir Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast," although Ian Mc Shane wasn't a slouch either.

    What? No love for the Mafia men of the first "Godfather" movie? The bed present, the bar murder, and the machine gun hit would be enough to deserve mention.
  19.  (10047.19)
    Paul Young in Gangster No.1, mostly for how well he offset being Paul Young. Also, it appeared his character was a homage to Reggie Kray, and he did it with fairly worrying vigour.
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      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2011
     (10047.20)
    Kevin Spacey as the grasshopper in Ants?


    Don't forget Kevin Spacey as Mel Profitt in Wiseguy.

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