I recently started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum which features an awesome version of The Joker voiced by Mark Hamill. It got me thinking about who has “played” The Joker and which ones are my favorite. My only question is, is he The Joker or just Joker?

Mark Hamill (Batman:Arkham Asylum) – Most people don’t think of The Joker when they hear Mark Hamill’s name, but instead picture Luke Skywalker. Mark has had a very extensive career doing voices.

As a voice actor, Mark has done the voice of The Joker for thirteen different shows and at least on video game. His career as The Joker started in 1993 with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and his most recent role being the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The following is a list of Hamill’s Joker roles. Unless noted, they are animated:
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman
Superman
The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest
The New Batman Adventures
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
Batman: Vengeance – video game
Static Shock
Birds of Prey – live action
Batman: New Times
Justice League
Robot Chicken
Batman: Arkham Asylum – video game

Mark Hamill has also done voices on two Batman cartoon series in which he did not do the voice of Joker.

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) - While Mark Hamill is definitely the best animated Joker, Heath Ledger is the best big screen Joker. Ledger didn’t so much play Joker as became Joker.

About six months before shooting The Dark Knight, Heath pretty much hid in a hotel room developing The Joker from is voice and laugh to his every mannerisms. He even kept a diary as The Joker for a few months, writing down The Joker’s thoughts and what The Joker would find funny.

Unfortunately, Heath didn’t live to see how the world would take his vision of The Joker. In 2008, he died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. I would have loved to have seen him take on the role again in another Batman movie. Maybe they can get Joseph Gordon-Levitt to be The Joker as he looks quite a bit like Heath. Just not sure if he could pull off The Joker.

Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989) – Even though Cesar Romero played The Joker in the first Batman movie in 1966, Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman was the first Batman movie I saw. The movie starred Michael Keaton was Batman with Jack Nicholson taking up the role as The Joker.

In this movie, they didn’t keep The Joker’s origins a mystery. Instead, they told the story of how Jack Napier ended up disfigured after ending up in toxic waste during a confrontation with Batman.   This is different from the recent Joker role in The Dark Knight where The Joker had a different story every time he talked about his past.

This movie was also one of the first comic movies I saw where the film makers made a  common mistake, the killed the villain.  I am not saying the villain can’t die, but typically Batman stopped The Joker, The Riddler, or whomever and took them to Arkham.  They didn’t normally die.  Also, if you kill the villain, you can’t have them come back. 

Kevin Michael Richardson (The Batman) – I will be the first to tell you that I am not too familiar with this version of The Joker from the animated series, The Batman which ran from 2004-2008. I did catch one of two episodes of the series and enjoyed Kevin’s voice acting.

The thing that I really like about this Joker is his appearance. I like the look of the straight jacket and more wild look of The Joker. 

I know it is not the “typical” Joker, but every new series, show, or video game, opens it up for a new vision of out characters. 

Cesar Romero (Batman, 1966) – Cesar Romero was the first Joker to grace the screen in the original Batman movie followed by the TV series both starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin in the late 60’s.

Romero’s Joker is a sharp contrast to the darker Joker seen in The Dark Knight and Batman: Arkham Asylum as the Batman series was more of a parody of the comic with its bright colors and light hearted dialogue. And your have to love a big “POW” or “BAM” flashing up on the screen as people are kicked and punched.

One Response to “Favorite Jokers”

1. nono says:

   October 28, 2009 at 8:55 am

   I agree about Gordon Levitt. He might be a good actor but he’s not strong enough for the Joker, and he looks too young (although he’s as old as Heath was in TDK). I had this strange idea that Ryan Gosling is good enough for the Joker. He’s an Oscar nominee and he did some very haunting characters (stay, murder by numbers). What do you think?