Every Hannibal Lecter Actor In Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

Everyone loves a good villain. Without scenery-chewing, dastardly antagonists for our heroes to fight, things just aren't much fun. Sometimes villains become cultural icons in their own right, like Michael Meyers from the "Halloween" movies or even Jeremy Irons as Scar in "The Lion King." Of course, one of the greatest villains of them all is Hannibal Lecter. Created by author Thomas Harris, "Hannibal the Cannibal" was the baddie in the novels "Red Dragon" in 1981, "The Silence of the Lambs" in 1988, "Hannibal" in 1999, and "Hannibal Rising" in 2006, and his well-mannered eccentricity and fierce bloodlust makes him as alluring as he is terrifying. These books have since been adapted into several Hannibal Lecter movies and an NBC television series, with four different actors having portrayed the aristocratic Lithuanian serial killer, each with their own unique spin. 

But who did it best? No one person cast as the clever cannibal was ever truly bad in the role, although some gave stronger performances than others. Through the visions of different screenwriters and directors, each showed us their version of a man who was scary not only because he was capable of killing and eating people, but also because he was so impossibly charismatic. 

The late French actor Gaspard Ulliel played the youngest screen version of Hannibal we've seen so far in 2007's "Hannibal Rising." Directed by Peter Webber, the film was scripted by Harris, who also wrote the novel it was based on almost concurrently. Ultimately, the book was released two months before the film, and both earned mediocre financial returns and even worse critical reviews. (/Film's own review in 2007 found "Hannibal Rising" to be middling.) Be that as it may, Ulliel is not to blame, and his portrayal of a younger, slightly less refined Lecter is quite good.

Ulliel's performance allows us to see Lecter before he filed off all of his rough edges, back when he was just a traumatized young sociopath with a taste for human flesh. The actor is a good mix of alluring and creepy, revealing the different facets of his character and why he's able to get away with so much even at a far earlier part in his life. Unfortunately, "Hannibal Rising" itself is a hot mess and it's hard to be a good Hannibal in a bad Hannibal movie, so Ulliel has been relegated to last place.

Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Performance for his portrayal of Hannibal in Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs," and he also played the character in Ridley Scott's sequel film "Hannibal" and Brett Ratner's prequel "Red Dragon." Hopkins is uneven in his performance throughout the three films; when he's tapping into the character just right he's perfect, but sometimes he's over-acting or just phoning it in (lookin' at you, "Red Dragon"). So, although Hopkins won an Oscar for his performance in "The Silence of the Lambs," we also have to look at "Hannibal" and "Red Dragon" to judge his time as Hannibal overall. It's a bit of a mess, and the great parts don't completely overshadow the not-so-great ones.

Funnily enough, one of the moments that has become the most-referenced from "The Silence of the Lambs" was actually improvised by Hopkins, in which he hisses after telling the camera (and audience) that he ate a census taker's liver with "fava beans and a nice chianti." It's really scary and works well in the moment, but Hopkins totally mispronounces "Chianti," and Hannibal, whose mother was Italian, would never.

The very first adaptation of any of Harris's "Hannibal" novels was Michael Mann's "Manhunter" in 1986. It's a film that loosely takes the story and characters from "Red Dragon" and creates a psychedelic, horrifying vision of the early days of serial killer profiling. "Manhunter" follows FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (William Peterson), who has come out of early retirement to help catch a serial killer the FBI is calling "The Tooth Fairy" (Tom Noonan), prompting him to ask for the assistance of our favorite cannibal psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal "Lecktor" (Brian Cox). Cox is absolutely terrifying as this version of Hannibal, with both the actor and the film around him portraying the character much more realistically than any of the other adaptations do. Cox does his best to be charming when around anyone besides Graham, but drops the mask entirely when the man who caught him asks for his help. He's a stone-cold sociopath and psychopath whose reactions are calculated, and you can almost see Hannibal thinking about how to behave.

Cox is a fantastic actor who has played a number of incredible roles in film and television, but his turn as Hannibal is among his best. While the other actors who have portrayed him made Hannibal a bit more over-the-top and almost operatic in his behavior, Cox's Hannibal feels as tangible and plausible as Charles Manson or John Wayne Gacy. And that, folks, is really scary.

Bryan Fuller's NBC series "Hannibal" took elements from all four of Harris' novels and turned them into a new, beautiful, complex adaptation with a sinister and sexy take on the titular people-eater, played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen here. Mikkelsen is absolutely delectable as a highly stylized, dramatic interpretation of the character — one who is unspeakably charming, educated, and talented. He's also always dressed to the nines and has a deep love of the culinary arts, cooking extravagant (and often people-filled) dinners for his unsuspecting guests.

While actors like Hugh Grant, David Tennant, and John Cusack were all considered for the role of Hannibal on Fuller's show, Mikkelsen is so perfect that it's almost impossible to think of anyone else tackling the character and doing it any better. Combined with the onscreen chemistry that Mikkelsen has with his co-stars, especially the show's Will Graham, Hugh Dancy, his Hannibal is a kind of pansexual powerhouse that cannot be denied. It's no surprise that he's able to regularly outwit the FBI and gets away with his crimes for decades before Graham figures him out, given how deeply people trust him. There are even moments where we get hints of the evil behind the mask and he slips, like Cox's performance-within-a-performance, and it makes the characterization even stronger.

"Hannibal" was unfortunately cancelled after only three seasons, which means we never got a chance to see Fuller's take on the events of "The Silence of the Lambs." Still, at least we got those three incredible seasons and the best Hannibal yet.