10 Classic Film Characters Who Didn't Have As Much Screen-Time As You Thought

2. Hannibal Lecter - The Silence Of The Lambs

Another Oscar winner, Anthony Hopkins will forever be associated with the role of Hannibal Lecter, the rudeness-hating, psychopathic cannibal from The Silence of the Lambs, prone to eating your liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti. It was a performance that not just spawned a sequel, this time starring Hopkins, but a legend; prequel Hannibal Rising and TV adaptation Hannibal both take their cues from Hopkins's incredible turn, but in the original, Hopkins only appeared on-screen for 16 minutes of the two-hour film, less than 14%. Hopkins was so brilliant in the role that he scared the Lecter trilogy author, Thomas Harris, simply by impersonating the character on the phone; this was before the film had even been released, and Harris was frightened enough to hang up on Hopkins. Little did Harris know, Hopkins wouldn't need all that much more screen-time to turn his creation into an icon of cinema.