Batman: All 10 Joker actors ranked from worst to best

3. Heath Ledger

Appeared in: The Dark Knight

Sometimes when a performance is so larger-than-life that their reputation ends up preceding them, you find yourself wondering if they’re really “that good”. Well, all you have to do is watch The Dark Knight to know that, in Heath Ledger’s case, he’s not that good, he’s better.

Ledger’s casting shocked a lot of people, mainly due to the fact that few of his previous films suggested that he’d be the right fit for such an iconically sinister role – but that right there is the beauty of his job as an actor. And he had absolutely no problem proving all of the naysayers wrong.

As Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was set in a more realistic world, it makes sense that he wanted a more realistic Joker. As a result, the comedic capers were dropped and there wasn’t a vat of chemicals in sight. Instead, The Joker was used by the unnamed villain as symbol, highlighting how the corruption of Gotham could birth an anarchist demon like himself – just as it birthed The Batman.

What made this Joker all the more frightening was that he was incredibly believable. He was a real world threat that used the lunacy of his own appearance in order to get Gotham to reveal its true twisted self. He sought to tear down the system because it was already broken. Unfortunately for him, Batman was the only incorruptible being in a corrupt world.

In spite of the grounded approach, the late great Ledger successfully managed to make his Joker feel every bit as larger-than-life as his comic book counterpart. His disturbing view of the world raised a number of compelling questions and, somehow, in an insane world, he seemed surprisingly sane. And that is what made him so terrifying.

It goes without saying that his Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor was well-deserved.