When you talk about The Joker, people across the world immediately know who you mean. The Joker is perhaps one of the greatest, most consistently popular villains both inside and outside the comic book industry. We all remember Jack Nicholsons take on our favourite pasty-faced anarchist; many love Hamills gloriously OTT version; if youre a Bat-fan, youll even have something to say on the original screen Joker, Cesar Romero.
But one man raised the status of the character from awesome to cinematically important and that mans name was Heath Ledger. I remember scoffing at the casting choice initially, as many out there did. After all, he was, at the time, probably the furthest from my expectations of the character than anyone could possibly be. But how wrong I was, how wrong we all were. And god, when it comes to things like this, I love being wrong. Ledger went on to provide probably one of the greatest performances in the current generation of cinema; it eclipsed everyone else in The Dark Knight, Bale included, hell, it eclipsed most modern blockbuster performances both in and out of the comic book movie genre. Ledger smashed it so far out of the park that it now orbits Earth. Despite the tragedy of his death, can you imagine a better note to go out on? But what inspired this legendary, show-stopping performance; where the hell did it come from? Well, thats what Im here to explore. Why not join me as I look for ten inspirations for Heath Ledgers incredible Clown Prince of Crime?