Random Weirdest Willem Dafoe Performances That Prove He's Great In Everything (22 items)

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  (#1) Platoon

  • Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, Oliver Stone, Keith David, Tony Todd, John C. McGinley, Kevin Dillon, Dale Dye, Richard Edson, Cary Glover, Mark Moses, Francesco Quinn, Henry Strzalkowski, Nick Nicholson, Chris Pedersen, David Neidorf, Paul Sanchez, Reggie Johnson, Mark Ebenhoch, Terry McIlvain, Eric Hahn, Ivan Kane, Robert 'Rock' Galotti, Corkey Ford, H. Gordon Boos, Matthew Westfall, Warren McLean, Peter Hicks, Clarisa Ortacio, Bernardo Manalili, Chris Castillejo, Basile Achara, Li Mai Thao, Steve Barredo, J. Adam Glover, Andrew B. Clark, Li Thi Van, Ron Barracks, Than Rogers, Bob Orwig, Romy Sevilla, Kevin Eshelman

  In 1986 Dafoe appeared in Oliver Stone's Platoon and featured in one of the most iconic war movie moments of all time.

  With his arms spread wide in an obvious crucifixion allegory, the demise of Sgt. Elias was an incredible scene that resulted in Dafoe earning his first Academy Award nomination (and losing to Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters).
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  (#2) The Boondock Saints

  • Willem Dafoe, Norman Reedus, Billy Connolly, Ron Jeremy, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jeanna Fine, Dot Jones, Richard Fitzpatrick, Gerard Parkes, Kevin Chapman, Carlo Rota, Joe Pingue, Sergio Di Zio, David Ferry, Layton Morrison, James Binkley, Don Carmody, Jonathan Higgins, Dick Callahan, Brian Mahoney, Tom Barnett, David Della Rocco, Gary Nicholson, Christopher Flockton, Robert Vernon Eaton, Michael Yavnielli, Roberta Angelica, Bob Marley, Jimmy Tingle, Todd Schroeder, Chris Brinker, Nicholas Pasco, Markus Parilo, Bill Craig, Gina Sorell, Robert B. Kennedy, Jeffrey R. Smith, Troy Duffy, Victor Pedtrchenko, Matthew Chaffee, Angelo Tucci, Nathan Amondson, Robert Pemberton, Taylor Duffy, Lauren Piech, Ryan Parks, Elizabeth Brown, Kym Kristalie, Moris Santia, Darren Marsman, John Ferus, Lizz Alexander, Scott Griffith, Derek Murchie, Aleksandar Petko, Peter Windrem, Pat Riccio, William Young, Glen Marc Silot, Anthony Chrysostom, Carmen DiStefano

  In The Boondock Saints, Dafoe is FBI special agent Paul Smecker, whose mission is to bring down two vigilante brothers (played by Sean Patrick Flanery and a pre-Walking Dead Norman Reedus).

  The character of Smecker is a bit more complicated than others of this sort, as he is an emotionally conflicted gay man who ultimately decides to assist his targets in their quest for ruthless justice. Dafoe plays him with an over-the-top gusto that winds up being ridiculous, weird, and vastly entertaining. While The Boondock Saints won’t be remembered as a great movie, you can't take your eyes off Dafoe.
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  (#3) Spider-Man

  • Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J. K. Simmons, Joe Manganiello, Elizabeth Banks

  In the realm of supervillains in comic book movies, Dafoe’s Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in 2002's Spider-Man is right up there with Josh Brolin's Thanos and Heath Ledger's Joker. With a giant mask covering Dafoe's entire head, much of the character’s maniacal menace had to be conveyed through voice alone.

  Dafoe's mirror speech and fantastically hammy cackling throughout elevates a rather formulaic (by today's standards) film into a classic.
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  (#4) John Wick

  • Keanu Reeves, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Alfie Allen, Dean Winters, Daniel Bernhardt, Michael Nyqvist, Omer Barnea, Toby Leonard Moore

  The character Marcus in the John Wick universe is an elite member of the previous generation of professional assassins. Dafoe plays this friend and mentor to Keanu Reeves’s title character and is supportive of Wick's decision to retire after the passing of his wife.

