Snagging a role like the Joker is something that can make or break your career. It's a daunting task and easy to mess up. But what happens after you wash all the green dye out of your hair? From Cesar Romero to Joaquin Phoenix, here's where all the actors who've played the Joker are today.
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00:00Snagging a role like the Joker is something that can make or break your career.
00:04It's a daunting task and easy to mess up.
00:07But what happens after you wash all the green dye out of your hair?
00:10From Cesar Romero to Joaquin Phoenix, here's where all the actors who played the Joker
00:14are today.
00:16Cesar Romero stepped foot in Hollywood in 1934.
00:19The self-proclaimed Latin from Manhattan was known as a professional dancer, and though
00:24he would have excelled as a leading man, most of his major roles were supporting parts.
00:28He was cast as the Joker in the cheesy 1966 Adam West Batman series, marking him as the
00:33first actor to ever put on the character's purple tuxedo.
00:36Have you heard this one?
00:38It'll kill you, Batman!
00:40Woo-hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
00:43Romero refused to shave his famous mustache for the role, so the crew simply had to slather
00:48the lip hairs with white makeup, thereby creating the good ol' can-you-spot-the-Joker's-facial-hair
00:53drinking game.
00:54Hey, he did have a great mustache.
00:56But don't confuse Romero's protectiveness of his facial hair with prima donna behavior.
01:01He loved camping it up as the Joker, and reportedly wasn't a fan of how later interpretations
01:05took the character in a darker direction.
01:08By all accounts, Romero lived a long, fulfilling life, passing away in 1994 at the age of 86.
01:14Jack Nicholson's Joker might seem campy today, but back in 1989, his snarky and murderous
01:20depiction of a gangster clown shocked the world, and redefined the Joker in a big way.
01:25Insanely enough, when Warner Bros. first courted Nicholson for the role, he balked
01:29at it.
01:30In order to push Nicholson into a decision, the producers started talking to Robin Williams
01:35about the part, and soon, Jack came back with an unconventional proposal.
01:39He agreed to take a substantial pay cut on his salary, so long as he earned a percentage
01:44of the film's total earnings, merchandise included.
01:47When Batman Mania swept the nation, Nicholson earned over $50 million from it.
01:51You can make a good decision when you try.
01:54Nicholson's career was already huge pre-Batman, and his post-Batman career continued steadily,
02:00with a particular highlight being his 1997 Oscar win for As Good as It Gets.
02:05Sadly, in recent years, he's disappeared from the public eye, and rumor had it that memory
02:09loss was to blame.
02:10Nicholson, however, told The Sun in 2013 that he was just simply being more selective with
02:15the roles he was taking.
02:17To most people, Mark Hamill's defining role is Luke Skywalker, but for others, his defining
02:22role will forever be the Joker, a character he's voiced for almost three decades.
02:27Back when the 1992 animated series was first in production, though, Hamill wasn't exactly
02:33the producers' first choice.
02:34They'd already hired Tim Curry, but when Curry came down with bronchitis, the part opened
02:38up and Hamill came in swinging.
02:41Since then, Hamill has become one of the most prolific voice actors in the business.
02:45He played Chucky in the Child's Play remake, the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man the Animated Series,
02:50and the scientist in Dark Crystal Age of Resistance.
02:53But when it comes to the world of voice acting, the Joker is still his touchstone role.
02:58He's the voice that fans always want to hear coming from the clown's mouth, and he's referred
03:02to his time in the role as being an honor.
03:05Now that superhero movies are coming out left and right, it's crazy to imagine comic book
03:09fans getting excited over a silly commercial.
03:12Back in the early 2000s, though, the Batman franchise had been thoroughly assassinated
03:17by the 1997 flop Batman & Robin.
03:20So it was a big deal when The Dark Knight starred in a series of advertisements for
03:23OnStar, the in-car communications service, one of which featured actor Curtis Armstrong
03:28as the Joker.
03:29This is how you exterminate a bat?
03:35Does this guy look familiar to you?
03:37Behind the makeup?
03:38He should.
03:39Many will recognize him as Booger in Revenge of the Nerds, but he's had roles in all kinds
03:43of movie and TV projects.
03:45He never got to extend his Joker performance to the big screen, but recently, Armstrong
03:49managed to snag another quirky comic book character.
03:52He recently voiced Ezekiel the Cockroach in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol.
03:58Remember that whole dearth of Batman cinema in the early 2000s?
04:02This bat starvation is why people got so revved up about Batman Dead End, a glossy fan film
04:08that premiered at Comic-Con and even garnered praise from Batman mega-fan Kevin Smith.
