Joker: Gotham's NightmareThe Joker first appeared in the debut issue of Batman in 1940. He has been wreaking havoc throughout the universe of DC Comics ever since.
The only thing more fascinating than the Joker is the wide variety of ways that he's been portrayed on-screen. Every actor has brought something distinct to the character, making him one of the most diverse supervillains in screen history.
Given that each portrayal is unique, each comes with scores of tidbits and stories. Here are 15 of them, most of which you probably haven't heard before.
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Arthur Fleck Was Dressed Like Cesar Romero's Joker
The clown mask that Ledger's Joker wears during the bank robbery in The Dark Knight resembles the one worn by Romero's Joker in the Batman episode "The Joker Is Wild."
A Glasgow smile is when the corners of one's mouth are sliced as far up as the ears, creating a permanent "smile." The practice is thought to have started with gangs in Glasgow, Scotland, in the '20s and '30s.
The Joker's Glasgow smile was modeled after a delivery man who would visit an estate near the workshop of Conor O'Sullivan, the prosthetics supervisor on The Dark Knight.
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Heath Ledger's Joker Was Inspired By The Paintings Of Francis Bacon
Photo: Two Studies for a Self-Portrait / Sotheby’s
Francis Bacon was a 20th-century Irish painter known for his gruesome style, particularly in the twisting of prominent people's faces. The above painting is a distortion of Bacon himself. According to a blog post from Art History Abroad, which summarizes an interview with The Dark Knight's director Christopher Nolan, Bacon's artwork was the missing piece of the Joker aesthetic:
Previous depictions had put the character’s white skin, green hair and bright red mouth down to falling into an open vat of unspecified chemicals. Clearly this would not do for the grittier, more realistic universe of Nolan’s Batman films. The problem was solved when the director brought a book of Francis Bacon’s art to the set. A concerted effort was made to incorporate Bacon’s distortions and mixtures of colour into the Joker’s make-up, "letting it have a kind of slightly worn-through quality."