  The friendship is a grim one, with Dafoe describing it as one "that was made in a very dark world." Sadly, the memorable Marcus was unable to show up in any of the sequels due to a bad case of being tormented and killed. Which, by the way, actually put Dafoe into Sean Bean territory in terms of his proclivity for kicking the bucket on film.
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  (#5) Finding Nemo

  • Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Eric Bana, Allison Janney, Albert Brooks, Geoffrey Rush, Elizabeth Perkins, Erik Per Sullivan, Brad Garrett, Barry Humphries, John Ratzenberger, Stephen Root, Andrew Stanton, Alexander Gould, Austin Pendleton, Joe Ranft, Bruce Spence, Vicki Lewis, Bill Hunter, Bob Peterson, Nicholas Bird, Erica Beck, Jordan Ranft, LuLu Ebeling

  It can’t be easy, even for the most capable of thespians, to deliver a credible performance when a script requires one to play a fish. Dafoe played the role of Gill (a member of the extravagantly named species called Moorish idols) in Finding Nemo and gave it the air of toughness and mystery it required.

  While this was the first time he was asked to do this sort of work, Dafoe was able to make the leader of the Tank Gang heroic and caring enough to work in a movie for kids.
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  (#6) American Psycho

  • Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Chloë Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour, Justin Theroux, Guinevere Turner. Reese Witherspoon

  When watching American Psycho, it's hard to notice much else when Christian Bale is chewing up the scenery as Patrick Bateman. But Dafoe delivers a knockout performance in the movie as well, playing detective Donald Kimball.

  To achieve suspense and uncertainty, Dafoe filmed his scenes with Bale in three separate takes. In the first one, he was told to act unaware of Bateman's nature. In the second, he is supposed to be suspicious, and in the third, he behaves as if he is fully aware he's talking to a madman. The takes were then mixed together in the final reel, creating an effect that's nothing less than mesmerizing.
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  (#7) The Lighthouse

  • Ricardo Darín, Paola Krum, Ingrid Rubio, Norma Aleandro, Mariano Martínez, Boy Olmi, Norberto Díaz, Florencia Bertotti, Roberto Vallejos, Jimena Barón, Mariano Bertolini, Mónica Lacoste, Carmen Renard, Jorge Marrale, Ina Casares

  Dafoe does such a convincing job playing a grizzled lighthouse keeper in The Lighthouse, you’d think he actually was a 19th century New England "wickie." His drunken black-and-white struggles with Robert Pattinson made this another instant classic by The Witch filmmaker Robert Eggers.

  For his efforts, Dafoe earned a number of awards and nominations for a performance that The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin called “astounding" and "cinema to make your head and soul ring."
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  (#8) Mississippi Burning

  • Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Michael Rooker, Stephen Tobolowsky, Gailard Sartain

  A straight-laced, by-the-book law enforcement professional isn't something we'd normally expect Dafoe to play, but early in his career he pulled it off magnificently.

  Playing the no-nonsense FBI agent Alan Ward in the 1988 civil rights thriller Mississippi Burning (opposite Gene Hackman’s more "nuanced" agent Rupert Anderson), Dafoe received accolades for his subtle intensity, but was outrageously ignored by the people handing out awards.
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  (#9) Clear and Present Danger

  • Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, James Earl Jones, Thora Birch, Anne Archer, Clark Gregg, Benjamin Bratt, Dean Jones, Henry Czerny, Ken Howard, Hope Lange, Reed Diamond, Belita Moreno, Ted Raimi, Raymond Cruz, Donald Moffat, Joaquim de Almeida, Michael Jace, Patrick Bauchau, Miguel Sandoval, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Greg Germann, Rex Linn, Lynne Marie Stewart, Harris Yulin, Tom Bower, Ann Magnuson, Blanca Guerra, Jorge Luke, Aaron Lustig, John Putch, Kevin Cooney, Reg E. Cathey, Patricia Belcher, Ellen Geer, Aaron Michael Lacey, Gary Rodriguez, Kamala Lopez, Chris Conrad, John Lafayette, Elizabeth Dennehy, Cameron Thor, Peter Weireter, Tom Tammi, Jaime Gomez, Mario Iván Martínez, Cam Brainard, Tim Grimm, Jared Chandler, Miguel Perez, Juan Carlos Colombo, Colleen Flynn, Marjorie Lovett, Alejandro Bracho, Kim Flowers, Harley Venton, Vaughn Armstrong, Sebastián Silva, Markus Alexander, Jorge Valdés García, Ken Parham, Mark Myers, Catherine MacNeal, Honorato Magaloni, Beau Lotterman, David J. Negron Jr., Tom Isbell, Diana Sowle, Mark Bailey, R.A. Rondell, Victor Palmieri, Aarón I. Campos, John Rixey Moore, Guillermo Rios, Michael A. Mendez, Trip Hamilton, Leo Garcia, Claudia Lobo, Denice Kumagai, Rufino Echegoyen, Deborah Landis, Alejandro De Hoyos, Lis Kern, Alexander Lester, Eduardo N.T. Andrade, Glenn E. Coats, Christine Moore, Hector Teller, Thomas Luskey, Eliot Ferrer, Brendan Ford, Lee Bear, Barbara Harrison, Al Verdun, Robert Arratia

  Most people know who Jack Ryan is. He's the fictional character created by novelist Tom Clancy who has served as everything from US Marine to US president, and who's been played on the big and little screens by the likes of Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, and John Krasinski.

  Clancy's second-most famous creation, however, is a guy named John Clark, whom video game enthusiasts will know as a major player in the Rainbow 6 franchise. Dafoe also plays the former Navy SEAL/CIA operative in the 1994 adaption of Clear and Present Danger, in which he's believably superb at heroically assisting the aforementioned Ford covertly protect the red, white, and blue.
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  (#10) Shadow of the Vampire

  • Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Eddie Izzard, Catherine McCormack, Cary Elwes, Udo Kier, Ronan Vibert, Aden Gillett, Nicholas Elliott, Sophie Langevin

  Shadow of the Vampire was actually Dafoe's second vampire movie (he had a minor role in The Hunger), but this was the one that got him serious attention. In this 2000 "metafiction," Dafoe plays the lead role of Max Schreck in the fictionalized tale about the making of the 1922 horror classic Nosferatu. In this alternate reality, the actor playing a vampire actually is an undead creature of the night who systematically feeds on the film crew.

  Critic Roger Ebert was astounded by Dafoe's performance, stating in a review how he "embodies the Schreck of Nosferatu so uncannily that when real scenes from the silent classic are slipped into the frame, we don't notice a difference."
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  (#11) The Last Temptation of Christ

  • David Bowie, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, Illeana Douglas, Michael Been, Victor Argo, Paul Herman, Nehemiah Persoff, Alan Rosenberg, Irvin Kershner, Roberts Blossom, Steve Shill, Tomas Arana, Leo Marks, Gary Basaraba, Leo Burmester, Peter Berling, Ted Rusoff, Verna Bloom, Barry Miller, Andre Gregory, John Lurie, Paul Greco, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Donald Hodson, Peggy Gormley, Robert Spafford, Del Russel, Juliette Caton, Randy Danson, Dale Wyatt, Russel Case, Domenico Fiore, Robert Laconi, Penny Brown, Leo Damian, Donna Magnani, Rod Dana, Mahamed Ait Fdil Ahmed, Mohammed Mabsout, Ahmed Nacir, Doris Von Thury, David Sharp, Fabienne Panciatili, Khalid Benghrib, Naima Skikes, Otmane Chbani Idrissi, Jonathan Zhivago, Jamal Belkhayat, Gabi Ford, Souad Rahal, Mokhtar Salouf, Mary Seller, Redouane Farhane

  There are few roles that carry as much responsibility as portraying the central figure of an entire religion. In 1988, Martin Scorsese tapped Dafoe to play Jesus Christ in The Last Temptation of Christ, embroiling him in controversy because of the film’s departure from Bible narratives.

