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BRIAN COX

(Manhunter, 1986)

(Tri-Star Pictures)

The first onscreen Lecter, Brian Cox ("X2: X-Men United," "The Bourne Supremacy") decided that the most frightening thing about the imprisoned cannibal psychiatrist was how perfectly normal he appears. Rather than play Lecter as a wild-eyed nutjob, Cox comes across as someone who seems, well, fairly harmless and almost pathetic. Which, naturally, makes all that the maximum security around him all the more unsettling.