9. Andrew Laeddis in Shutter Island

Andrew Laeddis is one of Scorsese’s most charismatic criminals because he doesn’t act like one—he sells himself as the hero of his own story, and DiCaprio makes us believe him. Unlike the swaggering mobsters of Goodfellas or Casino, who revel in their power, or the scheming hustlers of The Wolf of Wall Street, who charm their way to fortune, Laeddis’s charisma is built on conviction, not confidence. He strides through Shutter Island with the intensity of a detective chasing justice, his voice clipped, his stare unwavering, his every move calculated to prove he’s in control. But the brilliance of his character—what makes him more magnetic than Scorsese’s gangsters and grifters—is that it’s all a performance, even to himself. The way he commands a room, challenges authority, and pieces together clues isn’t just gripping—it’s heartbreaking, because by the time the illusion shatters, we realize his greatest trick wasn’t fooling others, but convincing himself he was never a criminal at all.