  Dafoe's very human portrayal of Jesus took the man and his message seriously, however, which earned him the holiest of holies from the world of movie criticism: a four-out-of-four-star review from Roger Ebert.
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  (#12) The Grand Budapest Hotel

  • Bill Murray, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Jason Schwartzman, Léa Seydoux, Bob Balaban, Abraham Murphy, Fisher Stevens, Waris Ahluwalia, Larry Pine, Mathieu Amalric, Wallace Wolodarsky, Florian Lukas, Milton Welsh, Karl Markovics, Neal Huff, Daniel Steiner, Hans Martin Stier, Claudia Jung, Carl Sprague, Giselda Volodi, Gerald Sullivan, Lisa Kreuzer, Michael Benthin, Steffen Scheumann, Roy Macready, Volker Michalowski, Heike Hanold-Lynch, Matthias Matschke, Hannes Wegener, Anthony Quinonez, Lucas Hedges, Gabriel Rush, Golo Euler, Michaela Caspar, Piet Paes, Robin Hurlstone, Kunichi Nomura, John Peet, Sabine Urig, Hendrik von Bültzingslöwen, Georg Tryphon, Rainer Reiners, Mario Rohn, Marko Dyrlich, Paul Schlase, Philipp Sonntag, Moritz Hepper, Birgit Müller, Bernhard Kremser, Ben Howard, David Cioffi, Lennart Meyer, Bohumil Váchal, Dar Ronge, Marie Goyette, Reinhold Hegelow, Manpreet Gerlach, Oliver Hazell, Robert Bienas, Monika Krüger, Wolfgang Ceczor, Frank Jacob, Ed Munro, Dirk Bossmann, Jürgen Schwämmle, Enrico Hoffmann, Gisela Bech, Alfred Hänel, Arwin Lobedann, Georg Rittmannsperger, Gyula Lukacs, Marcel Mazur, Uwe Holoubek, Matthias Holfert, Oliver Claridge, Jeno Orosz, Jutta Westphal, Sister Anna Rademacher, Wolfram Nielacny, Heinz-Werner Jeschkowski, Steffen Nixdorf, David Adamik, Manfred Lindner, Jella Niemann, Renate Klein, Roman Berger, Darin Damjanow, Ursula Kuhnt, Francesco Zippel, Sabine Euler

  Hit men are a dime a dozen in Hollywood movies, but Dafoe turned a run-of-the-mill henchman archetype into something stylish and special in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.

  As J.G. Jopling, a Prada-wearing assassin in the service of Adrien Brody's Dmitri, Dafoe stands out from the abundance of "power cameos" that keep popping up in the film with a campy creepiness that few other character actors could have pulled off.
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  (#13) To Live and Die in L.A.

  • Willem Dafoe, John Turturro, Jane Leeves, Dean Stockwell, William Petersen, John Pankow, Darlanne Fluegel, Christopher Allport, Michael Greene, Debra Feuer

  Dafoe’s movie career was only a few years old when he was cast as the counterfeiter Eric Masters in the 1985 crime drama To Live and Die in L.A. While Dafoe's youthful appearance contrasted with his "cool and professional" portrayal of a ruthless crook, his on-screen villainy and spectacularly horrid demise by fire and bullets helped create one of the best cop thrillers ever.

