Who was the best Joker ever? Why?

Be honest. Have any of you ever seen a Batman movie or read a comic before? How about the cartoon? are you just hopping on the TDK Bandwagon?

Mark Hamill, and his crazy evil laugh.

Mark Hamill, the voice of Joker in the Batman Animated Series and following DC Universe cartoons gave the best performance of Joker ever. He defined the character for a generation of viewers, and for many, many comic fans, is the performance to judge all other Jokers by.

Heath did a fine performance, but in no way is your "cause" a valid one. It is insulting to every other man who has performed the Joker, and makes you all seem as if you were first introduced to the character by The Dark Knight. Heath's performance was good for what it was, excellent, even. I even support him winning the Oscar. But it was just one interpretation of the character.

And you can't possibly think this "petition" will work at all, do you? Joker is Batman's most famous nemesis, and to have him be off limits to future movies or media adaptations of the character is preposterous.

Good day.

The one in "The Killing Joke", just awesome

Mark Hamill, by far.

Mark Hamill is the best

Heath, absolutely. I've seen every silver screen Batman movie so far, read The Killing Joke and other early nineties(ish) stories, and *to me* Heath's Joker was the first credible movie depiction of Joker. The guy's crazy for laughing out loud. Of course I watched TDK keeping those dark comics in mind and seeing what would be referenced (Batman's bike kinda looks like Dredd's Lawmaster, ref: Judgement on Gotham).

I generally don't think much of any particular role, but *wow!*

You cannot try and retire a character that has been played in a feature film by only a small handful of people. Look at Jack Nicholson's Joker under direction of Tim "Im an artist, and don't own a comb, goon-ball" Burton. Nicholson is a legend. So is Hamill. heath was becoming something great, and died. Not any Batman fans, or story writers fault.

And you comparing the retiring of Michael Jordan's number 23 to retiring a character... That's insane.

Fucker played 1 great role, 1 socially questionable marketing scheme of a role, and 1 decent yankee doodle role in his life and you want to end a saga of a villian because he died.

If he was still alive and since he didn't die (his character in the movie atleast bwahahaha) you would never be asking this character be retired, you would want to see the joker bust out of jail yet again, and start another crime wave.

Accept the movie for how great of a movie it was, stop getting paranoid that the Batman sequel with the Joker in it yet again will have someone playing it with even more passion. You're all worried that Heaths legacy will die once his role as the Joker is topped. What if Keanu Reeves died and they came out with another Matrix, you think everyone will be like, fuck Keanu, this new Neo is way better. No, he'll always be respected for the role he played and what he brought to it.

P.S. if you ask me... if you OD because of the stress and mental state a movie role put you in (as many rumors have claimed), maybe you're not such a great actor after all, thats why it's called acting, and not living. If Charles Manson was released and took a role in a movie, im pretty sure it wouldn't be a role as a family dad.

diddnt mark hammil just voice the character..im sorry but i like animated films but you cant base a review of a character on his speech alone..il stick with
1. Heath Ledger(mesmerising,every scene Joker isnt in your waitin for the next)
2. Cesar Romano(he really did scare people who watched)
3. Jack Nicholson(the role had more pure comedy)
hope this has helped ....come on people dont judge a book by its cove ,dont judge a performance by voice

@Aaron
Voice acting is a lot more than just talking into a microphone, Hammil's performance, yes, it's a performance, was considered to be the true voice of the joker before Ledger died and everyone jumped on that bandwagon.

Heath Ledger,all of his performance is the best by far..the voice,i mean c'mon,that IS the Joker's voice from now on,Mark hammil did good,and i admit it,so did jack nicholson,but heath took it to the next level,perfection..period.

Mark Hammil is the best Joker, with Heath nipping closely at his heels. The Dark Knight's interpretation of the Joker is a unique take on the character and must be viewed as such, whilst Mark Hammil's joker lives on as the quintessential performance of the character truest to the Joker's original comic origins.

well, i'm probably not going to be read anyways... and even if i am, something tells me i'm going to be sent angry messages but an opinion is an opinion and one is being looked for in this thread.

I only have a limited reference as to what i know about the joker. i only know what i've seen in cartoons and just faintly remember the batman movie with Jack Nicholson. and from every drawn picture i've seen since before "the dark knight" came out i say that the best Joker so far to be shown on the silver screen was Jack Nicholson. not only did he have the right look, (exact same look from every cartoon except for the animated series "the batman" i think) he also gave comedy that was absent in "the dark knight" yeah, he didnt exactly have the voice or the even the laugh but having most is better than having very little like Ledger did.

The joker is a psycopath that almost alwys has a big freaken smile on and does his crime thing with grace and a clownish touch. he should be telling jokes or making puns and gives his trademark maniacle laughter. he should also always act with exaggeration whether he is fighting or doing simple things. plus, unless roughed up by batman, he should never be disheveled. always with a nice complete purple suit and neat green hair combed back in a slick manner.

when i watched "the dark night"... well... frankly i was dissappointed. yes, everyone has a right to represent the joker in their own way but even with only the trailers i new i was going to hate it. when i watched the movie i roled my eyes at every part with the joker and was more interested in watching two face. the only part that was actually fun to watch was the pencil trick and even then that could have been better. the real joker would have jumped around and laughed his head off after accomplishing that kill!

I think everyone should just stop trying to have the joker's character retired already and let the real joker out to do his thing. to give us a real reason to actually root for the joker. so that we can see him go out and commit his various crimes with joy and that oh so memorable laughter. oh, and the whole pulling a giant gun out of his pants by Nicholson... perfect. just perfect.

Sorry guys but even though I'm born and bred Australian I still think Mark Hamill would do a better job than Heath Ledger as the Joker. His voice alone is perfect and I'm sure with all the makeup on he would be even more intimidating than Heath.

But we really should put up a petition to show who we would want to do the next joker. At the moment I hear they are thinking of getting Eddie Murphy to do it. The studios will NOT stop such a huge part of the batman franchise no matter what happens to anybody anywhere. Sad but true.

I like Eddie Murphy but I don't think he could pull this roll off although I did say the same thing about Heath :)

that's interesting man. Murphy would probably be able to add the funny that has been missing from the joker as of recently. he also would be able to smoothly pull off all the excentic moves the joker is known for aswell. i really wouldnt mind seeing Eddie Murphy as the joker. thanks for that info Ttandc Hotmail person.

No problem, I heard the choices were between Eddie and one other guy, can't remember who though.