10 Oscar Winners That Portrayed Iconic Comic Book Characters
With the Academy Awards wrapping up , and Joker creating so much buzz with a polarizing 11 Oscar nominations (and a few incredible wins), it’s clear that audiences and critics have accepted that not only are comic book movies legitimate films, but they’re worthy of the highest praise and honors in the industry. In 2020 Pheonix still remains the only living actor to win an Academy Award for playing a comic book character, as sadly Heath Ledger won his Oscar posthumously for his portrayal of Joker in The Dark Knight.
While comic book and graphic novel adaptations are nowhere near new in Hollywood, over the past decade they certainly have been garnering more respect and accolades. A few decades ago (and currently in some more critical circles), comics books were seen as childish or trashy, and adaptions were seen as B-movie schlock. Now we are seeing an increasing number of high-caliber actors and actresses lining up to be cast in the next big film from Marvel or DC, some of whom you thought would never be caught dead in a hero flick.
We thought it would be a good idea to look back and acknowledge some of the most iconic portrayals of our favorite heroes and villains by bonafide Academy Award winners!
Tom Hanks – Michael Sullivan (Road to Perdition)
Unless you’ve been living under a considerably heavy rock, you know exactly who Tom Hanks is. From classics like Forest Gump (for which he won the Oscar for best actor), to animated game changers like Toy Story, the man has solidified himself in pop culture as one of the most well-known and well respected leading men in film history.
However, you’d be forgiven for not knowing he actually starred in comic book adaption back in 2002, Road to Perdition, which was based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Max Allan Collins. Directed by Sam Mendes, it takes place during 1931, in Rock Island Illinois during the great depression. Tom Hanks plays Irish mob enforcer Michael Sullivan, who seeks vengeance alongside his son for the slaying of his entire family.
Hank’s initially heard of the project when he was filming his survival drama Cast Away. He was approached but initially wasn’t interested until he got the script for the movie itself. After reading it Tom became attached to the main character of Michael Sullivan, and was quoted saying "I just got this guy. If you're a man, and you've got offspring ... emotionally, it's devastating."
Jeff Bridges - Obadiah Stane (Iron Man)
Jeff Bridges is such a master of his craft, that many of the characters he plays become iconic, just by the virtue of his charisma alone. It is not surprising that in a career spanning almost seven decades, he’s been nominated seven times for an Academy Award. He finally struck gold at the 2011 Oscars, in the category for best actor for his role in Crazy Heart, where he played a washed up country music star.
Just a few years prior, Bridges managed to get in on the ground floor of the MCU as we know it, when he played its first villain, Obadiah Stane in 2008’s Iron Man. Obadiah Stane in the comics is Tony Stark’s business rival, and would become the supervillain known as Iron Monger. In the film, Stane is a business partner to Tony’s father Howard, and a mentor/father-figure of Tony himself. He is eventually revealed to be the one behind the illegal sales of Stark Industries weapons to the terrorist group The Ten Rings, and we learn hie was the one behind the IED attack on Tony in the first place.
As happenstance would have it, when Bridges googled the Book of Obadiah, he was surprised to learn that retribution was a major theme of that book in the Bible. It’s fitting that retribution is what Stane ultimately succumbs to.
Haley Berry - Storm (X-Men) & Catwoman (Catwoman)
Before becoming an actress, Berry was actually a super model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Miss World 1986. Her first true taste of stardom came when she worked with Eddie Murphy in the comedy Boomerang.
In 2000, summer movie blockbusters would never be the same again, as the first movie in the now massive X-Men franchise would be released. Halle Berry would go to do a pretty good job as the weather-controlling mutant, Storm, even if now the movies have dated themselves a good bit.
With triumphs come missteps, as Halle Berry would be cast as Selina Kyle in Catwoman from 2004, loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name. The movie was universally panned and laughed about. It actually won awards for worst picture, worst actress, worst director and worst screenplay. Ouch
While her brief moment as Catwoman maybe meme’d to the end time, don’t let that be your final impression of Ms. Halle Berry. She’s an acting power house and box office magnet in her own right and despite awful reviews and disappointing ticket sales, Catwoman was the highest grossing female-led superhero film until the release of Wonder Woman in 2017. Not to mention she managed to snag an Oscar for her role as Leticia Musgrove in the 2001 film Monster’s Ball.
