Inside the Joker’s Evolution: Meet Every Actor Who Has Played Batman’s Main Supervillain Foe

Mark Hamill’s Point of View

Mark Hamill, who reprises the role of Luke Skywalker in December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, embraces the Joker’s ability to morph as needed. “Every time I play the Joker,” says Hamill, who first began voicing the character in Batman: The Animated Series and has continued on-and-off for the past 27 years in different productions, “I like to think it’s the first time I’ve ever done it. Or at least think of it as the first time that the audience member is tuning in to this particular episode. Each one would always have one particular scene that was different from the others. I would also try and alter the laugh each time, because I didn’t want to get into a pattern where it would be predictable. I wanted to use the laugh like a musical instrument; there’s so many colors on the palette. You can do it low and sinister, you can do it with extreme abandon and exuberance. I really wanted to mix it up.”

Shaking Things Up

“You read the script, and you ask, ‘Why are they using the Joker as the antagonist?'” he continues. “‘What’s the requirement of this particular incarnation of the Joker?’ In the episode ‘Harley & Ivy,’ he’s got a bit part, because Harley goes off with Poison Ivy on a crime spree and it’s sort of reminiscent of Thelma & Louise. They cut back to Joker and he’s lost. He’s at home, puttering around in slippers and an apron. Every Joker should be specific for the particular story that you’re in.”

Being Specific

In a studio-released interview at the time of Batman‘s release, Jack Nicholson says, “This would be the character whose core, while totally determinant of the part, was the least limiting of any I would ever encounter. This is a more literary way of approaching than I might’ve had as a kid when I read the comics, but you have to get specific. In a way, its specificness broadened it, rather than what you normally use specific for. So you don’t drift. His specifics are he’s not wired up the same way. This guy has survived nuclear waste immersion here.”

‘Living Characters’

Writer/producer Bruce Timm, who guided much of the DC Comics animation projects between the ’90s and 2000s, comments, “I think the Joker is a little bit like a weird force of nature; a personification of the perverse. I believe the door is kind of kept open for lots of different interpretations of the character. But these characters — Batman and the Joker — aren’t set in stone. They are, for lack of a better analogy, kind of living characters in terms of who’s in charge of telling the story. One of the great things about Batman is that there have been so many different iterations of him. Everything from Adam West on the one hand to Christopher Nolan on the other, and all the different flavors in between. There are just so many different things you can do with the characters, especially Batman’s relationship with the Joker.”

Different Shades of Joking

“The ultimate Joker lies somewhere between Nicholson’s theatrical showmanship and Ledger’s intense portrayal,” opines Paul Dini. “Nicholson’s was more of the circus, more of the big spectacle, but the Christopher Nolan Batman world is not a world of big spectacle. It takes place in cities where you can recognize some of the landmarks, and where the Joker is a very real joker; a very smart tactician and is just what those movies needed. I don’t think Nicholson’s character would have worked within that framework. Hey, look, there is a parallel between Joker turning on the music and dancing to ‘Partyman’ as he destroys the museum, and Joaquin Phoenix going down the stairs to ‘Rock and Roll, Part II.’ Those Jokers are dancers. The Heath Ledger Joker is not a dancer. He’s a predator. He’s a stalker. He’s all menace. The others are, too, but they couch it in a sort of dark playfulness.”

Necessary Evil

John DiMaggio, whose animated films as the character includes Batman: Under the Red Hood, adds, “The Joker thinks of himself, quite literally, as a necessary evil. When I say that, I mean he really feels there is a place for him and that he somehow balances chaos and non-chaos. It’s a yin and yang thing. And it’s really not personal, it’s business. Although he can get personal and enjoys it. That makes it that much more twisted.”

Creeping Himself Out

Reflects Mark Hamill, “I love the fact that the Joker in a film like The Killing Joke is so unrelenting in his lack of humanity. He’s so extreme that it pushes Batman to the edge of not adhering to his code of honor, which can happen. You almost question whether or not he’s going to make an exception in this case, because the Joker is so extreme. It’s chilling stuff. When I’m in character, and, yes, I’m in the studio, so I’m not turning into the Joker by any stretch of the imagination, but what I’m saying is that if you’re in character in the zone, you relish it. Then you take a break and you think, Jesus, what did I just record? That was really creepy.”

