The Joker is a master criminal with a clown-like appearance, including bleached white skin, red lips, and green hair. Initially portrayed as a violent sociopath who murders people for his own amusement, the Joker, later in the 1940s, began to be written as a goofy trickster-thief. That characterization continued through the late 1950s and 1960s before the character became again depicted as a vicious killer. The Joker has been responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman’s life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle) and the murders of Jason Todd (the second Robin) and Jim Gordon’s second wife Sarah Essen.
In other media, the Joker has been portrayed by Cesar Romero in the 1960s Batman television series; Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film Batman; voice actor Mark Hamill in TV’s Batman: The Animated Series; and voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson in the subsequent animated series The Batman. Nicholson’s version of the Joker ranks #45 in the American Film Institute’s list of the top 50 film villains.[citation needed] The movie studio Warner Bros. announced in 2007 that Heath Ledger will portray the Joker for director Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight.
