Joker Creators Based Him on A Movie Character
Source: Batman-On-Film
Saturday, February 17, 2007

OK, how interested are y’all in how Heath Ledger’s Joker will look? One thing I know, he’ll look nothing like Jack Nicholson or Cesar Romero. It’s going to be something different for sure.

How about going old school -- and I mean really old school - and use Conrad Veidt’s “Gwynplaine” in the 1928 film THE MAN WHO LAUGHS as inspiration? Gwynplaine was a dude that had his mouth carved into a smile as a child. What’s cool about this is that Gwynplaine was the basis for The Joker way back in the day when he was created by Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, and Bill Finger.


Conrad Veidt in THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928)