Loss of Identity

And now the Joker has been brought to a whole new level with the Todd Phillips film, which Paul Dini for one applauds. “One of the things that I thought was really well done in the movie is that no one, not even the Joker himself, is completely sure of his origin. That, I felt, was the great tragedy inherent in the character in this version. He believes several things about himself and is constantly finding the rug pulled out from under him. So when he says, ‘There are times I doubt if I’m real,’ it’s probably the only time I’ve ever really had any sort of sympathy for the character, because he winds up as the butt of a very bitter joke as to who he is and what he is. And with somebody who started off with some sort of empathy to have all of that wiped away from them — you can’t help but empathize with him and certainly understand the choices he makes and why he feels he has to do what he does. You feel like this poor bastard doesn’t have a shred of reality or truth in his life he can hold on to. He is lost and has to recreate himself from the ground up.

“It’s a harsh movie,” he adds, “and a very dark movie that people are mostly comparing to Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. This is an artistic lovechild of both of those movies.”

Please scroll down to meet all the Jokers there have been. 

Cesar Romero

The first actor to play the Clown Prince of Crime did so on the Adam West/Burt Ward 1966-1968 television series. His name was Cesar Romero and he nails it perfectly for the time. Cesar also played the role on the big screen in 1966’s feature film version of the show, simply titled Batman. Gotta love the fact that the actor refused to shave his mustache, so they applied make-up over it. In an interview at the time of the show’s debut, Cesar explained that he had been contacted by the show’s producer, Bill Dozier, who told him he was doing Batman as a TV series. “Which didn’t mean anything to me; I’ve never followed the comic strip,” he noted. “He said, ‘I’d like you to play the Joker. Come down to the studio and I’ll show you what we’re doing.’ The first episode they’d filmed had Frank Gorshin playing the Riddler. He ran it for me and it was wonderful. Then I read the script and I fell in love with the Joker. I thought he would be a wonderful character to play, so I did the show and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a hoot.”

Larry Storch

Larry Storch, the actor best known for playing Agarn on the comedy F-Troop, provided the voice for the character of Joker in the 1968-1969 Filmation animated series Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder.

Mike Road

Batman, Robin and their rogue gallery made an appearance on the 1972 animated series The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Providing the voice for the Joker is actor Mike Road.

Lennie Weinrib

In 1977, Saturday morning cartoon fans were greeted with new adventures of the pre-Dark Knight with Adam West and Burt Ward voicing their respective roles of Batman and Robin. Playing the Joker is Lennie Weinrib, who, for the record, voiced Superman on an episode of The Brady Kids.

Frank Welker

Although Frank Welker voiced many characters over the years, he is probably best known as the voice of Fred on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The sheer quantity of voice credits the man has amassed over the decades is too extensive to list here, but the important thing is that he voiced the Joker on 1985’s Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardian.

Jack Nicholson

To know just how big a phenomenon 1989’s big screen Batman was, you really had to be there. That Bat logo was virtually everywhere, and getting just as much attention as Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight was Jack Nicholson as the Joker. This Tim Burton film took a twist from the comics, tying the origins of the two characters together. Working with Nicholson and Keaton was a highlight for Burton, who says, “For me, there’s a certain kind of thing I enjoy, which is both Jack and Michael come on to the set knowing their characters and then it’s fun after that. You get it five different ways and you play and come up with new things, but it’s always in a very strong framework. Both of them know so much and Jack just knows so much about filmmaking and can take any absurd thing and make it real. It’s a real spark to me, that sort of person.”

‘Herrrrrrrrre’s Joker!’

Michael Uslan, executive producer of every Batman film since the 1989 Michael Keaton starrer, explains that soon after he got the rights to the character from DC Comic, he was convinced Jack Nicholson was the perfect guy to play the Joker. “It was the beginning of Memorial Day weekend in 1980,” he says, “and I was going on a bus in New York City heading back home to New Jersey. I picked up the afternoon paper and opened it up to the movie section, where it was talking about two movies opening up. One was The Empire Strikes Back and the other was The Shining. There, for the first time, I saw that iconic picture of Jack Nicholson that’s come to be known as the ‘Here’s Johnny’ shot where he’s maniacally peering from around the door. I said, ‘Oh, my God, this is the Joker.’ I tore it out and when I got home I ran to my desk, I took  White Out and whited out Jack’s face. I took a red magic marker and applied it to his lips. I took a green magic marker and redid his hair. I showed that to everyone at the studio, to anyone who would look, and ultimately to Tim Burton. That was my crusade in the day. When Jack Nicholson was actually hired, that was probably the greatest day of my career up until that moment.”

Mark Hamill

The actor, who is obviously best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, first started voicing the character of the Joker in 1992-1995’s Batman: The Animated Series. Making the role his own, he’s returned on and off ever since in such projects as The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999), Batman: Vengeance (1991), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), Justice League (2001), Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), DC Universe Online (2010), Batman: Arkham City (2011), Batman: Arkham Knight (2015), Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), Justice League Action (2016-), Batman: Arkham VR (2016), LEGO DC Super Villains (2018) and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? (2019).

