The legendary Star Wars villain topped a poll by Empire magazine’s website. 

Talking about the winning villain, Empire magazine’s  Chris Hewitt said: “Everything about Vader is designed for maximum malevolence. The mask, the voice, the rasping rattle, guaranteed to keep kids awake at night.That feeling that he’s in complete control of every situation. That feeling that if you even so much as look at him funny, it’s brown britches time. This is what pure evil looks and sounds like.”

In second place in the online poll, Heather Ledger’s performance as  The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight while in third position is Tom Hiddlestone’s Marvel God of Mischief, Loki.

Following closely behind in fourth place master robber Hans Gruber portrayed in Die Hard by Alan Rickman and rounding off the top five is  Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter.

Other villains that made the list also include Harry Potter’s nemesis Voldemort , the cold-hearted Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  and horror icon Freddy Krueger, star of the popular Nightmare on Elm Street series.

Talking about the poll Empire’s editor-in-chief, Terri White said: “Bad guys are a huge part of what makes movies so damn good. But who’s the baddest? Empire readers voted in their droves and named Darth Vader their number one villain of all time. The pull of the dark side is still strong it would seem…”

The top twenty list of all-time villains is as follows:

1.      Darth Vader

2.      The Joker (The Dark Knight)

3.      Loki

4.      Hans Gruber

5.      Hannibal Lecter

6.      Hans Landa

7.      Kylo Ren

8.      Anton Chigurgh

9.      Voldemort

10.  The Alien

11.  Gollum

12.  Sauron

13.  Nurse Ratched

14.  The Sheriff of Nottingham

15.  Palpatine

16.  Norman Bates

17.  Agent Smith

18.  Freddy Krueger

19.  The T-1000

20.  Michael Myers

This month’s Empire magazine, featuring the Greatest Villains Ever, is on sale now.