Ten Characters Played By: Michael Wincott

First off, we apologize for the delay. Been a long time.
Anyway, we love Michael Wincott. Suave, gravel-voiced, and very talented, he's one of the best at playing those who are off centre. So, here's a look at ten characters played by our man Wincott:

1. Matthew, Curtains (1983)
OK, so he doesn't actually have a single line in this. But the film is an underrated, genuinely creepy little horror, in which a film director (John Vernon) holds auditions for a leading lady in a big house in the woods. Needless to say, someone starts killing the hopeful leading ladies one by one. Wincott plays Matthew, Vernon's assistant, and swaggers into the film, louche and mysterious, sleeps with one of the actresses in the hot tub and is killed off early. All without saying a word. Alright, so maybe Matthew's not his best character. Good film, though.


2. Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
"Might I have the pleasure of your name, before I run you through?"
Now we're talking. The best thing about Kevin Costner's cheesy, overblown version of the Robin Hood story were its villains, played with great relish by Alan Rickman and Michael Wincott. They got the best lines, and they knew it. Wincott's sniveling, cowardly villainy works wonderfully next to Rickman's grand pride and vanity. He'll shoot his mouth off when he's backed up by an army, but he still gets run through by his cousin the Sheriff. And he's stupid enough to question why the Sheriff would threaten someone with a spoon.


3. Top Dollar, The Crow (1994)
"I'm sorry if I spoiled your wedding plans there, friend. But, if it's any consolation to you, you have put a smile on my face."
Top Dollar, the villain of Alex Proyas' superb adaptation of James O'Barr's Gothic revenge comic, is perhaps Wincott's best-remembered performance, and with good reason. In a film that will always have Brandon Lee's shadow hanging over it (He died during filming), the fact is that when Wincott is on screen, you're watching him. As a villain, he's full of contradictions, going from introspective and melancholy to joyful murderous excess at the drop of a hat. That's what makes him impossible to forget. There's the creepy incestuous relationship with his sister, the obviously traumatic childhood ("Dad gave me this. Fifth birthday. He said "Childhood's over the day you know you're gonna die"), the acceptance of Eric Draven's supernatural abilities, and the relish with which he accepts the challenge. The Crow may not be the masterpiece its fans herald it as, but it is an excellent film, and a lot of that is due to Wincott.



4. Conway Twill, Dead Man (1994)
"I'll Tell you one thing: If that there Blake fella keeps on shootin' marshalls I might end up likin' the bastard!"
Wincott's performance in Jim Jarmusch's oddball western Dead Man has a different balance to his previous roles. Conway Twill is a bad man, one of three hired guns charged with hunting down William Blake (Johnny Depp), but his drinking and dirty jokes are nothing compared to the past acts (cannibalism, incest) of fellow mercenary Cole Wilson (Lance Henriksen. Here, Wincott lends a much needed sense of levity to the proceedings. Twill's a simple man wandering through Jarmusch's bizarre landscape, one of the few characters not prone to double meanings and symbolism. He's out of tabacco, impressed by Blake's shooting of Marshalls, and unsettled by his employer's tendency to talk to a stuffed bear. He's funny, and becomes more and more likeable, but is obviously doomed by his decision to ride with Wilson.


5. Philo Gant, Strange Days (1995)
"Paranoia is just reality on a finer scale"
Kathryn Bigelow's sci-fi, written by James Cameron, is an odd one. Not good enough for "cult classic" status, but certainly not bad enough to be completely forgotten. Wincott plays the interestingly named Philo Gant, a record producer who's stolen our hero Lenny Nero's (Ralph Fiennes) rocker girlfriend (Juliette Lewis). Of course, given that he's played by Wincott, he's clearly a bad man, and the prime suspect when brutal murders start happening around Lenny. He's also such an obvious bastard that it's not much of a surprise when he turns out to be a red herring. Still, that's what Lenny gets for having Tom Sizemore for a best friend...Not Wincott's best performance, but he does well with an underwritten part.


6. Rene Ricard, Basquiat (1996)
"When I speak no one believes me, but when I write it down everybody knows it to be true"
Wincott followed his OTT villainy with a wonderfully sensitive performance as art critic/prophet Rene Ricard in Julian Schnabel's Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic. He puts that gravelly voice to a different use as the man who discovered Basquiat and set him up with his first show. Rene is flashy and flamboyant ("My God, you sound famous already) but easily hurt. The scene in which he watches Basquiat sell a painting previously dedicated to him to Warhol's manager (Dennis Hopper) is heartbreaking, as he storms out of the gallery. He reappears at a celebratory dinner, insults Warhol, and delivers the film's central message: "We're no longer collecting art; we're buying people." In a film packed with stars (Bowie! Dafoe! Walken! Hopper! Oldman!), Wincott's performance brings the heart. It should also be mentioned that Jeffrey Wright is terrific in the title role.


7. Frank Elgyn, Alien: Resurrection (1998)
"I'm guessing what you've got going on here ain't exactly approved by Congress?"
There's a lot wrong with Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien sequel, scripted for Joss Whedon. Fortunately, Michael Wincott's not one of them. A popular theory is that the gang of crooks that Elgyn leads was a blueprint for Firefly's loveable band of rogues, and it certainly applies for some of the characters (Ron Perlman's Johner is almost identical to Adam Baldwin's Jayne). However, Elgyn is certainly not Captain Mal. You wouldn't get Nathan Fillion referring to one of his crew as "severely fuckable." Elgyn wisecracks his way through the first twenty minutes, showing no concern for the morality of his mission, and proceeds to suffer one of the most frustratingly stupid deaths in the film. Note: If a gun is covered in slime, best to leave it. Don't keep walking down the corridor.


8. Heberto Zorilla Ochoa, Before Night Falls (2000)
Wincott re-teamed with Basquiat director Schnabel for this superb Reinaldo Arenas biopic. It's a small role, but a memorable one. Ochoa introduces Arenas (Javier Bardem) to the literary elite in Havana. In his most memorable scene, Ochoa is forced to testify before a tribunal. As sweat runs down his face and his voice trembles, we're reminded how well Wincott can portray vulnerability.


9. Julius Bicke, The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
"As of this moment, I wash my hands of you"
It's fair to say that this film is pretty much a one-man show, with a superb central performance from Sean Penn as the mentally unstable Samuel Bicke, despite good work from Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle. Wincott has one scene late in the film, as Samuel's severe brother. He reveals that Samuel has stolen from him, and disowns him. There's nothing big or flashy here, just a solid depiction of solemn authority. The film's worth hunting down, too.


10. Hayes, Seraphim Falls (2006)
"I never was much for scripture"
The decision to cast Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson in a gritty chase Western is an odd one, no question. However, it's difficult to argue with the casting of Wincott as Hayes, the foul-mouthed, callous gun-hand hired by Carver (Neeson) to help him hunt Gideon (Brosnan). Asked by a young colleague how to spell "wife", Hayes tells him "W-H-O-R-E". It may not be a complex part, but it's a pleasure to watch his obvious discomfort as he and Neeson take shelter in a Christian missionary camp. As for the film, it's underrated but takes an ill-advised turn for the dream-like in the final third.