  You also have to give Dafoe a lot of credit for managing to be menacing in the midst of a very 1980s synth-pop musical score by Wang Chung.
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  (#14) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

  • Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Michael Gambon, Matthew Gray Gubler, Noah Taylor, Noah Baumbach, Seymour Cassel, Bud Cort, Waris Ahluwalia, Eric Chase Anderson, Seu Jorge, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Robert Graham, Isabella Blow, Hal Yamanouchi, Antonio Monda, Stefano Maria Ortolani, Daniel Acon, Pawel Wdowczak, Rudd Simmons, Robyn Cohen, Niccolò Senni, Nazzareno Piana, Anna Orso, Niels Koizumi, Stefano Masciolini, Taiyo Yamanouchi, Pietro Ragusa, Tony Shafrazi, Robert Sommer, Francis Dokyi, Don McKinnon, Henry S. F. Cooper, Guglielmo Casciaro, Thomas Carwgal de la Peña, Levi Mickael de Ramon, Andrea Bertone, Wai Tung Wong, Andrea Guerra, Joseph de los Reyes, Robin Scott, James Hamilton, Honorato Ilao Reyes, Alessandro De Angelis, Alexander Hamilton, Alessio Santini, Muzius Gordon Dietzmann, Begni Bok Dong, Christiano Irrera, Vincenzo Recchia, Andrew Weisell, Robert Wilson, Roberto Salvi, Roderick Magbay, Demetreo Castillo, Andriy Kechur, Conrado Mendoza Dolor, Sylvie Genin, Dennis Rayos Martinez, Leonardo Giovannelli, Gangyuan Xu, Aries Corales, Simeon Maragigak Agelion, Aries Dolor Ilagon, Ettore Conti, Marco Ciarlitto, Walter Cajapao Casapao, Eduardo Bautista Grantuza, Ging Fang Zhu, Melanie Gerren, Leica, Edwarren Bantungon, Paolo Sirignani

  "Quirky" characters are most definitely in Dafoe's wheelhouse, so who better to play Bill Murray's envious German second-in-command, Klaus Daimler, in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou?

  Looking simultaneously dashing and a bit goofy in the crew's blue turtleneck and red beanie ensemble, his character may have been "sick of being on 'B' squad," but was hilariously kooky just the same.
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  (#15) Wild at Heart

  • Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, Crispin Glover, Sherilyn Fenn, Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton, Jack Nance, Pruitt Taylor Vince, David Patrick Kelly, Sheryl Lee, Freddie Jones, Grace Zabriskie, William Morgan Sheppard, Calvin Lockhart, J. E. Freeman, Marvin Kaplan, John Lurie, Glenn Walker Harris Jr., Gregg Dandridge

  David Lynch’s 1990 dark rom-com crime film Wild at Heart was bananas from beginning to end, featuring Nicolas Cage in peak bizarro mode. Competing with Cage's bombastic cartoonishness, however, was a Dafoe performance so evil and deranged, you could tell he was having a blast.

  Playing a terrifying heavy by the name of Bobby Peru, Dafoe said his was an experience "where I put on the costume, put on those teeth, grew a little mustache, put on a little accent, and it was all there and I didn't have to do a thing; it did itself."
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  (#16) The Florida Project

  • Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Kimberly Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, Caleb Landry Jones

  The 2017 "American slice of life" drama The Florida Project made a name out of the previously unknown Bria Vinaite and became the toast of that year's Cannes Film Festival. It also provided Dafoe a platform to deliver, according to one critic, "his finest performance in recent memory, bringing to levelheaded, unsanctimonious life a character who offers a glimmer of hope and caring within a world markedly short on both."

  Playing the good-natured manager of a ramshackle motel, his instinctual compassion in dealing with the poverty-stricken residents in his care allowed audiences to see him in a much more human light than his mega-blockbuster roles could have ever depicted.
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  (#17) John Carter

  • Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Mark Strong, David Schwimmer, Taylor Kitsch, Jon Favreau filmography, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Thomas Haden Church, Polly Walker, Daryl Sabara, Art Malik, Steven Cree, Don Stark, Darwin Shaw, Jill Baker, Nicholas Woodeson, Amanda Clayton, James Embree, Rupert Frazer, Philip Arditti, Daniel O'Meara, Christopher Goodman, Josh Daugherty, Sean Carrigan, Kyle Agnew, Dusty Sorg, Rebecca Sarker, Aldred Montoya, Oliver Boot, Emma Clifford, Arkie Reece, Garry Tubbs, Morgan Lester, Ekaterina Botziou, Figs Jackman, Joseph Billingiere, Thomas J. Post, Edmund Kente, Ian Ray, Jeremy Booth, Myriam Acharki, Philip Philmar, Holly Weston, Akima, Pippa Nixon, Devin Allen, Jhil McEntyre, Arnie Alpert, Simon Evans, Eileen Page, Cate Fowler, Evelyn Dubuc, Emily Tierney, Gary Milner, Peggy Clements, Jared Cyr, Shane B. Cook, Phil Cheadle, Davood Ghadami

