7 Incredibly Sinister Character Actors

4. Ben Mendelsohn

You might know him as the nasty and neurotic Andrew 'Pope' Cody from the Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom. You might know him as Russell, the heroin-addled lowlife from the neo-noir gangster film Killing ThemSoftly. Or you might know him as Daggett, the unfortunate chap who comes to a horrific (but offscreen) end at the hands of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. But regardless of where you spotted him first, you haven't seen a more conniving, or convincing, career criminal. Mendelsohn's stock in trade is the desperate degenerate, the chancer tricked and then trapped into a life of crime. Take his most recent role, the shadowy mechanic Robin (an appropriate name, given his penchant for bank heists) in Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond The Pines. By no means is he astraightforward villain; instead- as with all Mendelsohn roles- he's less a monster and more a victim of his own bad decisions. No one else can make sinister quite so strangely likeable. But how does he manage to always win us over? Perhaps it's that smile. It might be the last thing you see, but you just can't help but feel something for the guy. Even if it is a mixture of revulsion and pity.