which ACTOR best played an INSANE/ CRAZY/ DEMENTED PERSON for you?

Ummm...Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman was autistic. An autist savant. This is most certainly NOT the same as insane, crazy or demented. Those are psychotic people. Autism is a disorder of the nervous system and causes them to be unable to function normally with social interaction, communication, imagination and activities. Autistic savant causes these people to sometimes have extraordinary mental abilities, such as Raymond's mathematical genius in the movie. It doesn't make them dangerous or psychotic killers. Having cleared that up...Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs was, in my opinion the best psychotic killer character in a movie.

I totally agree about Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers. He made that film what it is. He was really disturbed in that movie and he really played the demented nature of the character well.

For me it's usually the ones who don't play the demented or crazy person that sticks with me longer. Judd Nelson in Relentless was chilling. There have been a few that really come from out of the blue and make you wonder. I think it's great when they do take risks with their careers and put themselves as the bad guy or the one with problems. Kevin Bacon in Criminal Law really had me going. It was the first one I saw with him where he played the crazy bad guy. Of course in the River Wild he did as well and he was excellent in that one too. There are a lot of those nuts in the movies aren't there?

Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Heeerrree's Johnnnie!!!!!

I was going to say Malkovich..he is my fav actor of all time. He also played a bad guy in a Clint Eastwood movie. I can't remember the title of it, but he was a crazy guy in that movie.

Dustin Hoffman's Rainman character doesn't fit any of those descriptions his performance of a man with Autism was excellent, and it showed an understanding of people with this time of disability, but in no way was he demented, crazy or insane. Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane This movie creeped me out so much when I was a kid, there was something in Bette Davis' eyes that you could really believe she was unbalanced, that she gave the element of never knowing when she was going to snap. Even after seeing the movie once and knowing what was going to happen I would still get startled by some scenes. Douglas Roberts playing Larry Silver in Patch Adams, the way he moved, his eyes, you knew that something was wrong, that something was off, and while there was nothing to indicate that you should be scared of this person, there was something that made you pause when they showed his face, and sure enough later on he did kill someone. He did this with little to no dialog all with his body language and facial expressions, showing real talent. Of course there is Anthony Perkins in Psycho Doug Hutchison playing Eugene Victor Tooms in two episodes of the tv show X-Files while this is not a movie his performance was so menancing and spooky and scary that it deserved mention.

Dustin Hoffman didn't play a crazy or insane man? He played an autistic person. There's a big difference!For me it would be John Lithgow in Raising Cain.

Yes, I agree with Woody Harrelson in "Natural Born Killers". Christian Bale played a very good murderous psychopath (somewhat humorously) in "American Psycho". Robert DeNiro portrays convincing psychos in "Taxi Driver" and "Cape Fear".

My pick is Antony Perkins in Psycho.

his performance in face off as a criminal and a hero was simply awesome.his performances in broken arrow was a class act too.

Jack Nicholson is classic. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and that Kubrick movie are probably his most famous roles. But let's not forget The Joker from "Batman," or even "Anger Management" and whatever the name of that movie with Helen Hunt was, where he played the guy with OCD. Edward Norton is great too. Primal Fear was fantastic.

surprisingly Brad Pitt has done a couple of good roles along those lines, First as the psycho in Kalifornia and then as a nutter in Twelve Monkeys.

Kevin Bacon in the "sleepers". Remember the line when he meets the former children he abused." Yeh I remember you. I made you tough didn't I?" You are not going to get any crazier person than that. Regards

I would have to say Michael Keaton in Pacific Heights. He was an absolutely nutty villain. He went on to do another movie and played a physco inmate I cannot think of the movie name but Andy Garcia was in it also.