Crony awards: The most memorable movie villainous sidekicks

The world of James Bond is rife with villainous sidekicks. We didn’t want to litter this list with baddies who went against Bond. So, with respect to the likes of Jaws and Xenia Onatopp, we’re going with Oddjob. He’s likely the most iconic sidekick of a Bond bad guy, in this case, Auric Goldfinger. Sure, it’s mostly the hat, but the hat rules.

Who is a sidekick in the Star Wars universe? Is Darth Vader the sidekick of Emperor Palpatine? Is Kylo Ren a sidekick? Instead of wading into murky waters, we went with a villain who is clearly a sidekick in Darth Maul. Yeah, The Phantom Menace is bad, but Darth Maul still works.

Disney is loaded with villainous sidekicks. When we think of the characters who are the second banana to Disney villains, though, we think of Iago. The bird, voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, is a squawking sounding board for Jafar in Aladdin and makes a mark.

Rene Belloq has to be the dark mirror for Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, so he’s a more complex character. Toht, though, is just pure evil. He is, after all, a Nazi, and like Indiana himself, we hate those guys. Toht is so evil you don’t mind seeing his face straight melt off at the end of the movie.

Igor does not exist in the original Frankenstein story. In fact, when Dr. Frankenstein’s sidekick first appeared on screen, his name was Fritz. The degree of evil displayed by the doctor and his sidekick varies by the movie — for example, Igor isn’t exactly that bad of a guy in Young Frankenstein — but Igor is an iconic sidekick, and sometimes, he is a villain.

As a giant eye, Sauron needs others to carry out his work a lot of the time. When The Lord of the Rings trilogy begins, the wizard Saruman is at the forefront of Sauron’s evil ways. He’s able to prove formidable to even Gandalf, and he definitely has more personality than any of the orcs or Uruk-Hai do.

This is the first case wherein the sidekick is definitely more memorable than the character who is technically the lead antagonist. Ronny Cox is good as Dıck Jones, the unscrupulous president of OCP in RoboCop. However, Kurtwood Smith’s turn as Clarence Boddicker runs circles around him. In the store, the crime lord may be working at the behest of Jones, but to the viewer, it’s easy to forget that Boddicker isn’t the primary baddie in RoboCop.

As a parody of James Bond, the Austin Powers films are also rife with sidekicks. That being said, they don’t all stand the test of time. Mini Me? Fat Bästard? Meh. Frau Farbissina, though, remains funny and is also in the sidekick role for multiple movies.

Batman may have Robin, at least some of the time, but his villains tend to have generic henchmen, not sidekicks. In Batman , one of Joker’s goons stands above the rest: Bob the Goon. He is, after all, Joker’s number…one…guy. Heath Ledger’s Joker would never have a sidekick, but Jack Nicholson’s does.

The climactic fight in Lethal Weapon ? It doesn’t involve General McAllister, the main bad guy. No, it’s between his sadistic right-hand man Mr. Joshua, played by Gary Busey, and Riggs. Riggs and Mr. Joshua duke it out at Murtaugh’s home. When the sidekick gets effectively elevated to the main baddie, you know they’re making a splash.

Depending on the version of X-Men you are consuming, Mystique’s role may differ. However, in the original X-Men trilogy that helped kick off the increase in superhero films, the shapeshifter’s role is clear. Played by Rebecca Romijn, Mystique is the sidekick of Magneto, doing much of his dirty work for him.

The Raid is considered by many to be a modern action classic. It’s rife with fight scenes and almost works like a video game, going level by level. Eventually, the protagonist has to meet up with the muscle of the evil drug cartel in the film. That would be Mad Dog, played by Yayan Ruhian, who has a nickname befitting his merciless nature.

As an affectionate riff on fairytales, naturally, The Princess Bride has a villainous sidekick. There are a few of them, though Fezzik and Inigo Montoya turn to the side of good fairly quickly. Count Rugen, though, is evil through and through. Not only is he Prince Humperdinck’s sidekick, but he’s also the infamous six-fingered man who killed Inigo’s father.

Sometimes, even goofy comedies have villains with sidekicks. Take, for example, Dumb And Dumber. There is a kidnapping driving the plot of the absurd, gross-out comedy, and the kidnapper has a couple of sidekicks to handle all his dirty work. With all due respect to J.P. Shay, the one people remember is Joe Mentalino, played by Mike Starr. Perhaps that’s because of his death scene, but it still counts.

You know you’re off to a good start in the delightful campus comedy Real Genius because the villain is played by ‘80s smarm icon William Atherton. Among his many students, Professor Jerry Hathaway has one particularly sycophantic charge who served as his de facto sidekick. That would be Kent, who is almost as loathsome as Professor Hathaway, but in a fun way.

Another instance of the sidekick being the villain everybody remembers. In Once Upon a Time in the West, Henry Fonda shocked audiences at the time by playing not just a villain but a truly deplorable villain. Memorably, Frank makes his mark at the beginning of the film by killing a child. However, Frank is the hired gunman of the railroad tycoon Mr. Morton. Morton may be in charge, but because Frank does his dirty work, he’s the sidekick that sticks out.

Regina George is a different kind of villain but is still considered an iconic one. Mean Girls is about a clique, though, and while George may be the queen bee, she has a couple of sidekicks. Of those two, Gretchen stands out, if only for trying to make fetch happen.

Villains in Alfred Hitchcock movies often work alone or are a bunch of birds. That’s not the case in the espionage thriller North by Northwest , though. James Mason is the primary villain, but his henchman Leonard also gets plenty of attention and does much of the dirty work. It helps that Leonard is played by Martin Landau, who would eventually win an Oscar for his acting acumen.

The Coen Brothers specialize in crime films, though they vary from deadly serious to farcically comedic. True Grit falls somewhere in between, more of a rollicking drama than anything else. Maddie Ross is specifically looking for Tom Chaney, hoping to bring him to justice for killing her father. Still, Chaney is actually a sidekick to “Lucky” Ned Pepper, the leader of his gang of criminals. Josh Brolin’s portrayal of Chaney shows him to be much more of a sidekick type, as he lacks the ruthlessness and intelligence of Pepper.

One thing notably missing from the vast Marvel Cinematic Universe? Many characters that could be considered villainous sidekicks. Sidekicks just don’t pop up much in the MCU. However, when Nebula is introduced as a character, she is clearly the sidekick to her father, Thanos. In time, Nebula would break free from her father’s clutches and become a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but along that path, she served as the most notable villainous sidekick in the MCU.