04:13In retrospect, the short is rather silly, considering it ends with Batman facing off
04:17against the Alien and Predator, of all things.
04:20However, Dead End's creepy depiction of the Joker, as played by Andrew Koenig, was widely
04:25praised, and at one point it even initiated a brief fan campaign to get Koenig cast in
04:30a feature film version.
04:31Koenig, by the way, wasn't new to acting.
04:34The son of Star Trek alum Walter Koenig, he famously played Richard Boner-Stobone on the
04:39TV sitcom Growing Pains.
04:41Koenig tragically died in 2010, reportedly taking his own life after struggling with
04:46depression.
04:48The 2004 cartoon The Batman had some big shoes to fill as the heir to the acclaimed Batman
04:54the Animated Series.
04:55In order to stand out, it had to reinvent the wheel.
04:57Nowhere was this more evident than in The Batman's radical take on the Joker, which
05:02broke from classic interpretations to depict the clown as a nightmarish, barefoot, acrobatic
05:07figure with the voice of Kevin Michael Richardson.
05:10That said, the show's decision not to cast Mark Hamill chafed a lot of fans, one of whom
05:15was Richardson himself.
05:17"'It takes after his paw, wouldn't you say?"
05:20In an interview with Geek Mom, Richardson said that he was so deeply upset about Hamill
05:25losing the part that he poured all of his grief and rage into his Joker audition, which,
05:30ironically, resulted in such a fascinating performance that he was cast.
05:35Hamill aside, Richardson's Joker voice was one of the most unique and layered offerings
05:39the character has had, and Richardson loved playing the role.
05:42"'Besides, it's cheaper to hire a new one.'"
05:45Richardson has continued doing voice work ever since, with some of his bigger roles
05:49being the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bad guy Shredder, the animated version of Groot,
05:53and a few parts in various Transformer projects.
05:57The 2008 animated series Batman the Brave and the Bold was a throwback to the zany Silver
06:02Age comics of the past, complete with a smiling Batman, Batmite, and for the first time in
06:07a long time, not-so-lethal Joker, who at one point even teams up with Batman to stop
06:12a fellow criminal mastermind from upstaging him.
06:15"'I always blow away the competition.'"
06:18Hey, no matter what era you're in, those sorts of ego-driven shenanigans are pure Joker.
06:24With an authentic 60s design inspired by the work of Dick Sprang, this Joker's voice was
06:29supplied by veteran voice actor Jeff Bennett.
06:31Now, whether you know Bennett's name or not, you've heard his work.
06:35Most famously, he was the voice of Johnny Bravo in the 90s cartoon of the same name.
06:39He's also supplied voices for many other popular franchises since then, including Scooby-Doo,
06:44Young Justice, and Kung Fu Panda.
06:47Heath Ledger's depiction of the Joker is arguably the most iconic version of the character to
06:52date.
06:53When interviewed by Empire, Ledger said he prepared by reading all the relevant comics,
06:57locking himself in a hotel room, writing his own Joker diary, and experimenting with voices
07:03until he found the perfect Joker within.
07:05Needless to say, his portrayal ended up being a stunning win, netting the actor a posthumous
07:11Academy Award.
07:12How about a magic trick?"
07:13By now, everyone knows about the sleep deprivation that Ledger suffered while he was playing
07:18the Joker, and the tragic fact that he died from an accidental overdose of prescription
07:23sleeping medications.
07:24However, the common belief that Ledger died because of some inherent darkness in the Joker
07:29role, or a Joker curse, is false.
07:32As his sister later explained, he loved playing the Joker, had an amazing sense of humor,
07:37and certainly wasn't depressed about it.
07:38His insomniac issues, in reality, went much farther back.
07:42John DiMaggio is a former stand-up comic best known for his role as the alcoholic robot
07:48Bender on Futurama, though he's played live-action roles in shows like NYPD Blue and Chicago
07:54Hope.
07:55He voiced the Joker in the animated film Batman Under the Red Hood, which tells the story
07:59of a former Robin, Jason Todd, rising from the ashes and becoming a vengeful vigilante,
08:05with his sights set on the Joker's death.
08:07In an interview with Comic Mix, DiMaggio acknowledged that, like Heath Ledger before him, he also
08:13looked toward a certain Stanley Kubrick film for inspiration, describing his Joker as being
08:18like, quote, "'Caesar Romero' if he was in a clockwork orange."
08:22Since playing the Joker, DiMaggio has continued mostly working as a voice actor in cartoons
08:27like Ben 10 and American Dad, stating that he generally prefers the laid-back studio
08:31experience of voice acting to the constant patience required for live-action roles.
