The Flash: All 5 Barry Allen actors ranked from worst to best

Barry Allen is the man behind The Flash, but which actors did the best job of bringing the character to life?

By Michael Patterson | Mar 9, 2024, 3:16 PM EST

The Flash -- "Heart of the Matter, Part 1" -- Image Number: FLA717a_0043r.jpg -- Pictured: Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash -- Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved /

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5. Rod Hasse

Unfortunately, we have to place Rod Hasse's portrayal of Barry Allen's Scarlet Speedster at the bottom of our rankings due to the fact that he essentially had nothing to work with.

Hasse portrayed The Flash in the 1979 TV special Legends of the Super Heroes and it's every bit as notorious as it sounds. The special's greatest accomplishment was that it brought back Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, but its production values were insanely low, it opted for over-the-top humor over anything remotely resembling coherent storytelling, and it just wasn't very good.

We're only including Hasse on this list because he portrayed the Barry Allen version of The Flash (none others existed in the comics at the same outside of Jay Garrick), but he had little to do outside of showing up in the suit, cracking a smart one-liner and zapping in and out of locations. As far as Barry himself goes, there is no substance here because there is no material for Hasse to work with. He's just a costumed superhero from a time when costumed superheroes didn't have deep backstories on television. We don't even see him outside of his costume.

Legends of the Super Heroes has not aged well and that unfortunately means that this Barry hasn't either.

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