More on ‘The Killing Joke’

To go off on  tangent for a moment about 2016’s Batman: The Killing Joke, it was supposedly a Joker origin story, but is it really? Comments produce Bruce Timm, “One of the saving graces of The Killing Joke, and one of the things I always like about it, was that even though it supposedly gives Joker’s origin story, [writer] Alan Moore kind of hedged his bets by giving the Joker that line towards the end where he says, ‘Well, sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes I remember it another.’ So we don’t really know if, in fact, it is actually his true origin story. For lack of an alternative, it is kind of his de facto origin. At the same time, he’s such an interesting character that I kind of feel like I would rather not know how he became the Joker.”

For his part, Mark Hamill adds, “When the Joker says, ‘If I’m meant to have a past, I’d prefer it to be multiple choice,’ I agree with that. I think it takes a lot of the mystery out of him to do a flashback and show who he was before he was the Joker. When you unmask the Phantom of the Opera, you go, ‘Well, that’s not so bad. It’s like a bad sunburn or something.’ Unless you’re looking at the silent version with Lon Chaney — that was horrifying. But it’s all about the mystique. It’s like taking Darth Vader’s helmet off: ‘Oh, it’s just that guy with the egghead and the scars? That’s not so crazy.’ With the flashback in The Killing Joke, you get the idea that if it was the Joker telling the story, you could doubt him. He’s a pathological liar. I think he’s one of those people that lies so much or lives in his own fantasy, that he’s not even sure if he’s lying or telling the truth.”

Curtis Armstrong

Curtis Armstrong is best known as Booger in Revenge of the Nerds and Burt Viola on the Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd TV series Moonlighting, but between 2000 and 2002 he played the Joker in a series of OnStar commercials. While these were airing, the WB aired the 2002-2003 live action series Birds of Prey, which had a flashback sequence in which Roger Stoneburner (accompanied by Mark Hamill’s voice) plays the Joker, who puts a bullet in Batgirl/Barbara Gordon’s back.

Allen Enlow

Bringing the Joker to vocal life in the game Batman: Dark Tomorrow is actor Allen Enlow, whose credits include Mr. Robot and Happy!

Kevin Michael Richardson

Kevin Michael Richardson voiced the character of the Joker in the animated series simply known as The Batman, which aired between 2004 and 2008. In between came the made-for-video movie The Batman vs. Dracula in 2005, which saw Kevin back in the role.

Jeff Bennett

Even a light-hearted Batman series needs the Joker (think of the Adam West show in the form of Cesar Romero), and that was true of Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-2011). Jeff Bennett brought the Joker to the made for video animated film Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018).

Heath Ledger

Not to say that there haven’t been great portrayals of the Joker before or since, but the late Heath Ledger really defined the role unlike anyone else in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008). Heath won a posthumous Academy Award for his portrayal of the anarchy-loving character. As Heath related to YouTube user ChucktheMovieGuy, “It was one of those moments where I was asked if I would be interested in playing the Joker, and I knew five seconds later exactly how to play it. I sat down with [director] Christopher Nolan and shared my thoughts with him. They were identical to his and we just kind of went from there. He’s definitely the most fun I’ve had with any character. He’s just out of control. He has no empathy. He’s a sociopath, just a mass-murdering clown. It exceeded my expectations in terms of what the experience would be like.”

Steve Blum

Another actor with an extensive list of voice credits, Steve Blum voiced the Joker in 2008’s Lego Batman: The Videogame. Among the many characters he’s brought to life is Wolverine in several different animated shows focusing on the X-Men.

Richard Epcar

Richard Epcar is all about voice acting, and he played the Joker in a number of video games: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008), Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013), which had that unbelievable moment when Superman, in retribution for the death of Lois Lane and their unborn child, rips the Joker’s heart out of his chest; Infinite Crisis (2015) and Injustice 2 (2017).

Brent Spiner

Apologies, Brent Spiner, but no matter what else you do in your career you will always be known as the android Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation (a role he will be reprising in CBS All Access’ forthcoming streaming series Picard). But that being said, you did turn in a creepy performance as the Joker in the animated television series Young Justice.

John Kassir

Check out this plot description from Google of the project featuring John Kassir and it sounds like any typical animated DC Comics adventure: “The Joker kidnaps Batman, Superman and the rest of the DC Super Friends and puts them against their worst enemies in their own secret base, the Hall of Justice.” The difference is that it’s definitely a kid-friendly take in 2010’s DC Super Friends: The Joker’s Playhouse.