Natalie Portman – Evey Hammond (V for Vendetta) & Jane Foster (Thor)
Natalie Portman has been in so many blockbusters that it’s almost impossible to recall them all at this point., Beginning her long career into acting from the young age of 12, she would go on to star in 50 movies, including not one but TWO iconic comic book adaptions.
She first gained the world’s attention by starring as Mathilda Lando in Leon: The Professional before flapping her acting wings as Princess Amidala in the prequel Star Wars movies. Playing a huge role in a gargantuan franchise like Star Wars is already accomplishment but the hits wouldn’t stop there.
2006 would mark the release of the dystopian thriller V for Vendetta, based on the critically acclaimed 1988 DC/Vertigo Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Natalie Portman plays Evey, a young working-class woman caught up in the titular antihero’s revolution.
She would return world of comic book adaptation in 2011, being picked to play Jane Foster, the love interest in Marvel’s first Thor film. As a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Portman played Jane in Thor, Thor: Dark World, and even made a cameo as Foster in Avengers: Endgame. Last but not least, she’s been confirmed to reprise the role of Jane Foster in the upcoming movie Thor: Love and Thunder. Fans are excited as Portman will be following in her comic book counterpart's footsteps as she takes on the role of Thor herself.
Jamie Fox – Electro (Amazing Spider-Man 2)
Jamie Fox is man of many talents. Some older fans will remember his show from the late 90s, The Jamie Foxx Show, which launched him into limelight. A man of many talents, Foxx didn’t just stop at being an accomplished comedian and actor, he’s also a prolific singer, winning a Grammy award for best R&B performance in 2010.
Jamie made his mark in Hollywood in 2004, when he played Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray, for which he won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, he would be cast as Max Dillon, aka the supervillain Electro, in The Amazing Spiderman 2, serving as one of the films main antagonists. While the make-up and dazzling special effects of the super-powered rouge were to be admired, the film and Foxx's overall portrayal of Max Dillon/Electro were met with mixed reviews.
While his performance as Electro got a bit grating near the end of the movie, Jamie Foxx still brought a weird intensity to the character that kept me interested in what was going on. It’s a shame because now we’ll never see Jamie Foxx “squadded up” with his Sinister Six buddies. Electro is one of Spider-Man’s most well-known villains and his inclusion was warranted, if not squandered.
Ben Affleck - Daredevil (Daredevil) & Batman (Batman Vs Superman)
Ben Affleck won his first Academy Award at the age of 25, winning the Best Screenplay award for Good Will Hunting, the story of an unrecognized genius. This Oscar win would make Affleck the youngest person to earn that particular accolade. Since then Affleck has been engrained in the modern pop culture consciousness so long, that his name alone has almost reached a meme-level status.
The future Batman vs Superman star also won an Academy Award for Best Picture for his political thriller Argo in 2012. Even with these huge achievements, many point to Daredevil and Ben’s portrayal of Matt Murdock, as the beginning of career slump that would last several years. The movie itself made a generous amount of money but most of the critical responses to the film were limited to “just ok” with some even saying “that movie kind of sucked”.
I’ll be the contrarian and say, to this day, I still enjoy Daredevil and what it has to offer. Besides Jennifer Garner, who does a terrible job as Electra, the movie is pure fun and a bit camp. For an early 2000’s comic flick, it did a fantastic job of establishing the dark atmosphere of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Ben did a great job in the titular role and the film also full of so many quotable lines, that I surprised a cult following around it isn’t bigger. Guess I’ll have to get the word out myself!
Jennifer Lawrence – Mystique (X-Men: First Class)
Before she would come to be known worldwide as the badass blue mutant Mystique, Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role would be in a small independent movie called Winter’s Bone. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a teenage girl in the rural Ozarks of Missouri who, to protect her family from eviction, must locate her missing father. The film won several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress for Lawrence.
