Nothing scary about him; the role was scary

I like the performance but on second watch I think its borderline hammy. Disagree with your statement tho as hopkins was very good just slightly ott for my liking.

No Oscar deserved; put Jason Miller in the role, and he would have been scary.
He was praised because La Hopkins, the British gent

Hopkins was the "popular" choice and while I don't have an issue with his win or the film, I feel the oscar® really belonged to Nick Nolte for PRINCE OF TIDES that year. I feel that Hopkins did have some intense and worthy scenes and his limited screen time was masterfully edited into the picture.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector is one of the most iconic portrayals of a character ever. If you can't state your point a little better then nobody's going to take you seriously.

That's the point, surely; serial killers are seldom stereotypically "scary". More often they're detached, cold and controlling - rather like Hopkins portrays Lecter in this movie.

Hopkins is actually Welsh. :-P