Best Actors That Portrayed The Joker In the Batman Franchise

The Top Ten
1 Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Ledger gets the edge over Hamil to me. He played Joker so perfectly that I really don't think anyone will perfect a villain like he did with Joker. He made Joker seem believable, and completely insane on the big screen. Joker was thought of as some insane clown before The Dark Knight, now you think of him as just an insane dude. He's a huge reason why The Dark Knight is, in my opinion, the best superhero movie ever made.

The way I see it, there are two ways you can be the best joker; animated and live action. Hamill is clearly the latter and Ledger, the former. If these two had switched places in their versions, neither would ever held up. They basically both just made their own versions of the character and completely owned those versions.

2 Mark Hamil (Batman: The Animated Series)

All of the jokers were good ( except Jared Leto) but Mark Hamil is the definitive Joker. Ledger might be the best live-action Joker but overall it has got to be Mark Hamil

The fact that Heath Ledger is number one shows how uneducated people are about batman. Ledger didn't play joker, he played some insane guy with white makeup that's all, he didn't act anything like the traditional Joker everyone loved. Hamill is the joker, when you imagine the joker, you hear Hamill. Any educated Batman fan will say Hamill is Joker, not Ledger.

3 Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989) John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, who has performed for over 60 years. Nicholson is known for playing a wide range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance and dark portrayals of antiheroes and psychopathic characters. In many... read more

He is the most comic accurate representation of the joker yet so you got to give him that for sticking true to the comics.

No one even came close to portraying the Joker like Jack did. Outstanding performance!

He is the best joker while heath is second place.

4 Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) Joaquin Phoenix is an American actor and producer who was born on October 28, 1974, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He comes from a family of performers and began his career as a child actor, appearing in various television shows and films. Phoenix's breakout role came in the 2000 film "Gladiator," for which... read more

We're not disrespecting him. Actually, he is overrated. He did a good portrayal of The Joker. I mean he gave us the mysterious Joker but licking lips repetitively, talking like he broke his throat is just too much. People say that he locked himself and prepared for the role. It's a good thing but they use it to show how dedicated Heath is for a role and that is just stupid. Keep in mind that Joaquin lose his weight, studied different laughs and acted his role and yet he managed to pull off a better performance than that overrated lip licker.

5 Cameron Monaghan (Gotham, TV Series)

This guy is the best Joker in (SPOILER ALERT)

both forms, he does the psychoticness and crime boss style in such and amzing way. He honestly made me love the Joker. I don't think I've seen anyone more dedicated to their roles. Plus, his performance is littered with cool references to other stories like The Killing Joke and The New 52. He even has his own cult that is probably an accurate reflection of the Gotham fanbase without Nygmobblepot. His relationship with Bruce is also the best way to present the Batman-Joker relationship, he doesn't just see him as a roadblock like some itterations (ahem*Nicholson*ahem). Fox can say what they want but Cameron (at least as Jeremiah) has definitely earnt to be and will go down in the hearts of fans as a true Joker.

6 Cesar Romero (Batman, TV Series)

He was awesome. He was the first Joker and he inspired future versions of the character. The Joker messing around with art was first used in an episode of the 1960s show, not the 1989 film. Also Heath Ledger's Joker laugh sounds similar to Cesar Romero's laugh.

7 John DiMaggio (Batman Under the Red Hood) John William DiMaggio is an American actor, voice actor and comedian, known for his gruff voice, and for his work as Bender from the television show Futurama, Jake the Dog on Adventure Time, and Marcus Fenix in the hit Xbox video game Gears of War.
8 Jared Leto (Suicide Squad)

I really loved his Joker, I hate how they basically cut him out of the movie, he deserved way more screen time; also Catwoman should have been in this movie. I LOVE Harley Quinn, but it was basically her movie. Katana got like 2 lines.

Leto is to punk and tattooed to really be the joker he doesn't have the look of Nicholson, the personality of ledger or the voice of Hamill to really reletate to the joker. He seems just like some street gang leader who likes pink and green.

He seems pretty good but its hard to judge since he was only in the movie for 12 minutes.

9 Kevin Michael Richardson (The New Batman Adventures) Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who has portrayed a multitude of characters in various animated series and video games. He is known for his extremely deep voice and has been playing a wide variety of characters since the early 1990s, often villains. For voicing Joker in... read more

His voice was great. But the concept of Joker looks terrible.

Wait, he was in the 2004 series, not the New Batman Adventures.

10 Anthony Ingruber (Telltale's Batman)

Until I have played this game I thought there can't be better Joker than Hamill or Ledger.
I was so wrong...
Jon Doe is definitelly my favourite Joker. Despite the fact he is one of very few Jokers that can actually care for someone, and all the good things he has done, his mental illnes was showed so realistic he was giving me the creeps every time he appeared.
Also seeing him work together with batman was pure gold!

Seriously? Why isn't this guy ranked higher? Did anyone on this list even play the game? It's one of the best portrayals of the Joker ever. You actually pity the Joker!

The Contenders
11 Michael Emerson (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns)
12 Zach Galifianakis (Lego Batman: The Movie)
13 Larry Storch (Batman With Robin the Boy Wonder, 1968)
14 Troy Baker (Arkham Origins) Troy Edward Baker is an American voice actor and musician known for portraying the lead characters in various video games.

He is very good. When I first heard him in Assault on Arkham I thought he was Hamill. He also did a great job in Arkham Origins.

I think that he did great in Arkham Origins.

Yep, he was the greatest Joker of all time.

15 Brent Spiner (Young Justice)

He was good. I hope he plays the Joker again.

16 Lennie Weinrib (The New Adventures of Batman)

I love his voice. Really underrated.

17 Frank Welker (Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) Franklin Wendell Welker is an American voice actor best known for his role as Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo franchise since its inception in 1969 and as the voice of Scooby-Doo since 2002. He is also known as the voice of Megatron in the Transformers franchise and as the voice and vocal effects of... read more

One of, if not the best voice over actor ever!

18 Jeff Bennett (Batman: The Brave & the Bold) Jeffrey Glenn "Glen" Bennett is an American voice actor and singer. His voice roles include Johnny Bravo in the television series of the same name and Petrie in the Land Before Time films and television series.
19 Rene Requiestas (Alyas Batman en Robin)

A really underrated, hilarious Joker.

20 Kevin Michael Richardson (The Batman)
21 John Kassir (Batman: Arkham Origins)

He is an amazingly underrated Joker and I just don't know why.

22 Richard Epcar (Injustice: Gods Among Us)
23 Michael McKean (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns)
24 Jeff Bennett (Beware the Batman) Jeffrey Glenn "Glen" Bennett is an American voice actor and singer. His voice roles include Johnny Bravo in the television series of the same name and Petrie in the Land Before Time films and television series.

The Joker wasn't even in Beware the Batman.

25 Larry Storch (Batman With Robin the Boy Wonder)
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