Just the name "Voldemort" -- unspeakable to some -- brings to mind one of this generation's most famous fictional faces of evil. Harry Potter's archrival is just the beginning, though. Keep clicking to see 29 more evil faces, some imagined, but some very, very real.
Image Credit: Photo ITAR-TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis
German chancellor Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jewish men, women and children during World War II, and many believe the Holocaust to be one of the most horrific times in history. Hitler killed himself in April of 1945.
Image Credit: Heinrich Hoffmann/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Although he's a fictional character created by writer Thomas Harris, Hannibal Lecter is still a fearsome serial killer. Most know him from the movies "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal," in which Dr. Lecter's claim to fame was his chilling, calculating demeanor and careful cannibalism of his victims.
Image Credit: Phil Bray/MGM Pictures/Universal Pictures/Dino DeLaurentiis
In England during the 1500s, Queen Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary, temporarily restored the country to Roman Catholicism. She reigned for five years, and during that time, she had hundreds of Protestants burned at the sake. After Mary died at the age of 42, her half-sister Elizabeth restored the country to Protestantism.
Image Credit: Kevin Fleming/CORBIS
Another fictional villain, the Joker, is Batman's archrival. He's known for his sadistic sense of humor and, in some tellings, his high level of intelligence. Many fear the Joker completely based on the fact that he has the appearance of a creepy clown -- as the story goes, his looks are the result of a fall into a vat of chemical waste.
Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
The ultimate face of evil to many around the world, and especially to Americans since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is that of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. After years of searching, U.S. Navy SEALS finally tracked down and killed bin Laden inside a private compound in Pakistan in 2011.
Image Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Attila, leader of the Hunnic Empire from 434 to 453, was a face of evil to many in Western Europe. He was exceptionally cruel to both his enemies and his followers. While accounts of his death vary, many believe that he died from a nosebleed -- drowning in his own blood -- on his wedding night.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
Readers and moviegoers alike have long been entranced by "The Lord of the Rings," in which the evil character Sauron, or the Dark Lord of Mordor, tries to gain power over all the creatures of Middle Earth. In this still shot from the movie, Gandalf and Frodo discuss how to destroy the Ring of Power, which is in their possession and is the one thing Sauron needs to achieve ultimate strength and knowledge.
Image Credit: New Line/WireImage
Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted of her crimes, she's never been able to escape her evil reputation. Borden, 32, was accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892 -- both were killed by hatchet blows to the head. Some speculate that she killed them because of property disputes, while others say she committed the murders while in a blacked-out state. Many believe that she was, in fact, innocent, and some blamed the crimes on the family’s maid.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
Pol Pot, prime minister of Cambodia and leader of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, was quite an extreme ruler. He forced city residents to relocate to labor projects in the country, where about 2 million Cambodians died -- that was about a third of the entire population. Some died of disease and starvation, while others were tortured and executed.
Image Credit: Richard Dudman/Sygma/Corbis
A symbol of evil to "Star Wars" fans everywhere, Emperor Palpatine was determined to destroy the Republic and the Jedi Knights to instill an authoritarian regime. Palpatine has another, much more fearsome identity: that of Darth Sidious, a Dark Lord of the Sith. The character was played by Ian McDiarmid in the movies.
Image Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis
There's something especially insidious about female serial killers. Countess Elizabeth Bathory, also known as "The Bloody Countess," tortured, mutilated and killed hundreds of young peasant women over a period of 25 years. She was even accused of bathing in the blood of young virgins in an effort to maintain her own youthful appearance.
Image Credit: Apic/Getty Images
During Joseph Stalin's reign as the general secretary of the communist party of the Soviet Union's central committee, millions of Ukrainian citizens died as the country suffered from famine. Because the decisions of Stalin's government caused the famine, most consider this a horrific act of genocide.
Image Credit: Keystone/Getty Images
Ted Bundy: a true face of evil. Bundy, a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, confessed to killing at least 30 young women (though it may have been many more) in the 1970s. Because he was charming and handsome, women had a tendency to trust Bundy, who would lure them away from public places and murder them. Bundy was sentenced to death, and he was killed in an electric chair in Florida in 1989.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
Ivan the Terrible, or Ivan IV of Russia, was another torturous ruler. During his rule in the mid-1500s, Ivan the Terrible was responsible for his army torturing and killing thousands of citizens of Novgorod. He even beat his pregnant daughter-in-law, causing her to miscarry, which led to a fight with his son in which his son died.
Image Credit: Michael Nicholson/Corbis
Grigori Rasputin is a controversial figure: While some view him as righteous holy man and healer, others view him as an evil magician and cult leader. He was accused of exerting powerful negative influence over the Romanovs and engaging in unrestricted sex, including the rape of a nun. However, so many stories about Rasputin are in circulation that it's hard to nail down the truth about him.
