He's the Clown Prince of Crime, and a dangerously insane criminal mastermind who frequently brings Gotham City to its knees. The Joker is not just the most dangerous villain in Batman's infamous Rogues' Gallery — he's a force of nature who simply cannot be underestimated or contained. Over the years, the Joker has emerged as possibly the greatest comic book villain ever created. When used correctly, he becomes the dark yin to Batman's yang, a Mephistopheles who exposes their relationship to be as toxic as it is symbiotic.

We've seen various versions of the Joker on the big and small screens, both live-action and animated. Right now, Barry Keoghan from The Batman holds the mantle, but you know it's only a matter of time before a new actor will barrel down on us with a new approach to the murderous man who laughs, with Joaquin Phoenix's second tour of the grimacing villain arriving in October 2024 with Joker: Folie À Deux. In the meantime, enjoy this list of the eight best versions of the Joker thus far.

8 Cesar Romero

The original Batman series (1966-1968)

A matinée idol and quintessential “Latin lover” character actor with decades of film and television credits to his name, Cesar Romero may not be everyone’s favorite Joker, but he was the first to play the role on screen. A major recurring villain in the original Batman series from 1966 to 1969, Romero famously refused to shave his mustache for the role, and it can still be seen, slathered with white makeup.

Future Jokers would bring new layers to the role, but if you watch carefully, you can see the seeds of Romero’s Joker in many of the later performances. From his brightly colored suits to mad, shrieking laughter, Romero’s Joker may have hewed close to the contemporary comics’ camp-tastic tone, but still deserves a place in the Joker pantheon.

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7 Cameron Monaghan

Gotham (2015-2019)

Gotham began as a fairly gritty procedural series following incorruptible cop Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his grizzled partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) as they navigate the increasingly insane streets of a pre-Batman Gotham City. The show mutated into something very different over time, going gleefully off the rails.

Presenting its own origin stories for classic Batman characters like Catwoman, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, and Bane, Gotham also introduced multiple potential Jokers, culminating in Cameron Monaghan’s (Shameless) committed performances as deranged twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska. While the show could not include any overt Joker characters due to corporate mandates, showrunner Bruno Heller managed to include several clever Joker references and character touches, from the famous scarred smile to a character falling in a vat of acid. The show’s notion that the Joker is something akin to a viral psychological attitude works, in no small part due to Monaghan’s unhinged performance(s).

6 Jared Leto

Suicide Squad (2016) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

There are plenty of fans who likely want to forget about Jared Leto’s performance in David Ayer’s much-maligned 2016 Suicide Squad altogether. Heath Ledger’s brilliant performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight was eight years old by then, yet remained burned into the minds of just about everyone. Leto’s Joker veered so far from Ledger’s take on the character that it left some audiences seething.

Still, despite Ayers’ heavy-handed and tonally inconsistent approach to the Bat-verse established by Zack Snyder in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, there is actually plenty to admire about Leto’s Mister J. This Joker is less of an anarchic demon than a pure, psychopathic mass murderer. This interpretation seems to draw inspiration from Frank Miller’s infamous All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder comics, which ran from 2005 to 2008. That Joker is muscular, heavily tattooed, and more of a ruthless, serial-killing crime boss than the supervillain mastermind we’ve come to expect. Leto’s brief cameo as the Joker at the very end of Snyder’s extended Justice League director’s cut marked a compelling, too-brief return to that character, making an argument for continuing that version of the Batman universe in some form.

5 Barry Keoghan

The Batman (2022)

Right now, Keoghan's version of the Clown Prince is more promise than it is product. We've seen little more of the Irish actor's turn in the role than a brief scene shared between him and Paul Dano's Riddler in the closing moments of Matt Reeves' swirling, epic take on the Dark Knight. However, in those quick moments (and a deleted scene), Keoghan still offers something rather tantalizing — a Joker that is smart, snide, psychologically manipulative, and perhaps a bit less titanically unhinged than other iterations. He seems almost calm compared to the figures on this list, a cool customer who could get under Batman's skin and pose a threat to Gotham in new ways. While it's not clear if Keoghan is returning for Reeves' 2026 sequel, the promise of a relatively sane Joker who can push all of Bruce Wanye's various buttons with a clear head and a deeply scarred smile is fascinating.

