The Best Villain Performances By Actors Who Always Play The Hero

How We Usually See Him: Robin Williams is remembered mainly as a brilliant comedian, a man with great improvisational skills and comedic timing. After gaining success with his stand-up routines and on the television sitcom Mork & Mindy, his breakthrough film role came as a Vietnam-era Army disc jockey taking on the system to entertain the troops in Good Morning, Vietnam. Throughout the '90s - including with the massive commercial success of Mrs. Doubtfire and, in a voice role, Aladdin - he was the very face of sentimental, family-friendly comedy. He was far more than just a comic, of course - three of his four Academy Award nominations, including his one win (for Good Will Hunting), came for his sympathetic performances in dramas.

How He Broke Bad: In Christopher Nolan's Insomnia, Williams's character is the prime suspect in the slaying of a teenager in a small town in Alaska. Walter Finch is a crime novelist who beat the girl to death after she rejected his advances. He uses the knowledge he's accumulated by researching his books to stay one step ahead of the detectives. He also isn't above using a little blackmail - when the lead detective (Al Pacino) accidentally lets his partner perish and then tries to cover up the transgression, Finch uses that to strong-arm him into pinning the homicide on the girl's boyfriend. Finch taunts Detective Dormer, saying the two share something in common: They both know how easy it is to take a life. He remorselessly revels in the belief that if he goes down, Pacino's character will go down with him.

In his research for this role, Williams watched hours of interviews with real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. In an interview with The Morning Call, Williams said he was fascinated that so many of these infamous real-life figures seemed to otherwise live such normal lives.

How We Usually See Him: Denzel Washington is probably best known for playing real-life activists (Cry Freedom, Malcolm X) or for roles in films in which his character has to overcome prejudice in order to succeed in his goal (Remember the Titans, Philadelphia). His characters are often men of integrity who stand up against injustice or prejudice and inspire others. He's played his share of tough guys and even outlaws, too - but one part in particular stands out as a true bad guy amid a career's worth of heroes and complicated, sympathetic leading men.

How He Broke Bad: In Training Day, Washington's Alonzo Harris is an unscrupulous cop who needs to pay off a large debt to Russian gangsters by the end of the day. As he mentors a rookie cop, he shows that he has little use for the law as he polices poor, drug-infested neighborhoods. A master manipulator and bully, he uses intimidation tactics against the residents and even puts a side arm to his trainee's head to force the young officer to ingest PCP - an incident he later uses to blackmail the idealist trainee. Ironically, he ends up getting brutally wiped out by the Russian gangsters when he does obey the law for once, simply stopping for a red light. This performance earned Washington the Academy Award for Best Actor.

How We Usually See Him: While films like Romeo + Juliet and Titanic made him a heartthrob, DiCaprio has long been considered one of the top leading men in Hollywood. He's known for taking risks in his choice of roles, and for his range as an actor. But while he has played several characters who have dubious moral values and/or are on the wrong side of the law, he still maintains point-of-view and audience sympathy. His protagonists may be complicated - sometimes truly heroic, sometimes not so much - but they aren't, in movie terms, the "bad guy." That is, except for his role in Django Unchained.

How He Broke Bad: Calvin Candie is one of the only truly villainous DiCaprio has played - and perhaps the first who's wholly evil. When Quentin Tarantino says this is the only character he's written that he truly hates, that means something - the filmmaker has created more than a few vile characters over the course of his career. Originally, the character was meant to be an older man, but Tarantino later came up with the idea of modeling Candie more along the lines of a petulant boy emperor like Caligula. A sadistic plantation owner in the antebellum South, Candie takes great pleasure in watching his dogs tear slaves to pieces when they attempt to run away, not to mention forcing his slaves into fighting each other to the death. In one such contest, one man ends up ripping his opponent's eyes out. Although Candie was pretty much raised by his family's slaves, and has allowed one of them to more or less run the plantation, he still treats them as if they're less than human. He even casually wipes his own blood all over the face of a slave (who turns out to be Django's long-lost wife) as he threatens to smash in her skull with a hammer.

How We Usually See Him: Han Solo. Indiana Jones. Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. President Marshall in Air Force One. Is there any actor in the last 40 years who has portrayed more good-guy heroes than Harrison Ford?

How He Broke Bad: In What Lies Beneath, Ford flips his good-guy image on its head. On the surface, Ford's Norman Spencer is a good guy - he's a respected scientist, happily married to Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer). But beneath the good-guy facade is a murderous nature that is revealed whenever Spencer thinks his reputation is endangered. When Claire realizes her husband took the life of a female student after she threatened to tell the university president about their affair, Spencer attempts to off his wife and make it look self-inflicted - after all, she knows too much now, and has thus become a threat to his reputation and career. His absolute calm as he attempts to drown his drugged wife in a bathtub is chilling - and a far cry from the Harrison Ford we're used to seeing.

How We Usually See Him: With his youthful good looks and physical indomitability, Tom Cruise has been known as a romantic lead and action hero - the kind with that certain cocky charm that so defines the American movie star. He saves the world as the globetrotting Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible series. He takes an ethical stand as the eponymous sports agent in Jerry Maguire. He delivers justice in A Few Good Men. He charmingly embodies military heroism in Top Gun. Many of Cruise's recognizable roles are flawed men who have to grow up or be cut down to size, but there's little doubt as to their noble motives and intentions. He epitomizes a certain brand of movie-star hero.

How He Broke Bad: Although Collateral wasn't the first time Cruise had played something of a nasty fella - his Lestat in Interview with a Vampire and Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia both fall into that category - Vincent, the enigmatic hit man in Collateral, was still a notable about-face for the star. There's nothing heroic about Vincent, as the film follows his attempt to fulfill a contract to knock off multiple witnesses scheduled to testify against a major dealer - and the prosecutor. A former Green Beret, Vincent has a surface friendliness, but is ruthless and cold as he goes about his business. He has a deeply pessimistic view of humanity, believing that most people care little about others and think only of themselves. And with his gray hair, unshaven face, and a cockeyed smirk replacing his trademark smile, there's little hint of the boyish persona for which Cruise is so well known.

How We Usually See Him: Steve Carell is best known for comedic roles in films such as Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin - and that's just the big screen. On the small screen, he received six Emmy nominations for portraying Michael Scott in the beloved sitcom The Office. His characters are often a bit off-center or idiosyncratic, but are usually "good guys."

How He Broke Bad: One of Carell's first roles in a dramatic film was as John Eleuthère du Pont in the true crime drama Foxcatcher. He gives a darkly chilling performance as the paranoid, mentally ill heir to the Du Pont fortune who forms a dysfunctional relationship with Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz, the latter of whom he ends up slaying. Carell's portrayal of the millionaire wrestling enthusiast, who sees himself as the Schultzes' mentor, has deeply sinister undertones, even though he seems to consider Mark a real friend. Du Pont's abusive behavior plays a part in Mark's eventual decision to leave du Pont's training facility; Dave, however, makes the ill-fated decision to stick around. While some of Carell's other roles have had him play characters that don't quite fit in, this is the darkest, most dangerous role the actor had taken on up to this point of his career. He was rewarded for this risk with an Academy Award nomination.