10 Iconic Movie Characters With Less Screen Time Than You Think

Hannibal Lecter is probably Anthony Hopkins’ most iconic role, and The Silence Of The Lambs is definitely the best known and best loved of all of his movies. However, Lecter has a startlingly low 24 minutes of screen time in that movie, despite establishing himself as a pop culture legend with it.

Hopkins did play the character again, in Hannibal and Red Dragon, getting more screen time in each of those, but it was the first movie, starring opposite Jodie Foster, where he really made his mark. So much so that he even won the Oscar for Best Actor, notching up the second smallest screen time of anyone ever to win.

David Niven in 1958’s Separate Tables has the smaller time of any Leading Academy Award winner, but Hopkins’ turn is far more iconic.

Every time he speaks, it fills the watcher with dread, and that uncomfortable feeling never leaves you, even when he’s absent from the action. In fact, part of the issue with his two follow up performances is that he gets so much of the spotlight, the intensity can’t be maintained.

In small doses though, he’s one of the most menacing characters ever put to film.