  Dafoe is still shocked that the Disney fantasy extravaganza John Carter didn't perform better at the box office. His personal theory is that it simply suffered from bad timing, which resulted in huge financial losses and negated the possibility of any sequels.

  Which is a shame, because Dafoe voicing the CGI character of Chief Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks, was pretty cool. And it's unlikely we'll see him recite dialogue like, "You are ugly, but you are beautiful. And you fight like a Thark!" ever again.
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  (#18) The English Patient

  • Willem Dafoe, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Jürgen Prochnow, Torri Higginson, Julian Wadham, Clive Merrison, Kevin Whately, Liisa Repo-Martell, Geordie Johnson, Nino Castelnuovo, Hichem Rostom, Peter Rühring

  If you thought Eric Roberts in The Pope of Greenwich Village was the only performance to properly convey the tragedy of losing one's thumbs, you've never seen the 1996 drama The English Patient.

  Dafoe plays the supporting character Caravaggio, a hospitalized Canadian intelligence operative who recently lost the most important digits on both his hands after some enhanced interrogation by members of the Third Reich. Outrageously, it seems he was just about the only member of the production who didn't get an Academy Award nomination.
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  (#19) Speed 2: Cruise Control

  • Sandra Bullock, Willem Dafoe, Tim Conway, Lois Chiles, Jason Patric, Joe Morton, Tamia, Colleen Camp, Bo Svenson, Richard Speight, Jr., Glenn Plummer, Jeremy Hotz, Mike Hagerty, Temuera Morrison, Royale Watkins, Patrika Darbo, Connie Ray, Enrique Murciano, Kimmy Robertson, Brian McCardie, Susan Barnes, Francis Guinan, Allison Dean, Mark Adair-Rios, Carlinhos Brown, Mark Kriski, Joe D'Angerio, Matthew Taylor, Charles Parks, Jennifer Badger, Michael O'Hagan, Christine Firkins, Jessica Diz, Chris Wynne, Gustavo Laborie, Tommy J. Huff, Mark Beltzman, Jay Lacopo, Kathryn Rossetter, Ben Siegler, Don Pulford, Ben Meyerson, Tyler Patton, Cheryl Bermeo, Jeff Brockton, Craig A. Pinckes, May Boss, Xavier Coronel, Cliff McLaughlin, Robert Herrick, Alexander de Bont, Heather O'Quinn, Mike Robinson, Wilma Edward, Nancy Collet, Alex Montesino, P.J. Wagner, Joe Foster, Ivory Broome

  Keanu Reeves was probably wise to avoid the debacle that was Speed 2: Cruise Control, as the Razzie winner is now considered one of the all-time worst sequels. Dafoe was also nominated for worst supporting actor, but tragically lost out to Dennis Rodman in Double Team.

  Dafoe's turn as John Geiger, a fired cruise ship employee who seeks revenge via a hijacking and slaying, was pretty darn hilarious in retrospect, right up there with some of the most bonkers Nicolas Cage performances.
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  (#20) Fantastic Mr. Fox

  • George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Adrien Brody, Brian Cox, Jason Schwartzman, Wes Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Mario Batali, Karen Duffy, Helen McCrory, Roman Coppola, Steven M. Rales, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Chase Anderson, Garth Jennings, Hugo Guinness, Jeremy Dawson, Allison Abbate, Tristan Oliver, James Hamilton, Jennifer Furches, Robin Hurlstone, Martin Ballard, Molly Cooper, Juman Malouf, Robert B Hersov

  Fantastic Mr. Fox (based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl) is one of four times Dafoe has appeared in a Wes Anderson project thus far. It was the only time, however, he did not appear in person, instead lending his voice to a stop-motion animated rat.