Image Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Although he's never been identified, Jack the Ripper was a fearsome serial killer who murdered as many as 11 people in and around the Whitechapel district of London in the late 1800s. His victims, usually female prostitutes, were cut open and mutilated, and in some cases, their organs were removed. Over the years, many have proposed theories about Jack the Ripper's identity, but the murders have never been solved.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
You can't hear the name "Michael Myers" without thinking of the spooky "Halloween" series of films. The first film begins with 6-year-old Michael wearing a clown suit and stabbing his teenage sister to death. Years later, after escaping from a mental institution, the evil character in his signature mask seems to be both unkillable and unstoppable.
Image Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis
Few names sound quite as evil as "Vlad the Impaler," also known as Vlad III of Romania. Because of the insanely cruel methods of torture he used -- including gradually forcing dull stakes into victims' bodies, cutting off limbs and other forms of mutilation -- Vlad the Impaler was the main inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Image Credit: Stock Montage/Getty Images
Ilse Koch, sometimes known as "The Bitch of Buchenwald," was a Nazi married to Karl Koch, commandant of the concentration camps Buchenwald during World War II. Ilse was especially cruel to prisoners and was known for taking "souvenirs" from them when they were killed -- she would cut off and keep their tattoos, and she was also accused of making lampshades from human skin. She was arrested several times and eventually committed suicide in a women's prison in 1967.
Image Credit: U.S. Federal Government
Few things are more purely evil than the murder of a child. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, British serial killers during the 1960s, kidnapped, tortured and murdered five children in England, three of them under the age of 12. Their horrific crimes were made even more evil by the fact that they tape recorded themselves as they raped and killed at least one of their victims.
Image Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS | Evening Standard/Getty Images
Why are people so afraid of clowns? For some, the fear may go back to Stephen King’s "It," in which "It" is a predatory being that takes on many terrifying forms but is most often portrayed as Pennywise the Clown, an evil force who entices and kills children. Tim Curry played the creepy character in the 1990 movie.
Image Credit: Cat's Collection/Corbis
Any demon that possesses a child puts an especially terrifying face to evil. In the 1973 horror movie "The Exorcist," Linda Blair plays Regan MacNeil, a young girl who has been taken over by a demon. The girl's mother hires two priests to help exorcise the demon from her daughter, who is speaking in demonic voices and exhibiting superhuman strength and unnatural physical feats.
Image Credit: Warner Bros./Courtesy of Getty Images
Another very young fictional face of evil is that of Rhoda Penmark, the little girl who appears sweet and innocent but is actually a cold-blooded killer in the 1956 movie "The Bad Seed." As it turns out, Rhoda's mother Christine was adopted as a very young child, and when she finds out that her birth mother was a famous serial killer, she realizes the evil gene -- or "bad seed" -- has been passed on to her daughter.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
Charles Manson is perhaps best remembered for his power to brainwash young followers into helping him kill in the 1960s and '70s. He led young women, who often called him Jesus Christ, to believe that there would be a race war in which the only white people left alive would be those in the "Manson Family." As of 2011, Manson is serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
While vampire movies abound these days, Count Dracula is still the most well-known vampire in history. The character originated in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula," in which the vampire tried to move from Transylvania to England. Since the novel, Dracula has taken on countless forms, but for those who fear vampires, he can still make their blood run cold.
Image Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS
Fans of Frank Hebert's fictional "Dune" universe may shudder when they think of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the evil antagonist known for his grotesque appearance and ability to manipulate others using their weaknesses. Apparently, he's so large that anti-gravity devices support his weight. Kenneth McMillan played the Baron in the 1984 film.
Image Credit: Nancy Moran/Sygma/Corbis
Another historical face of evil: Maximilien Robespierre, leader of the Reign of Terror in France in the 1700s. Thousands were executed, and Robespierre was responsible for the execution of King Louis XVI without a trial. But his enemies saw justice served: Robespierre was also executed without a trial in 1794.
Image Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Also known as "The Green River Killer," Gary Ridgway killed as many as 100 women in the 1980s and '90s. He was convicted of killing 49 and confessed to killing 71, but because of his consistent methods of killing, authorities believe he's connected to many more. Ridgway targeted prostitutes and runaways because he said they were easy to pick up, and he admitted that he thought of murder as his career.
Image Credit: King County Prosecutor's Office via Getty Images
Our final face of evil is perhaps the most pervasive in history: Satan. While he's fictional to some and very real to others, Satan is known as a challenger of personal faith and an adversary against the inherent good of humanity. What could be more evil than that?
Think you know what evil looks like now? Take our faces of evil quiz and find out!
Image Credit: Corbis
Comments ( )