Batman: Who played the very first Joker on screen?
We’re now very familiar with cinematic depictions of Batman villain, the Joker. Whether it’s Heath Ledger’s psychopathic propagator of mass terror in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight or Joaquin Phoenix’s psychotic serial killer, most people have seen at least one depiction of one of the big screen’s most compelling villains.
Ledger and Phoenix typically get the plaudits for their interpretations of the role, given their commitment to the part and their ability to new angles to it through various forms of improvisation. Jared Leto’s version is often overlooked by comparison, at least partly because he plays the Joker as just one element of a larger ensemble cast within an expanded DC cinematic universe.
Going back further, legendary actor Jack Nicholson brought the Joker to a fresh audience at the end of the 1980s in director Tim Burton’s film Batman. He played a version of the character that had never been seen before, even in DC Comic books. The character’s real name was Jack Napier, and he became involved in organised crime as a teenager before a chemical accident left him brutally disfigured.
Nicholson’s portrayal was the first Joker created specifically for the big screen. But he wasn’t the first actor to play Joker on-screen, full stop.
Who was the first Joker actor, then?
If we shrink things down to the small screen for a moment, we can go all the way back to a television version of Batman, which was originally broadcast between 1966 and 1968. Adam West played the eponymous hero.
In the fifth episode of the show entitled ‘The Joker Is Wild’, Cesar Romero appeared as the very first Joker on screen. Like later depictions, he had green hair, white makeup covering his face, and red makeup around his mouth. He also wore the purple tailcoat donned by the comic book version on which he was based.
Otherwise, though, Romero’s Joker had few distinguishing physical features. The actor didn’t have a broad smile and didn’t even shave his signature moustache for the part. What set him apart was his chilling cackle, used to maximum effect at every opportunity during the show. A veteran Hollywood actor who had been playing villains for over 30 years, Romero had refined the cackle into an art form.
After the success of the TV show’s first season, studio 20th Century Fox agreed to producer William Dozier’s idea of making a film version featuring the same cast. All the principal villains of the show were to appear, including the Joker. And so, Romero reprised his role on the big screen, also becoming the first actor to appear as the Joker in cinemas.