James Patrick Stuart

The Joker as hero? That’s one of the conceits behind the 2010 animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, for which actor James Patrick Stuart provides the voice for the “Jester.” On this parallel Earth, the Jester works side-by-side with that world’s Lex Luthor (also a good guy!) in their efforts to stop the evil and corrupt Injustice Gang (Earth Two’s take on the Justice League).

John DiMaggio

Veteran voice actor John DiMaggio has managed to provide his vocals for a number of Jokers in different projects, beginning with 2010’s gritty Batman: Under the Red Hood and continuing with the decidedly more kid-friendly DC Super Heroes: Batman Be-Leaguered (2014), and LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League — Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015). At the time of Under the Red Hood‘s release, John said that his goal was to “honor the real lunacy of the character. I didn’t want to make him campy, but I wanted to pay a little bit of tribute to the past Jokers — and yet keep it original at the same time. That’s walking a fine line if ever there was one. It was a little intimidating, because it was such an iconic role. But it was an honor to get this job and especially to play the Joker in this version, because it’s so dark and twisted. I felt like I got a really wonderful opportunity.”

Christopher Corey Smith and Lloyd Floyd

Christopher Corey Smith provided his voice as the Joker in 2012’s LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes,  2013’s LEGO Batman: The Movie — DC Super Heroes Unite, 2014’s LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and 2015’s LEGO Dimensions. 

Also in 2015, actor Lloyd Floyd voiced the character in DC Super Friends.

Michael Emerson

One of the most acclaimed Batman stories of them all has been Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Rises, which was adapted into a two-part animated film released in 2012 and 2013. Projected forward in time, it sees Batman coming out of retirement to battle new threats, among them the return of the Joker. This time the character is voiced by Michael Emerson, known for his roles in TV shows like Lost, Person of Interest and, currently, CBS’ supernatural drama Evil. Commenting on the character, Michael reflects, “The Jokers seems to me to be the embodiment of some dark, wicked part of the human ID, but with more tools. He’s a challenge. He’s horrible, because he’s twisted and mocking and I don’t think anything is serious for him. It makes it very dangerous. In voicing him, I wanted to take my own voice and snide it up a little bit and make it a little unlikable.

“I’m always pleased to get to play someone who’s not strictly human or not strictly natural or of our normal planet Earth,” he continues. “It’s fun, because you have a little more breadth and can be a little jazzier. I just thought it was fun to consider a person whose voice and mannerisms lived up to their name in a way. It seemed to me as I was reading the script, that everything Joker says could be followed with the remark, ‘Oh, come on, I’m just joking. It’s a joke, right?’ There are people that are a little bit like that in real life, but they’re not as dangerous as the Joker.”

Troy Baker

Troy Baker has bounced back and forth as the voice of the Joker between video games and animated films. He’s brought the character to life in the game Batman: Arkham Origins (2013), and movies Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014),  Batman: Dark Flight (2015), Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem (2015), and the short Justice League: Battle for Metropolis 4D (2015), In 2019, he voiced both the Joker and Batman in the film Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Cameron Monaghan

On the Batman prequel television series Gotham (which ran from 2014-2019), actor Cameron Monaghan played twins Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska who are early variations on the character of the Joker. We can only assume they’re not the Joker, given that in the past he and Bruce Wayne were more or less contemporaries in terms of age. In an interview with Fox LA, Cameron related, “Obviously when Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight came out, that was something that was massively influential to a younger actor. Jack Nicholson’s Joker from ’89 was one of my favorites as a kid. So this was something that was part of my childhood, and then being able to satisfy that childhood dream has been amazing. My main inspiration, though, came from the comics themselves, looking at how he’s posed, what’s going on facially and then what’s going on story-wise, in the ideology, and then trying to translate that into something that was tailor-made for our story and what we were trying to tell. Obviously touching anything in this mythos is kind of stepping in the footsteps of giants.”

Jared Leto

In 2016, in what was supposed to be the start of a new era for the Joker, actor Jared Leto was signed to play the character, who served as “boyfriend” to Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn in the film Suicide Squad. Things have changed, however, with Warner Bros switching its approach to films based on DC Comics characters, and it would seem that Jared’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime is going to be limited to a one-shot. At the time of the film’s release, Jared commented to FlashbackFilmmaking, “I think everyone should have a chance to play the Joker, because it’s just outrageous. It’s so much fun because there are no rules, you can basically just do whatever you want and we don’t really get to do that when we’re adults. The Joker just goes completely nuts. He doesn’t wait to ask permission if he can say or do something, so that’s really exciting. I think it keeps everybody on edge, including myself. I never know what I’m going to do next and I made a promise to myself that I was going to be as brave as possible, not be afraid to fail and take a lot of chances.”