  Rat is a villainous character in the film (which earned two Academy Award nominations, losing both to Pixar's Up) whom Dafoe expertly instills with his trademark creepy-but-not-too-creepy presence.
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  (#21) Auto Focus

  • Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello, Rita Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Ed Begley, Jr., Michael McKean, Alex Meneses, Catherine Dent, Kelly Packard, Olivia Saint, Katie Lohmann, Arden Myrin, John Kapelos, Kurt Fuller, Ron Leibman, Marieh Delfino, Vyto Ruginis, Joe Grifasi, Kevin Kilner, Gary Sievers, Nikita Ager, Kitana Baker, Don McManus, Joseph D. Reitman, Lyle Kanouse, Donnamarie Recco, Michael E. Rodgers, Kate Clarke, Cassie Townsend, Bruce Solomon, Shawn Reaves, Kevin Beard, Evis X. Shaffer, Shannon Murphy, Gibby Brand, Roderick McCarthy, Zen, John Churchill, Zero, Danielle Petty, Bruce Bauer, Jennifer Piper, Jeff Harlan, Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Hannah Feldner-Shaw, Kelly K.C. Quann, LeJon, Michael Tachovsky, Amanda Niles, Owen Masterson, Christopher Neiman, Bill Marinella, Amber Griebel, Jade Ruggiero, Sarah Uhrich, Jacob Hagard, Shelley Coleman-Hiestad, Jennifer Coffmon, Christopher Hagard, Teri Geary

  The tale of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane is a sordid one indeed, and making a movie about his last days could easily have turned into a depressing and uncomfortable disaster. But with Greg Kinnear in the lead and Dafoe as Kinnear/Crane's supplier of naughty filmmaking equipment, Auto Focus was met with widespread critical praise.

  Yet again, Dafoe proved to the world just how vastly entertaining his ability to artfully exude creepiness can be.
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  (#22) Animal Factory

  • Mickey Rourke, Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Steve Buscemi, Tom Arnold, Danny Trejo, Chris Bauer, John Heard, Seymour Cassel, Mark Boone Junior, Afemo Omilami, Edward Bunker, Antony Hegarty, Mark Webber, Larry Fessenden, Vincent Laresca, J. C. Quinn, Rockets Redglare, Tony Devon, Brian Anthony Wilson, Ernest Harden Jr., Michael Buscemi, Steven Randazzo, James Martin Kelly, Chrismandu, David C. Roehm Sr., Jake La Botz, Hahn Rowe, Sal Mazzotta, Wendee Pratt, Michael Griffith, Christopher Long, Jose E. Cruz Jr., Sixto Ramos, Victor Pagan, John Knox, John Lumia, Dakota Anderson, Anika Hawkins, Patrick McDade, Freddie Ganno, Patrick Edward White, Paul L. Nolan, Damali Mason, Michael J. Lyons, Mark Hyde, Richard Burton, Rick Walls, Mark Engelhardt, Mike Tyler, Ed Hodson, Mark Amitin, Will Holshouser, Joilet Harris, Sean P. Anderson, Jim Goodall, John Innocenzo, Jonny Spanish, James Johnson, Vince Mancini, Paula Gordon, Vincent Yates, Francisco Sandoval, Amorika Amoroso, Robert Pascucci, Paul P. Panepinto, Jeffrey Dwayne Cousar

  What more could you want from a prison drama directed by Steve Buscemi that includes Danny Trejo as an inmate, Tom Arnold as a predator, and Mickey Rourke in drag? Dafoe in the main role, of course!

  In Animal Factory, Dafoe plays a veteran prisoner named Earl Copen who mentors a younger convict played by Terminator 2's Edward Furlong. Things don't end ideally for Copen, but at least he comforts himself at the end with the old saying, "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."

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