Vernon Schillinger is a fictional character played by American actor J. K. Simmons on the HBO series Oz as a major antagonist. TV Guide included him in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time and Rolling Stone has ranked him #22 of the "40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time". Schillinger is one of the most powerful and feared inmates in Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary ("Oz"). As leader of Oz's Aryan Brotherhood, Schillinger controls most white inmates and has a reputation for ruthless brutality and rape. He is shown to be a high-ranking member of the Brotherhood outside of prison, thus giving him power outside of Oz through a vast network of allies. Character overview Schillinger is the head of the Aryan Brotherhood inside the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary ("Oz"). An ardent racist, he is serving an eight-year sentence for aggravated assault for attacking an African American drug dealer with a crowbar for selling drugs to his sons. He indulges in varying degrees of sexual sadism, especially toward fellow inmate Tobias Beecher, whom he rapes to "initiate" him into prison life. In addition to Beecher, Schillinger commits several acts of rape over the series against weaker white inmates; ironically, he is virulently homophobic. He is also quick to have the Brotherhood murder other inmates to prove that the Aryans are a legitimate threat to the rest of Oz's inmate population. Throughout the series, Schillinger has a number of major family issues: his father, whom he hates, taught him everything he knows about white supremacist ideology; his sons are both amoral drug addicts; he has disowned his sister for marrying a Jew, and his daughter-in-law is a prostitute. Many of his underlings are imprisoned for hate crimes and readily affiliate themselves with his group. Despite his status as a leader, he seeks approval from his superiors such as former mentor Wilson Loewen, who views him as having "a big ego and no balls to back it up." Schillinger strongly objects to his name being mispronounced, averring that it should be pronounced with a hard "G" sound ("Schilling - ur"), not a soft "G" sound ("Schillin - jur"). Few characters throughout the show's run actually pronounce it properly. Ironically, Kareem Saïd, his biggest rival and bitter enemy, is the one character who always pronounces his name correctly. Season 1 Schillinger is among the inmates in the specialized Cell