Jason Spisak

Like many of the people who have been providing voices for the various characters in these projects, Jason Spisak has been voice acting for decades in a wide variety of roles. He’s played Joker in 2016’s LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League — Gotham City Breakout and, more seriously and recently, in 2019’s Batman: Hush. 

Anthony Ingruber

Anthony Ingruber is actor who has appeared in live action productions and provided his voice for others, most notably video games. In the case of the Joker, he voiced the character in the games Batman: The Telltale Series (2016) and Batman: The Enemy Within (2017). As he related to IGN, Anthony owes at least part of his being cast to the fact that he had posted to YouTube videos of himself as a teenager impersonating Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s versions of the Joker. “Telltale,” he says, “saw that and said, ‘Well, if he can do those guys, what could he come up with for himself?’ I approached it more as if it was a live action Joker and not doing an impression. Like, try not to lean in one way or the other, but still try to honor those things that inspired me to become the Joker. So I tried to create a voice that is reminiscent of all three. But the curveball they threw at me was that I wouldn’t be playing the Joker, but instead John Doe, and I didn’t know that until I walked into the studio. What they actually wanted was for me to dial everything back, because he’s gong to be medicated and pretending to be sane; like he’s tricking everybody. I figured when h’s talking to the doctor, he’s doing an impression of what he thinks a charming person sounds like. And then, the only time he’s talking to Bruce Wayne, you see the mask slip. So it was really cool, but also very challenging to try to incorporate all those different things into it.”

Jeff Bergman

Shortly before his death, Adam West teamed up with Burt Ward to provide their voices for the animated features Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016) and Batman vs. Two-Face (2017). Actor Jeff Bergman did his best Cesar Romero as that version of the Joker was resurrected as well.

Zach Galifianakis

He’s best known for his feature films (the Hangover trilogy among them) and the TV series Baskets, but Zach Galifianakis also did an amazing job, somehow bringing a slightly more sympathetic interpretation of the Joker character to The LEGO Batman Movie (2017). “The Joker himself is a great villain,” Zach enthuses, “because he’s unpredictable and wild and somewhat clever and somewhat witty. But sometimes not. He’s a great villain and the Jack Nicholson version was very inspiring.”

Ken Yasuda

Not too much is known about Ken Yasuda or the animated film DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon (2017), but here’s the official description of what has been termed a comedy: “Joker has come to Japan to steal the Eagle Talon Society’s secret weapons in his continued scheme for pure chaos. However, the Justice League is on his trail, but there’s something off with Batman. Now, it’s up to Eagle Talon to go find out what’s wrong with Batman, and that means going back in time to Bruce Wayne’s most traumatic experience, the murder of his parents. If that wasn’t enough to worry about, the Eagle Talon Society also have to keep their eyes on their production budget, especially with most of that money going towards the licensing fee for DC’s popular characters. Will the Eagle Talon Society and the Justice League be able to stop the Joker before their budget dries up, and they’re reduced to simple stick figures!?”

Tony Hale

For the purposes of this article, we’re most excited about the fact that Tony Hale (whose live-action credits include Arrested Development and Veep) provides the English performance of Joker in the Japanese production of Batman Ninja (2018). Buuuuut, he’s also the voice of Forky in Toy Story 4. In an interview with Batman on Film, Tony said of voicing Joker, “It’s fun to play dark. I don’t typically play dark, so it was fun. He’s very lascivious and weird and he does a lot of screaming. In this one he’s got a ponytail. This is the first time I’ve seen Joker with a ponytail and he’s sporting a new hairstyle. Everything in this whole film is different.”

Joaquin Phoenix

This standalone film — which broke box office records on its opening weekend — has been deemed a Joker origin film with Todd Phillips (The Hangover trilogy) serving as writer/director. “What drew me to the project,” star Joaquin Phoenix explains from the stage at the Venice Film Festival, “was that we were going to approach it in our own way. I didn’t refer to any past iterations of the character. It just felt like it was our creation. I think what was so attractive is that he’s so hard to define, and you don’t really want to define him. There were times I would find I was identifying certain parts of his personality and then I would back away from that, because I wanted there to remain a kind of mystery. Every day felt like we were discovering new aspects of the character. I wanted the freedom to create something that wasn’t identifiable. I didn’t want a psychologist to be able to identify the kind of person he was.

“I was interested in the light of Arthur, for lack of a better word,” he continues. “It wasn’t just the torment, it was the joy, his struggle to find happiness and to feel connected. To have warmth and love. I don’t think of a character as tormented. This character was so many different things to me at different times. The more unpredictable it was, the more inspiring.”