Malevolent March: Day 5

For the month of March, I'm going to try something new for the blog, so every day I am going to spotlight a different villain from comic books, movies, TV, etc. It's mostly going to be my all-time favorite villains, with some crazy random ones thrown in there for good measure, so check back every day to see the newest villain in Malevolent March!


We continue our march to the Academy Awards by spotlighting great villains that have won Oscars. Today is one of my favorite villains, from an absolutely terrific film that I think is often overlooked in regards to the 1990's. Today's villain is old West monster, someone who ran his town with an iron fist. Today's villain: Little Bill Daggett. Hit the jump.

Little Bill Daggett

Unforgiven (1992)

Background: Played brilliantly by the always great Gene Hackman, Little Bill is the sheriff of Big Whiskey and he rules the town with an iron fist and metes out harsh justice to those when he sees fit. He beats Richard Harris' gunfighter character severely for coming to his town to collect a bounty on cowboys who cut up a hooker. Little Bill is obsessed with his twisted version of law and order to the point that it becomes a perversion of itself, and he doesn't care when women's lives are threatened or when innocents get harmed because of his actions. When Eastwood's William Munny and Morgan Freeman's Ned Logan finally bring the cowboys to justice, Little Bill tortures and kills Logan and proudly displays his corpse as a warning to any other hired gun that would dare come to his town and subvert his authority. Little Bill excels at playing psychological games with his enemies, saying anything he can to get under their skin.

Great Quotes of Little Bill Daggett

-"Look son, being a good shot, being quick with a pistol, that don't do no harm, but it don't mean much next to being cool-headed. A man who will keep his head and not get rattled under fire, like as not, he'll kill ya. It ain't so easy to shoot a man anyhow, especially if the son-of-a-bitch is shootin' back at you."

-"All right, gentlemen. He's got one barrel left. When he fires that, take out your pistols, and shoot him down like the mangy scoundrel he is!"




-"I guess you think I'm kicking you, Bob. But it ain't so. What I'm doing is talking, you hear? I'm talking to all those villains down there in Kansas. I'm talking to all those villains in Missouri. And all those villains down there in Cheyenne. And what I'm saying is there ain't no whore's gold. And if there was, how they wouldn't want to come looking for it anyhow."

-Little Bill Daggett: "It's been a long time, Bob. You run out of Chinamen?"

English Bob: "Little Bill, well I thought you was, well I thought that you were dead. I see you've shaved your chin whiskers off."
Little Bill Daggett: "I was tasting the soup two hours after I ate it."
English Bob: "Well, actually, what I heard was that you fell off your horse, drunk of course, and that you broke your bloody neck."
Little Bill Daggett: "I heard that one myself, Bob. Hell, I even thought I was dead 'til I found out it was just that I was in Nebraska."

-"I suppose you know, Bob, if I ever see you again I'm just going to start shooting and figure it was self-defense."

-"You been talking about that Queen of yours, again, Bob? On Independence Day?"