Willem Dafoe is one of the most beloved actors working today, and the actor’s legendary status came in large part with the release of 2002’s Spider-Man. While Dafoe had been in tons of incredible projects before, the well-established actor’s role in Sam Raimi’s superhero adaptation helped him become a mainstream icon and one of the greatest movie supervillains of all time.
Dafoe’s performance as Norman Osborn is iconic, and few Marvel villains have been able to match the intensity and insanity of his Green Goblin. However, Spider-Man only scratches the surface of how maniacal Dafoe can be, with this earlier villain role proving that the actor actually held back with Marvel.
Willem Dafoe began acting in feature films in 1980, and only five years later, he found himself playing the main villain in a movie directed by one of the greatest directors of all time: William Friedkin. Having already made classics like 1971’s The French Connection, 1973’s The Exorcist, and 1977’s Sorcerer, Friedkin wanted to make a surreal subversion of the cop movie genre. So, after reading a manuscript version of Gerald Petievich’s novel of the same name, Friedkin decided that the next film he would direct would be 1985’s To Live and Die in L.A.
The film tells the story of two Secret Service agents, William Petersen’s impulsive hot-shot Richard Chance and Michael Greene’s near-retiree Jim Hart, who are sent to Los Angeles as counterfeiting investigators. The duo is tasked with taking down notorious counterfeiter Eric “Rick” Masters, played by Willem Dafoe, who kills Hart days before retirement. Enraged, Chance vows to take down Masters by any means necessary, even if he has to cut corners and take some downright villainous actions.
Willem Dafoe is absolutely terrifying in To Live and Die in L.A., and it is easily one of the actor’s best performances of his career. Masters is cool, calm, and collected at all times, which is horrifying considering how evil the character is. He is a cold-blooded killer who is always one step ahead of the police, and every moment he is on-screen is chilling. We completely understand Chance’s obsession with taking down Masters, even if we don’t agree with his method, meaning that Dafoe perfectly walks the tightrope that makes the film’s complicated story work.
Masters is much more Norman Osborn than Green Goblin, and the role proves how villainous that type of businessman can be. Unlike Osborn, who is a more sympathetic victim of his own madness, Masters is in control at all times. He’ll kill cops, backstab partners, and do anything he has to do to secure his own position in the world of counterfeiting. To Live and Die in L.A. is a must-see for any fans of Dafoe, and it’ll be hard to find a more villainous role in the actor’s filmography than this one.
Green Goblin may be Dafoe’s most iconic villain role, but To Live and Die in L.A. is far from the only time he was cast as an antagonist before Spider-Man. Although not an outright villain, his first major film role as Vance in The Loveless featured Dafoe as the anti-hero leader of a motorcycle gang, kicking off his career trend of playing morally questionable characters.
Dafoe’s first true antagonist role, however, came in 1984’s Streets of Fire, where he plays the leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang named Raven Shaddock, who kidnaps a rock-and-roll singer. The very next year, Dafoe appeared in To Live and Die in L.A., but his next villain role wouldn’t come until the 1990 David Lynch classic Wild at Heart. Here, Dafoe plays Bobby Peru, a career criminal with an iconically freaky look.
1997’s Speed 2: Cruise Control, 1999’s Existenz, and 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire are all impressive pre-Spider-Man villain performances that Dafoe gave, and each one of them is incredible. Green Goblin’s prominence may have led Dafoe to move away from playing villains for a while, but he has appeared as an antagonist since, in movies like 2014’s John Wick and 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Plus, Dafoe reprised his role as Osborn in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, allowing the iconic actor to return to his beloved role nearly two decades after its debut.
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