Norman Stansfield

"I like these calm little moments before the storm... it reminds of Beethoven."

- Norman Stansfield

Norman Stansfield is the main antagonist in the 1994 film Léon: The Professional. Stansfield is noted as being one of cinema's greatest villains.

He is portrayed by Gary Oldman, who also portrays Egor Korshunov, Mason Verger, Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, Carnegie, Dreyfus, Drexl Spivey, Baron Ruber, Lord Shen and Count Dracula.

Biography
Stansfield is a corrupt DEA agent who murders the entire family of a girl named Mathilda over a drug dispute, and therefore becomes the target of her wrath when she hires the hitman Léon to help her in her quest to avenge her family.

After increasing her experience with firearms, Mathilda fills a shopping bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield. She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery person, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Léon, discovering her intentions in a note left for him, rushes to rescue Mathilda, shooting two of Stansfield's men in the process.

Stansfield is enraged that what he calls the "Italian hitman" has gone rogue. He threatens Tony, coercing him into surrendering Léon's whereabouts. As soon as Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team, sent by Stansfield, takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and barters one agent for Mathilda's freedom. In the apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Matilda by chopping a hole in a slender air shaft. He reassures her and tells her that he loves her, moments before the police come for him.

In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. He is unnoticed save for Stansfield, who recognizes the hitman and shoots him. Stansfield jeers him haughtily. Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands, which he explains is "from Mathilda," before dying. Opening his hands, Stansfield recognises the object as the pin from a grenade. He then rips open Léon's vest to discover several live grenades strapped to his chest, seconds before a massive explosion kills him.