20 Serial Killer Characters Ranked by How Many Oscars Their Actors Have

If you were to pick two major elements equally entrenched in the language of American cinema, “murder” and “wanting to win Oscars” take up a lot of cultural space. A voyeuristic, morbid fascination with the depravity of the human soul means our obsession with crime and horror evolves and regenerates from year to year; on the other hand, American cinematic craft has yet to extract itself from the pyramid of ambitions that enshrines those shiny gold trophies at the very top. But if we’re lucky, these polar opposite impulses converge, and actors fated to be blessed by the Academy channel their inner serial killers in much seedier, creepier performances than their prestigious Oscar-winning turn. As Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage marks a new turning point in his post-Mandy renaissance by playing a Pure Freak Energy killer in Oz Perkins’ Longlegs, we mapped out the full intersection of wickedness and winners.
Here are 20 movie serial killers ranked by how many Oscars their actor has:
16 – 20. Abby Brewster (Josephine Hull), Arsenic and Old Lace; The Alphabet Killer (Timothy Hutton), The Alphabet Killer; Georges (Jean Dujardin), Deerskin; Sully (Mark Rylance), Bones and All; Vilmer (Matthew McConaughey), The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre — 1 win each
We’re using this five-way tie to lay down some house rules. This list excludes biopics. The serial killers have to be fictional characters—yes, “the Alphabet killings” did take place in Rochester, but Richard Ledge, played by Timothy Hutton (Best Supporting Actor, Ordinary People), was not responsible or even real. It’s why Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning turn as Aileen Wuornos in Monster won’t be listed here—we want to highlight the unprestigious and pulpy only. In addition, because most Oscar-winning actors only have one or two trophies, other Oscar nominations are being used to distinguish between rankings—and Hutton, Josephine Hull (Best Supporting Actress, Harvey), Jean Dujardin (Best Actor, The Artist), Mark Rylance (Best Supporting Actor, Bridge of Spies), and Matthew McConaughey (Best Actor, Dallas Buyers Club) were only ever recognized for the film they won for. So far, none of these actors won an Oscar for their serial killer performance—for our money, the funniest of these is McConaughey in the Texas Chainsaw movie with the Illuminati.
15. Sheriff Lou Ford (Casey Affleck), The Killer Inside Me — 1 win, 1 nomination
Sandwiched between his first nomination and first win, Casey Affleck (Best Actor, Manchester by the Sea) played Lou Ford, a small-town Texas sheriff whose sexually sadistic crimes have til now been protected by a tight inner circle. Affleck’s reedy, cracking voice can pack a surprising menace and intensity, as we saw in that one Oppenheimer scene, but while he may have gotten Oscar gold for a visceral and vulnerable performance as a grieving widower, when it comes to pulling off Texan sleaze, he’s got nothing on the first actor to play Ford—character actor extraordinaire Stacy Keach.
14. Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), Longlegs — 1 win, 1 nomination
Nicolas Cage (Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas) may have the same amount of wins and noms as Affleck, but we want to give extra credit to just how commanding his serial killer performance in Longlegs is. Clad in white powder and facial prosthetics, Longlegs has the presence of no identifiable human being, a patchwork corrupted entity that fuels a sickening mood central to Perkins’ film. Cage’s Oscar win bears mentioning whenever he taps into this type of energy—his turn as an alcoholic writer spiraling towards death in Las Vegas is a fairly good representation of the unconventional and swerving style of heightened performance that’s helped the actor make his name.
13. Christopher Gill (Rod Steiger), No Way to Treat a Lady — 1 win, 2 nominations
Rod Steiger (Best Actor, In the Heat of the Night) was one month away from winning his Oscar for his reaction to Mr Tibbs backhanding Endicott when he played a Broadway director who dons eclectic identities in order to kill older women who remind him of his mother in No Way to Treat a Lady. Maybe this strange and electric serial killer performance fueled Oscar votes, maybe it didn’t—all we know is that between wearing piss-yellow shades beside Sidney Poitier and doing blackly comic murders, it was a good time to be Rod Steiger.
12. Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), Crimson Peak — 1 win, 2 nominations
Feeding off Gothic classics like Rebecca and Jane Eyre, but with none of their mannered literary restraint, Guillermo del Toro was on the money when he cast Jessica Chastain (Best Actress, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) as a conspiring and murderous baronetess with luscious gowns. Chastain won her Oscar some six years later for another heavily-costumed part, but in case you’ve spent the last couple years wondering what was missing from Michael Showalter’s competent televangelist biopic, it was a terrible Gothic secret like Chastain has in Crimson Peak.
11. Slade (Jack Palance), Man in the Attic — 1 win, 2 nominations
Do you know how many adaptations of Marie Belloc Lowndes’ novel The Lodger there are? Five. Do you know many of them have an Academy Award-winning actor play the titular serial killing tenant? Only this 1953 version, where Jack Palance (Best Supporting Actor, City Slickers) gets to swan his trademark suspicious villainy as a Jack the Ripper-style London butcher. Note to producers: If you want your Lodger adaptation to be associated with Oscar gold, change the title—or cast someone who once played second fiddle to Billy Crystal.
10. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), American Psycho — 1 win, 3 nominations
Potentially the definitive serial killer film of this century, Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ provocative depiction of the average Wall Street investment banker psyche is filled with abject and gruesome acts of murder, and jettisoned Christian Bale (Best Supporting Actor, The Fighter) towards Batman-related stardom. His commitment to Patrick Batemen’s entirely constructed persona and spurts of unfeeling violence is certainly more interesting than any of the performances he’d get Oscar fame for. Two David O. Russell and two Adam McKay films are a cursed combination.