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.

Heath Ledger was definitely the best at playing the Joker and I'm not just saying that because he's dead. The Dark Knight was a great movie and the Joker had really cool makeup.

Simply amazing. The interrogation scene is one of the greatest scenes I've ever seen. His portrayal of the joker was incredible. Without a doubt the best joker.

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.

As compelling as Ledger was, no actor brought the character to the screen quite as well as Mark. And he did it with just his voice! Admittedly superior writing and a flawless animation design aided him but still, that voice. No voice has captured as character with such finesse in history except for maybe his father, James Earl Jones.

From Batman: TAS to Killing Joke. Mark Hamill is the best. He was amazing in Killing Joke. My wish is always granted when he plays as Joker in the graphic novel I always love. He was awesome in the Arkham Games big time. He deserves to be number 1 than Heath 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 of his films, he has played the "eternal outsider, the sardonic drifter," someone who rebels against the social structure.

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.

Nicholson all the way!

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 he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He has since appeared in numerous critically acclaimed films, including "Walk the Line," "The Master," and "Joker," for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Known for his intense and transformative performances, Phoenix is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of his generation. In addition to his acting ...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.

Best Joker in my opinion. Don't understand why Jerome is in front of this guy. Jerome isn't even the Joker anyways.

Honestly, it's hard to say he's better than Ledger because he was that great. But this is my favorite Joker.

Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is the Joker people should be terrified about.I mean his joker is the best.Heath ledger's Joker is just good. Not the best and Heath Ledger's Joker is over hyped and over rated

5 Cameron Monaghan (Gotham, TV Series)

I like him in Gotham both Jeremiah and Jerome, and even though he doesn't technically count as a joker he was amazing! I really enjoyed every episode he was in.

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.

This actor was playing Jerome, not the Joker. It's not the real Joker so this actor should be on a different list.

This guy is great. The Prototype Joker is awesome. He even gets a name, Jerome.

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.

He was okay. More of a creep than psychopath. Doesn't stand anywhere close to Ledger, Hamill, or Nicholson

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 The Batman, he was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards.

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!

Heath or Hamill Jokers were really good, but this one was the first one that actually gave me chills the Joker should give. Creepy, insane and suprisingly very likeable.

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 Nibbler on Futurama.

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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