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The Coen Brother are among the most respected and critically acclaimed filmmakers forge today . Over the course of their impressive decade - long career , they have brought all form of well - rounded , well - acted , memorable character to life on the handsome screen , from meek everyman like Larry Gopnik and Jerry Lundegaard to out - and - out weirdos like Jesus Quintana and Gale Snoats .
They ’ve also created a ton of iconic villains — or , in some cases , they ’ve adapted them from old source material — who have chilled audience to the core with their malevolent nature . So , here are the 10 most evil character from Coen brothers flick , rank .
Harry Pfarrer (Burn After Reading)
Compared to the acts committed by some of the other villains in the Coens ’ filmography , like beheading and woodchipper - base corpse disposal , criminal conversation seems a little tame . But cheating on your better half is still a pretty awful thing to do , and that ’s how George Clooney’sBurn After Readingcharacter Harry Pfarrer spend his twenty-four hours .
Tilda Swinton ’s character Katie Cox is also engage in an adulterous affair — with Harry , no less — but she ’s only seeing him , and she ’s look for an opportunity to file for divorce . Harry , on the other hand , need to remain with his married woman , yet he ’s constantly on the watch for more come-on - ups .
Jesus Quintana (The Big Lebowski)
Having collaborated with John Turturro a number of times , the Coenstrusted the actor to come up with his own ideas for his quality , Jesus Quintana , inThe Big Lebowski . In fact , Turturro terminate up directing himself in a spin - off centered around the fictitious character , The Jesus Rolls .
Jesus is a sexuality wrongdoer who spent six months in prison house for exposing himself to an eight - year - old child . accord to Walter Sobchak , he ’s a “ pederast . ”
Tom Chaney (True Grit)
Tom Chaney is the man who murdered Mattie Ross ’ father in the Coens ’ 2010 remaking ofTrue sand . Having antecedently played a protagonist for the Coens inNo Country for Old Men , Josh Brolin slipped deftly into the role of a cold - hearted , soft - spoken killer .
Mattie blend in in search of Chaney with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn , who afterward yield up , and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf , who was already on Chaney ’s fag end for his cleanup of a State Senator . Chaney is one of many penis of the Coens ’ varlet verandah who can obliterate without remorse .
Leonard Smalls (Raising Arizona)
Early inRaising Arizona , H.I. has a sight in which he foresees the arrival of a biker who would herald the apocalypse . In reality , this biker is Leonard Smalls , a bounty hunter out to take back the baby that H.I. and his wife Ed snatch .
On theme , it sounds like Smalls is the good guy , butH.I. and Ed just need to give the sister a loving homebecause they ca n’t conceptualise or take on themselves . And Smalls ’ methods are far from stately . There ’s a reason H.I. got a premonition of him as a devil . Fortunately , H.I. is able to mess up him up in the movie ’s climactic sequence .
Gaear Grimsrud (Fargo)
toy by Peter Stormare , Gaear Grimsrud is the partner - in - criminal offence of Carl Showalter . Even after Carl gets shot in the pinna doing the hired man - off alone in their snatch plot , and all he asks for is the elevator car , Gaear right away slay his pal with an ax .
When Marge finally find Gaear , he ’s nonchalantly feed his drained friend into a woodchipper . Stormare play Gaear ’s psychotic nature with emotionless eyes and an unnervingly blasé panache of demarcation delivery .
Tom Reagan (Miller’s Crossing)
There are no “ unspoiled guys ” inMiller ’s Crossing , the Coens ’ gangster neo - noir cult classic . The character reference who is supposedly the agonist , Tom Reagan , is actually more villainous and evil than most of the supporting histrion around him .
Tom only commits two enactment of violence throughout the whole picture , but he can be held indirectly responsible for the deaths of every other character besides Rug .
The Impresario (The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs)
In the “ Meal Ticket ” segment ofThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs , Liam Neeson plays a grizzle , unnamed impresario who take his youthful artist , who has no arms or legs , around the country to deliver beautiful functioning of Shakespearean sonnet and Biblical passages .
When he finds a chicken that can do math , the impresario tosses his artist into a river to drown . This is , without a doubt , one of the most callous , flagitious , malefic acts entrust by a character in a Coen brothers movie .
Lorren Visser (Blood Simple)
The Coens ’ feature directorial entry wasBlood Simple , a neo - noir masterpiece that put a refreshed spin on intimate genre image . M. Emmet Walsh glow the brightest out of the picture ’s cast , playing the role of cold - hearted private eye Lorren Visser .
At every crook and work , Visser does something unsettlingly irregular . His laughing tantrum in the final scene , as Abby is horrified to discover that the adult male she ’s fatally wounded is n’t actually her husband , is a haunting note on which to end the movie .
Charlie Meadows (Barton Fink)
The Coens specifically write the character of Charlie Meadows for John Goodman becausehe has a warm and trustworthy presence . Charlie is the deed of conveyance character ’s neighboring hotel guest inBarton Fink . The consultation would be quiet into thinking that Charlie was the nice , meek - mannered human being he claimed to be , and as a final result , the twist would be much more effective .
Midway through the movie , Charlie is shockingly revealed to be a serial cause of death named Karl “ Madman ” Mundt , who likes to behead his victim . And the movie ’s terminal moments propose that he could be the Devil .
Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)
Javier Bardem ’s nefarious fictional character fromthe Coens ’ masterly neo - westernNo Country for Old Menis a professional hitman without a conscience or , really , any intuitive feeling at all . He ’s an unstoppable force of arrant evil . On multiple occasion , we see him taking people ’s lives with absolutely no excited reply ; just a cold , callous look in his center .
Bardem really sold Chigurh ’s mental disease , earning himself a shelf - loading of awards , including an Oscar . The grapheme is just as reprehensible in photographic print form in Cormac McCarthy ’s reservoir novel , but Bardem breathed disturbing living into the role on the screen .
NEXT : Quentin Tarantino ’s 10 Most Evil Characters , Ranked
