Micheal Keaton is just as comfortable playing a bad guy as he is a heroic lead, with a strong track record of movie villainy. Michael Keaton is perhaps one of the most charming, impressively fluid actors of his generation to persist into the modern day of pop culture relevancy. Though Keaton’s comedy performances and time leading the action as a superhero in the Batman movies are his most well-known roles, the charismatic actor has become quite proficient with his antagonists over the years.
There are many aspects to Michael Keaton that make him a great bad guy. His raw charm and force of personality makes him a fun villain to root for, somehow winning over audience affections despite being a terrible person. His ability to flip a switch and instantly go from hilarious to threatening also helps him explode as volatile characters. Suffice it to say, some of Michael Keaton’s best movies see him playing a villain of some sort, highlighting his chameleon nature as a beloved Hollywood star.
10 Raymond Sellars
RoboCop
Sadly, not every Michael Keaton villain can be a clear hit, and his performance is one of many disappointments surrounding the 2014 RoboCop reboot. The ill-fated film retells the story of resurrected beat cop Alex Murphy, who becomes the titular cyberized crime-fighter after a brutal criminal attack leaves him with few original pieces. Compared to the original dystopian science fiction classic, 2014’s RoboCop left a lot to be desired as a system update for the iconic action movie.
Among the star-studded cast of 2014’s RoboCop sat Michael Keaton’s Raymond Sellars, the CEO of OmniCorp, the reboot’s version of OCP. Keaton exhibits none of his usual flair and charisma here, making Sellars a pale point of comparison against the delightfully smarmy Dick Jones of the original. It’s a crime for Micheal Keaton to be present in an action film cast in such a forgettable role, but 2014’s RoboCop unfortunately exhibits one of his most lurching, stalest performances ever.
9 Robert Hollander
Penthouse North
Also known by its alternate title, Blindsided, Penthouse North shows off just how twisted Michael Keaton is capable of acting in a dedicated antagonist role. The crime thriller follows a wartime photojournalist who returns home only to find herself at the center of a deadly burglary-turned-murder perpetrated against her boyfriend, who seems to have hidden a tumultuous past from her. Keaton enters the scene as Robert Hollander, a remorseless thief searching for a fortune in diamonds hidden away by heroine Sara’s late boyfriend.
Normally, Micheal Keaton is somewhat typecast as fast-talking or charismatic characters, even when playing a villain. It’s refreshing to see him be so relentlessly evil and to-the-point as Robert Hollander, proving that he’s able to exhibit many more shades of villainy than previously thought. Hollander callously throws Sara’s cat off the balcony and takes a direct approach to his conquests, considering little else besides his goal. That being said, his performance here is quite tired compared to his other characters, dragging back the efficacy of the whole film.
8 V.A. Vandevere
Dumbo
One of the most unnecessary and least asked-for live-action remakes of a Disney classic yet, Dumbo is a wretched dud in Keaton’s uneven filmography. Another one of the star’s collaborations with Tim Burton, the dreary vision of the whimsical original cartoon sees a CGI Dumbo brought to life in a world of mean live-action actors. The story of the young flying elephant stretches over a colorful canvas typical of Burton’s brilliant art design, but offers little else of substance to enjoy throughout its dreadful runtime.
Nestled within the spectacle is Micheal Keaton’s V.A. Vandevere, a capricious and greedy venture capitalist who seeks to build a theme park called Dreamland, using Dumbo and the circus he performs in as a major draw. Vandevere is a boring villain whose evil schemes are over-the-top for the sake of inflicting undue misery, plotting to kill Dumbo’s mother even when it doesn’t make sense simply to give the character an excuse to be cruel. While Keaton’s lean in to the snarling antagonist’s hilariously vile personality is admirable, his terrible wig alone keeps him from ranking any higher.
7 Walter Nelson
Minions
The Minions movie isn’t exactly highbrow cinema, yet it quietly features a comedic villain performance from Michael Keaton that is worthy of commendation. The spin-off of the Despicable Me movies is a prequel that follows the adventures of three Minions as they search for an evil master worthy of their servitude, traveling to a convention called “Villain-Con” to do so. Along the way, they’re picked up by an odd family of villains, the Nelsons, led by patriarch Walter Nelson, played by Michael Keaton.
Keaton’s voice fits the role so well it’s hard to realize that he’s the one behind the character, giving a chirpy, friendly voice to the hardened family man criminal who shoots at police officers as casually as he waves hello. Keaton’s small scene is one of the most entertaining of the entire film, showing off his evil side while still being a shockingly good father to his little villain-in-training kids. Of course, the gag character is still fairly one-note, and doesn’t get much screen time to develop past the joke of a typical nuclear family who engages in criminal activities.
6 Michael Rembrandt
The Protégé
A fascinating exercise in female-led action thrills, The Protégé stars Keaton as one of his most exciting villains yet. The film begins by echoing the likes of Leon the Professional, with a young orphaned girl being taken in and raised by a legendary assassin, played excellently by Samuel L. Jackson. When this mentor and father figure is killed in retaliation for an old job, with Michael Keaton’s Michael Rembrandt seemingly connected to the hit, the highly-trained eponymous protégé sets out to avenge his death.
