THE FACE OF EVIL!

Evil geniuses, violent criminals, cunning killers... They have us booing at the screen and jumping in our seats, yet they are usually a film’s most charismatic characters. Who is the most evil of them all? We have scoured film history to present our top three. Darth Vader (Star Wars): Booed by cinemagoers in 1977 before he had even used “the Force” to kill his first Death Star officer, Vader made it his mission to wipe out the Jedi Knights, quash the Rebel Alliance and rule the universe with an iron fist in a black leather glove. However, like all of the best villains, he had a more sympathetic back story: Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi, who turned to the Dark Side to become Emperor Palpatine’s ruthless enforcer until he was ultimately redeemed by his paternal feelings. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street): On a list invariably dominated by violent villains, Michael Douglas’ Oscar-winning turn as the Wall Street investor is evil in a different way. Slick-haired and Armani- clad , Gekko will stop at nothing to make more millions: using insider information, plundering pension funds, bribing , blackmailing and breaking the law. Free of morals and contemptuous of his fellow man, he lives up to (or rather down to) his reptilian name. Douglas shines in his performance, although Richard Gere and Warren Beatty were director Oliver Stone’s first choices for the role. Ernst Blofeld (James Bond Franchise): The head of the sinister global terrorist organisation Spectre, Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the definitive super-villain, so much so that he actually appeared in six James Bond films. He has since been most amusingly played by Mike Myers as Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers film series, but in the 1960s, his Persian-cat stroking, scar- faced, button-pressing malevolence was genuinely scary. (Reading text adapted from shortlist)