20 TV Villain Performances That Are Practically Flawless
4. Michael Emerson - Ben Linus (Lost)
There are many things that make Ben Linus such a frightening villain, the biggest factor being that his loyalties and motives are kept heavily ambiguous throughout Lost's run. The other factor is Michael Emerson's performance.
Manipulative to an almost scary extreme, Ben's polite and nondescript voice and limited mannerisms make him impossibly hard to read, as does his frequent hypocrisy and inability to let people get close to him.
Emerson, in one of the finest performances on the show, plays Ben as a man with a deep secret never divulged, whose odd jokes and unpredictable appearance makes him more dangerous than meets the eye.
Lost is a confounding show with too many great characters to count, but of the vast ensemble the show has employed, Emerson has the biggest claim to being labelled the show's true MVP.