Cinema’s most famous psychiatrist is a cannibalistic serial-killer with a weakness for liver served with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is prominently featured in four novels by Thomas Harris and is the protagonist in the last two. In Silence of the Lambs, he is serving a life sentence for his crimes when he is visited by FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), who has been sent to get his help in tracking down a fellow serial murderer. Anthony Hopkins, with a long and distinguished body of work in film and stage already behind him, found in Lecter a career-defining role. His claim that he drew inspiration from Katharine Hepburn and HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey rings true — what makes Lecter truly frightening isn’t merely his monstrous behavior, but how its cloaked behind a disorienting veneer of courtliness and civility.
Top 10 Movie Shrinks
As 'A Dangerous Method' offers revealing portraits of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, TIME sets up appointments with 10 of cinema's most memorable psychiatrists and therapists.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs
Full List
The Doctor Is In
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs
- Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting
- Dr. Caligari, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- Dr. Malcolm Crowe, The Sixth Sense
- Dr. Tyrone Berger, Ordinary People
- Dr. Ben Sobel, Analyze This
- Dr. Sam Loomis, Halloween
- Dr. Eudora Fletcher, Zelig
- Dr. Constance Peterson, Spellbound
- Dr. Leo Marvin, What About Bob?