While we’re on the subject of Michael Shannon, and since I have an insatiable urge to make lists, here are some actors who seem to always excel at playing bad guys. You know what they say: always the villain, never the hero.

Christopher Lee tops this list because he’s pretty much the king of all villains, having played baddies in various roles such as in Count Dracula, The Three Musketeers, Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And of course, he probably played one of the best Bond villains in The Man with the Golden Gun. 

Mark Strong - Sorter in Revolver, Archy in RocknRolla, Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, Godfrey in 2010’s Robin Hood, Frank D’Amico in Kick-Ass…Mark Strong just has the face of a guy who likes to make other people’s lives miserable. That’s OK, Mark. I don’t care what you do as long as you keep showing up in every movie.

Michael Shannon - If you haven’t seen Bug, let me tell you that Michael Shannon certainly has the capacity to make one feel the heebiejeebies. He takes that intensity to the next level with his roles in The Runaways, Revolutionary Road and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. 2011’s hugely underrated Take Shelter definitely showed off his range as an actor.

Jason Isaacs - Ever the villain in films like Peter Pan, The Patriot, and as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, Isaacs has done a few less menacing roles here and there as well, as in Sweet November and his current TV show Awake. It’s really not his fault that he looks like a James Bond villain in real life.

Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children was perhaps the creepiest role he’s played. But then again, Watchmen’s Rorschach and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddie Krueger might contest that claim.

Peter Stormare - Yes, he did player Lucifer in Constantine, and quite marvelously at that. For some reason, he just has the look of a devious guy. Check out some of his other creepy roles in The Killing Room, Fargo, The Brothers Grimm and Prison Break.

Alan Rickman - Who can forget Hans Gruber, who probably became the template for every single foreign baddie to be a staple in action movies? Let’s not overlook Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as well. And of course, even though we all know now that Snape was ultimately a good guy, you can’t say Rickman didn’t play this character with such disdainful flamboyance only befitting a perpetual bad guy.

Danny Trejo - He’s been in so many projects, it makes my head hurt just thinking about it. His character is only getting juicier and more menacing in FX’s Sons of Anarchy, but Trejo has been nursing his inner creeper for a hell of a long time in films like Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Anaconda, xXx, Con Air and The Devil’s Rejects.  

Zeljko Ivanek - He played the tyrannical Magister in HBO’s True Blood and the corrupt Ray Fiske in Damages. We also remember him from In Bruges as the Canadian guy who got punched in the face by Colin Farrell’s character. It’s quite possible that his name just makes him villainous by default.

Robert LaSardo - In LaSardo’s case, he’s typecast as a villain not necessarily because of his face, but because he’s got very prominent tattoos. You probably remember him from FX’s Nip/Tuck, or fleetingly in General Hospital. He’s also appeared in criminal roles in Bones, Life and Death Race. If you’ve got the ink, might as well put it to good use, right?

Crispin Glover - Sure, George McFly ultimately turned out okay, but let’s not forget he started out as a peeping tom in Back to the Future. To take the next step in the ladder of creeperdom, he played a very odd character with a fetish for locks of hair in Charlie’s Angels. And then there’s Willard.

Other special mentions:

• Timothy Olyphant played a greasy pimp in The Girl Next Door and a cyberterrorist in Live Free or Die Hard with such ease. 
• Garret Dillahunt played the cyborg Cromartie in the unfortunately short-lived Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a rapist in The Last House on the Left. Despite his comedy Raising Hope, I still think of him in his villain roles.