4 Joaquin Phoenix

Joker (2019)

Director Todd Phillips' Joker film proved to be divisive and surprising, delivering an Elseworlds-style alternate-universe take on the character. Like Gotham, Joker exists in a pre-Batman Gotham City. Like the Joker of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is a failed comedian who becomes a criminal. This is where Joker leaves the comic book source material behind, becoming a dark psychological thriller in the mold of its two main inspirations, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.

There are any number of adjectives one could conjure to describe Joker: disturbing, grotesque, difficult, shocking. Todd Phillips directs in a tone similar to Christopher Nolan's Bat-films but in a different, darker key. The remixing Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver bring to their origin story is in line with Gotham's approach to the character: the Joker stands for absolute chaos, which can spread like a virus under the right (or wrong) circumstances. Phoenix will reprise his role later this year in the film's sequel, Joker: Folie À Deux.

3 Jack Nicholson

Batman (1989)

If there was no Christopher Nolan or The Dark Knight, Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker in director Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman could top this list. As the first live-action Joker since Cesar Romero cackled his way through the '60s Batman series, Nicholson gave us the charismatic gangster version of the iconic villain.

This smug and sneering Joker’s origin story — dropped into a vat of chemicals by Batman — is a direct nod to the 1951 origin of the character, as written by the great Bill Finger in Detective Comics #168. Batman '89 boldly links Nicholson’s Jack Napier to Batman/Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) by making young Jack the killer of young Bruce’s parents. This acknowledgment of the dual, symbiotic nature of Batman and the Joker continues to define the characters. Similarly, Nicholson’s Joker design — from his grotesque, carved-in smile to eye-watering purple and orange outfits — has influenced every incarnation that followed.

2 Mark Hamill

Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), The Arkham video game series (2009-2015), The Killing Joke (2016)

The animated DC universe is a whole other realm, and the Joker has been played by many, many voice actors over the years. Notable among them are Zack Galifinakis’ obsessive, family-friendly Joker in The Lego Batman Movie, Alan Tudyk’s spot-on narcissist in HBO Max's hilarious Harley Quinn series, and Troy Baker’s turn in the prequel game Batman: Arkham Origins. Still, let’s face it: there is but one greatest animated Joker, and it’s Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

The classic Batman: The Animated Series gave us a Joker straight out of the Silver Age: some goofy plans, ove- the-top shtick, and is an absolute blast every time he shows up. Hamill’s maniacal laughter and snarling delivery are often as funny as they are terrifying, traits he plays up in the animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s famous one-off, The Killing Joke. Hamill carried his performance over to the video game universe, starting with Batman: Arkham Asylum, which gave us one of the most compelling Bat-stories of any medium. Hamill’s Joker will always be one for the ages.

1 Heath Ledger

The Dark Knight (2008)

Coming off of the debacle of 1997's Batman & Robin, few expected what Christopher Nolan pulled off with 2005’s Batman Begins: a grounded Batman movie that wasn’t realistic, but feels like it is. This rationale extends into Nolan’s 2008 follow-up The Dark Knight, a near-perfect superhero movie that comes as close as anything to transcending its genre. This is due in very large part to Heath Ledger’s shocking and terrifying portrayal of the Joker, for which he earned a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

From the relentless opening bank heist, which finds the Joker secretly managing everything to his own mad whims, to the impossible choices he forces on the citizens of Gotham City, Ledger’s Joker is the unstoppable force to his counterpart’s immovable object. The highlight is Batman and the Joker’s interrogation scene, which Joker uses to expose the vulnerabilities Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) thought no one could see. Harking back to The Killing Joke, this Joker presents numerous possible origins, keeping his backstory as “multiple choice.” With no name or history, this Joker becomes a definitive and absolute version, casting a shadow that subsequent actors will have a very tough time banishing.