Where do you rank the Joker actors?

[Mr.Marion]

Personally I thought Nicholson was completely overrated I would have preferred William Defoe like originally rumored.

Ledger gave a performance for the ages. The whole film felt surreal due to his passing months before the premier. I'm ok with him being #1, he was great.

Romero was very good as the Joker he could switch from silly to dangerous with His expressions.

I'll have to bump this when I see Jared Leto's take. I wouldn't be as critical as some, I know it's a different take and an updated version.

[Hector]

1. Ledger
2. Romero
3. Nicholson
4. Leto

[LonnieFisher]

Romero....end of comment.

[thunderbolt]

1.Romero
2. Ledger
3. Hammill

38. Nicholson
192. That inked up metal grilled clown they have now.

[HardyGirl]

Romero....end of comment.

Ditto and Amen!

[Hedji]

Romero - The most gleeful, and the best laugh. Never noticed the moustache on my television.
Nicholson - I get the feeling he really enjoyed doing the role, and got into it. Nice to see him contribute to the blu ray interviews and such. Soooo many good quotes. "Never rub another man's rhubarb."
Ledger - Not my Joker. I respect his take on it, but it's not for me.

It's hard for me to find a spot for Hamill in that ranking. His voice is superb, and it's hard to believe that's the same guy who does Luke Skywalker. But without a live action performance, it doesn't seem fair to rank him with the others in makeup and costume. But I do love his Joker.

[LordMudd]

They are/were all too fat, but Romero was best live action. Based on his Trickster, Hamill would have been the best. Jim Carey would have had the look down and would probably been better than as Riddler, after all, nothing compares to Frank.


CCC.

[Hector]

All too fat?

Ledger was super skinny as the Joker...dude looked emaciated...he's by far the skinniest of all the on screen Jokers, except for the animated ones of course...

He did wear a wide-shouldered jacket though...that might have giving him the impression of looking a little thicker...and I'll grant you, his face was a tad wide, as he was squared-jawed...but Ledger lost a lot of weight for that role.

Look how skinny he is dressed as a nurse...

[MIB41]

Hmmm. A very easy list from my perspective:

1) Caesar Romero - He created this character from nothing and left an indelible imprint on how most actors after him would frame the performance.
2) Heath Ledger - A tremendous achievement because he went against type and found a fresh way to illustrate the maniacal side of the character with a ingenious exploration into his reasoning.
3) Mark Hamill - No he didn't wear the makeup but you believed he was there when he did the iconic vocal performance for "Batman: The Animated Series" and the subsequent spin offs.
4) Jack Nicholson - A great performance from which he injected allot of his classic "Jack" qualities to new heights. A critical performance when WB desperately needed to validate the Batman movie franchise.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Hamill: His voice is forever in my head when I read any Joker story. Plus, have you seen the guy actually record the voice? He IS the Joker.

Ledger: It's a fantastic performance. A perfect synthesis of the various versions of the character, along with a bit of modernization, without pandering to current trends just shock people (see Jared Leto, who I won't rank, but will probably not like).

Romero: The perfect late Golden Age/Silver Age Joker. This WAS how the Joker was portrayed for 25 years. I think Cesar probably has the best laugh of all the Jokers. It's more natural.

Joe Bennett: Who? The Joker on Batman: The Brave & The Bold. He did his own take and it worked really well with that Dick Sprang character design.

Nicholson: Jack was a bit too old to play the Joker, and a little too pudgy. 10 years earlier? Oh heck yeah. Still, I liked his take overall.

Chris

[Gorn Captain]

All good actors, but none of them were my ultimate comic book style Joker. He needs to be tall and bony.

I would have liked Jeff Goldblum playing the part.

Goldblum I.jpg

[CrimsonGhost]

1. Mark Hamill: It's somewhat unfair to put him number 1 as his physicality isn't involved, but his voice IS the Joker. It changed the way I hear his voice in my head when I read comics. I used to hear whoever did the voice in Power Records "Stacked Cards."

2. Cesar Romero

3. Jack Nicholson

4. A bowl of gravy with lipstick on the edge

5. Heath Ledger: I honestly can't stand it. And everyone who says he was the best part of that movie are right, but I just can't accept his character as the Joker. I guess I'm a purist, I don't know. He played a great drugged up crazy guy, but to me ... that's not the Joker.

[Gorn Captain]

Hmmm...your choice number 4 is growing on me...

[JediJaida]

For me, Romero hands down. I grew up watching the first set of reruns for Batman at the age of three or four, and Romero frankly scared the crap out of me. It was the laugh that did it. Go ahead, say it doesn't scare you, and listen to it with your eyes closed.

I thought so.

Nicholson was okay at playing a psycho, but he really wasn't all that funny. He was more demented than funny. The Joke is supposed to be both.

I've never seen Ledger's performance, and I really don't plan to.

I loved Mark Hamill's voice performance as the Joker though. THIS was the perfect medium for him to really extend his range as an actor. You look at him and think of an older version of Luke Skywalker. But unless you know it's him, you wonder "Who IS this guy?"

Then you see his name in the credits and think "WHAT???"

At least that's how I reacted.

[ODBJBG]

Going purely off official live action films/TV, Nicholson is far and away #1. No one else is close. But if I had to rank them, it'd be like this.

1. Nicholson
2. Romero
3. Ledger