Rembrandt is a literal smooth criminal who shares equal parts animosity and romantic chemistry with Maggie Q’s Anna Dutton, a fiery kiss-kill dynamic that remains explosive till the film’s final moments. It’s also quite impressive to see how well a then 70-year-old Michael Keaton can still hold his own believably in an action scene. Rembrandt is certainly a cool villain, though he doesn’t have the most personality compared to some of Keaton’s other roles.
5 The Vulture
Spider-Man: Homecoming
As far as Marvel Cinematic Universe villains go, Micheal Keaton’s Adrian Toomes is undoubtedly one of the most compelling. In the wake of the Battle of New York that took place in The Avengers, Keaton’s Adrian Toomes is a contractor who is forced out of the valuable job of cleaning up the battle due to the dangerous alien technology left in its wake. In retaliation, Toomes begins a criminal enterprise of his own, scavenging and re-purposing advanced weaponry to sell to criminals as The Vulture, keeping a few valuable toys for himself.
This soon puts him into conflict with Spider-Man, made worse by the added wrinkle that Toomes is actually the father of Peter Parker’s crush. Linking the fear of facing a supervillain to the fear of meeting the father of one’s first girlfriend was a brilliant move on behalf of Spider-Man: Homecoming, but Toomes also has something of a soft side, refusing to divulge Spider-Man’s identity to other criminals and genuinely caring about his family. The Vulture remains one of Keaton’s most well-remembered antagonists for good reason, even if some of his scariness is undercut by needless humor.
4 Carter Hayes
Pacific Heights
The film that solidified Michael Keaton’s proficiency with snake oil salesman types, Pacific Heights was a great example of his layered potential as an antagonist, even in an otherwise mediocre script. The film centers on a young couple who purchase their dream home in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood, though they need to sublet the first floor of the domicile to a tenant to make ends meet. Enter Michael Keaton’s Carter Hayes, a seemingly respectable and wealthy renter who appears to be the perfect fit.
However, Hayes soon proves to be not what he seems, in reality an intelligent and sociopathic con artist named James Danforth. Danforth goes on to enact a manipulative plan to wrestle the property into his own possession alongside the identity of one of its young owners. Keaton is quite chilling as the Machiavellian tenant from hell, shifting his demeanor on a dime as it best suits his schemes and machinations. While Pacific Heights isn’t a great film outside the younger, hungrier Keaton performance, the character of James Danforth is one to remember.
3 Peter J. McCabe
Desperate Measures
Pacific Heights wouldn’t be the only time a film is absolutely carried by a villainous performance by Michael Keaton. Enter Desperate Measures, a seldom remembered late 90s thriller starring Keaton as Peter J. McCabe, a dangerous serial killer in prison who had nearly escaped multiple times. McCabe is given another window of opportunity when he turns out to be the only compatible bone marrow donor for the son of a respected police officer.
McCabe’s circumstances and personality are like a blue-collar version of Hannibal Lecter. He’s endlessly intelligent, smoking opponents in chess and always finding a slippery way to escape custody, remaining wily to the very end. Keaton helps the character ooze with personality, enjoying listening to the radio in stolen cars, firing off fun quips, and developing something of an actual soft spot for the child whose life he may help save after all. It’s a shame Michael Keaton’s time as Peter J. McCabe isn’t more widely recognized.
2 Ray Kroc
The Founder
The Founder is one of the most criminally underrated films to ever exist, let alone among Michael Keaton’s filmography. The biopic tells the real story of Ray Kroc’s thievery of the famous McDonald’s fast food chain, stealing it from under the nose of the original McDonald brothers and turning it into the restaurant empire known the world over today. Though he’s technically the protagonist, Micheal Keaton ensures that Ray Kroc is seen as the absolute villain of capitalism he really was in the powerful drama.
Keaton’s subtle acting skills add layers to Kroc’s treachery, selling his veneer as a down-on-his-luck milkshake machine salesman in need of a lucky break before finally removing the mask of friendliness to show what depths of betrayal he’s willing to sink to in pursuit of his greed. Kroc covets the McDonald’s name like Gollum and the Ring, going to great lengths to steal his supposed friends’ businesses, riches, and even, in one case, their wives. Being unsure whether to cheer for or be appalled by Ray Kroc’s actions is the mark of a truly brilliant villain performance on Keaton’s behalf.
1 Betelgeuse
Beetlejuice
The only villain role for Michael Keaton to return to in another movie, Betelgeuse is a name worth remembering, if only to ensure one doesn’t say it three times in a row. The smarmy “bio-exorcist” first appears in his eponymous debut film, Tim Burton’s brilliant dark comedy that sees the ghosts of a recently deceased couple employ his help in order to scare away new homeowners occupying their haunt. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice seems him return once more to haunt the young girl who escaped his clutches years later, Michael Keaton not missing a beat in returning to the character.
Like Ray Kroc, Keaton’s performance as such a detestable character is still so oddly likable that it’s hard not to root for him at times, despite his obnoxiousness, detestable goals, and overall political incorrectness. The explanation of Betelgeuse’s origins in the second film helped to deepen his character without having to change the slimy spectral villain into being a sympathetic personality. Disgusting, vile, yet strangely charming, Micheal Keaton‘s fast-talking undead sleazeball will forever be his greatest cinematic character, let alone villain.
