Who is/was the best movie villain ever?

I would nominate Phillip Van Damm played by James Mason in the Hitchcock film North by Northwest. He manages to be charming, vicious, sensitive, smart, scary and clever. I had no doubt he seriously meant to throw his unfaithful girlfriend (Eva Marie Saint) out of his plane at night 20,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. Forcing the man he believed was his enemy to drink booze and then putting him into a car on a twisting mountain road at night was also pretty clever. I really didn't think Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) was going to survive him.

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greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

James Mason playing Phillip Van Damm, the villain of the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest. So evil, so intelligent, perceptive and charming. And scary! Killing the hero, the Cary Grant character, is a minor chore for Van Damm and he rather enjoys it, too. He reminded me a little bit of my mother.