08:37To most viewers, Michael Emerson will forever be the villainous Benjamin Linus from Lost,
08:42though others might recognize him as Harold Finch from Person of Interest or Zep Hendel
08:47from Saw.
08:48Either way, if you don't know his name, you definitely know his face, and you might not
08:52realize that back in 2012, he voiced the Joker for the two-part animated film adaptation
08:57of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
08:59"...and through playing Joker."
09:02"...be still my heart."
09:05Yes, Ben Linus really played the Joker, and yes, he did a fantastic job.
09:09Emerson reportedly admitted that playing the clown prince of crime was one of the most
09:14intimidating ventures that he ever undertook.
09:16After all, the character's legacy is hard enough to grapple with, but when you combine
09:20it with the sheer number of excellent performers who've done it before, it's hard not to balk
09:24at it.
09:25Since hanging up his animated blazer, Emerson has stayed in the DC Universe, going on to
09:30play Caden James on Arrow.
09:33If you've ever tried to figure out what exactly was going on with the would-be future Joker
09:38storyline on the Batman prequel series Gotham, well, good luck.
09:43Basically, it involves a young maniacal psychopath named Jerome Valeska, who seems like a pretty
09:49Joker-ish individual, then dies, but not before turning his twin brother, Jeremiah
09:54Valeska, into a pale-skinned, equally unhinged figure who later becomes the real Joker, eventually.
10:00"...taking ourselves so seriously.
10:02I mean, come on!"
10:03Wonky plots aside, if there's one thing that everybody can agree on, it's that actor Cameron
10:08Monaghan made a fine Joker, even when he wasn't being called that.
10:13Monaghan earned acclaim from fans for his interpretation of the Jeremiah role, convincing
10:17the producers to lean deeper into the Joker storylines than they initially intended.
10:22Based on Monaghan's successful Gotham work, it's likely that he'll have a whole bunch
10:26of new job offers lined up soon.
10:29When Texas musician and voice actor Troy Baker was hired to play a younger version of Mark
10:34Hamill's Joker for the prequel game Batman Arkham Origins, he knew he had big shoes to
10:39fill.
10:40As a big fan of Hamill's performance, he knew the stakes, but his performance has been well-received.
10:45Baker has gone on to play the Joker on multiple occasions since, also voicing the likes of
10:50Harvey Dent and Jason Todd in other games in the Arkham series.
10:55These days it's undeniable.
10:56Jared Leto's messy, bizarre performance as the Joker in Suicide Squad didn't turn out
11:01well for anyone, least of all viewers.
11:04He was barely in the movie, and mostly made an impact from the long promotional lead-up,
11:08in which Leto was alleged to have sent strange and disgusting gifts to all his co-stars.
11:13It was way too much, and far too little, all at the same time.
11:17While Leto's Joker has his defenders, the character mostly came across as an unhinged,
11:22over-stylized weirdo.
11:24Zach Galifianakis voiced the Joker in the Lego Batman movie.
11:28Now, sure, Lego Batman might have starred little animated toys as characters, but it
11:33still tapped into the unrequited love story between Batman and the Joker.
11:37In lots of Batman media, that kind of thing is more subtext, in the Lego movie, it's the
11:42central plot.
11:43There is no Batman without the Joker.
11:45We go together like coffee and donuts, lapel flowers and rubber chickens, mayhem and destruction.
11:51It's been reported that when Galifianakis was first offered the Joker role, he immediately
11:56agreed, before realizing that he was being offered a Lego version of the character, rather
12:01than a live-action part.
12:02If he was disappointed, he got over it, and turned in a fine performance as the toy clown
12:07prince.
12:08Already high-profile when he took the role, he's remained famous since then, going on
12:11to win widespread acclaim and an Emmy nomination for his role as a clown in the TV series
12:16Baskets.
12:18The ball is passed to Joaquin Phoenix, who stars in the 2019 film Joker.
12:23While Phoenix certainly isn't the first person to play the clown, and he won't be the last,
12:27his portrayal is a little different.
12:29While most actors usually play the Joker as a suave master criminal, Phoenix is giving
12:34us a tragic, embarrassing failure named Arthur Fleck.
12:38His performance has drawn critical acclaim.
12:41After Heath Ledger, Phoenix has been the first big-screen Joker to truly turn heads.
12:45To dive into the role, it's been reported that Phoenix purposefully lost 52 pounds,
12:50which caused him to, in his words, start to go mad.
12:54Phoenix also said that the Joker's bizarre and unpredictable nature fascinated him throughout
12:59production.
13:00Even on the last day of filming, he claims to have still been discovering new aspects
13:04of the character.