In 2011, Jennifer Lawrence would star in her biggest role yet as Mystique in X-Men: First Class, a mutant shape-shifter and childhood friend of Charles Xavier . Lawrence brought charm and a bit of vulnerability to the character that many audiences hadn’t seen before. She would go on to be a pivotal character in both the X-Men franchise and the very popular Hunger Games series, making her the highest-grossing action heroine of all time.
In 2012, she would earn her first Academy Award for Best Actress, in the David O. Russell drama, Silver Linings Playbook, where she played a young widow helping a bipolar man get his wife back. This Oscar win would make her the second-youngest Best Actress winner.
Gary Oldman - Commissioner Gordon (The Dark Knight Trilogy)
Gary Oldman is a classically trained actor with over five decades of experience. Most casual movie goers know him from his villainous roles in sci-fi epic, The Fifth Element, and the crime thriller Leon: The Professional. Oldman has always been good at expressing the inner villainy and nastiness of his characters in such memorable way, but the Dark Knight trilogy allowed him into disappear into the role of the seasoned commissioner and Batman confidante Jim Gordon, a role which allowed for a much more subtle performance.
While Batman occasionally needs Robin and Alfred by his side, Commissioner Gordon is actually the one who has been his partner since the start of the comic, being the very first Batman supporting character to ever be introduced. It’s fitting then that such an underrated character, would be played by such an underrated performer.
While all eyes were on Christian Bale (more on him later) and the growly voice, Gary Oldman was delivering an incredibly understated performance as James Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in the capital of crime that is Gotham. Oldman is one of our more recent Oscar winners, earning the Academy award for Best Actor in 2018, for his astounding portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Christian Bale - Batman (The Dark Knight Trilogy)
What do Batman and Christian Bale have in common? Both men need almost no introduction. In hindsight, it seems to have been a no-brainer to cast Christian Bale as the crazed caped-crusader we all know and love, but before Christopher Nolan took the helm on the Batman franchise, such casting would be fantasy.
Bale has always had a knack for capturing unbridled intensity in the roles he’s done, going all the way back to American Psycho, playing wealthy serial killer Patrick Bateman. The way Bale disappears into roles to bring out the depravity, anguish, and anger his characters exude is a true achievement, and it’s the reason why American Psycho holds up to this day. It was his work in The Fighter, however that nabbed him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2011.
He’s also become known for how seriously he takes his roles, and the method ways he gets into character. For his role in Batman Begins, Bale gained 100 pounds in six months. Later, after realizing he went over by 30 pounds he lost the excess weight by the time filming began. He would go on to star as Batman in what is now known as The Dark Knight Trilogy of films.
In a 2006 interview, Bale had this to say about the character.
“Batman is his hidden, demonic rage-filled side. The creature Batman creates is an absolutely sincere creature and one that he has to control but does so in a very haphazard way. He's capable of enacting violence – and to kill – so he's constantly having to rein himself in."
Jack Nicholson - The Joker
It’s fitting that the final entry on our list would be the most nominated male actor in the Academy’s history, with 12 nominations and 2 Best Actor wins for his work in the drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the comedy As Good As It Gets respectively. As if that weren’t enough, he is also one of the only men to have won 3 Academy Awards.
So as fate would have it, in the original 1989 Batman film, one of the most accomplished actors in history would go on to play one the most infamous psychopathic villains in comic book history, The Joker. His performance as the Clown Prince of Crime was so well received that it almost overshadowed Batman, the film’s main character. Even the director, Tim Burton seemed more interested in Jokers’ antics and props than of Caped Crusader himself.
Just check out this quote from the late, great, film critic Roger Ebert, who said:
“Nicholson’s Joker is really the most important character in the movie - in impact and screen time - and Keaton’s Batman and Bruce Wayne characters are so monosyllabic and impenetrable that we have to remind ourselves to cheer for them”
Nicholson’s decision as a high-profile actor to play a comic book villain could be seen as the start of A-listers taking a chance on the medium. Nicholson’s performance as Joker would go on to inspire Heath Ledger who would go on to win Best Actor for his role as Joker, with Joaquin Phoenix doing the same in 2020.