Joker (Jack Napier)

Even as a child, Jack Napier was psychologically unstable, but extremely intelligent, showing an advanced knowledge of chemistry, art and science; he was also in and out of juvenile detention facilities for crimes such as arson, assault, and grand theft auto. Napier was charged with assault with a deadly weapon at age 15.

As a young man, Napier and his accomplice Joe Chill rob and murder Thomas and Martha Wayne in the alleyway behind the Monarch Theatre, leaving their young son Bruce as the only survivor. Napier prepares to kill Bruce as well, saying to the boy, "Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moon light?" - his favorite thing to say right before killing someone. Chill entreats him to run before the police arrive, however, so Napier spares Bruce and leaves, saying in passing, "See ya around, kid."[6]

Napier prior to his disfigurement

Years later, Napier moves up in the ranks of the Gotham City mafia, eventually becoming the right-hand-man of crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). He carries a deck of playing cards pierced from front to back by an earlier gunshot, and often performs sleight-of-hand with them or tosses them into his hat during idle moments. Napier privately dislikes Grissom, dismissing him as a "tired old man", and carries on an affair with his boss' moll Alicia Hunt (Jerry Hall). Grissom finds out about the affair and sets him up to be killed by Lt. Max Eckhardt (William Hootkins), a Gotham City Police Department cop on his payroll. The killing is to occur at Axis Chemicals, one of the mob's front companies, where Grissom sends Napier under the pretense of stealing incriminating documents.

Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon (Pat Hingle) and the masked vigilante Batman (Michael Keaton) intervene separately, disrupting the theft. Napier kills Eckhardt and shoots at Batman, who deflects the bullet with one of his gauntlets so that it ricochets back at Napier, wounding him in the face. Reeling from the pain, Napier stumbles and topples over a railing; Batman tries unsuccessfully to pull him up, and he falls into a vat of chemicals. He survives, but the chemicals turn his skin chalk-white, his lips red, and his hair green, while a botched attempt at plastic surgery leaves him with a permanent rictus grin. Driven insane by his reflection, Napier – now calling himself "Joker" – kills Grissom and takes over his criminal empire.

Styling himself as "The World’s First Fully-Functioning Homicidal Artist", Joker seeks revenge on Batman for his disfigurement and becomes obsessed with "outdoing" the Dark Knight, who he believes is stealing the spotlight from him. Aided by his right-hand man Bob (Tracey Walter), Joker massacres the rest of Grissom's associates at a press conference and begins poisoning cosmetic products with "Smylex", a chemical agent that causes its victims to laugh hysterically as they die, leaving their corpses with a permanent smile. He also turns Alicia into one of his "masterpieces" by disfiguring her face and drugging her into submission; she eventually commits suicide.

Joker also becomes obsessed with photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), and attacks her while she meets with her boyfriend, billionaire Bruce Wayne - Batman's alter ego. Believing Wayne to be harmless, Joker taunts him with his signature line and shoots him. Wayne survives, having been wearing body armor under his jacket, and recognizes Joker as his parents' killer.

Joker announces via television broadcast that he plans to give out $20 million at Gotham City's 200th anniversary parade, and challenges Batman to meet him there. Joker keeps his promise of giving away the money, before releasing an airborne toxic version of Smylex onto the crowd via parade floats, killing dozens of people. Batman arrives in the Batwing and removes the balloons before Joker uses a revolver with a custom 21-inch barrel[7] to shoot the plane out of the sky, causing it to crash on the steps of the Gotham City Cathedral.

Joker kidnaps Vale and takes her to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Batman. As they fight, each admits that he is responsible for the existence of the other after Joker remembers the alley murders and realizes that Batman is Wayne. Batman knocks Joker off the roof, but Joker pulls him and Vale after himself and leaves them dangling from a ledge. As Joker attempts to escape via helicopter, Batman fires a cable that ties a heavy stone gargoyle to his ankle. The gargoyle breaks free of its mounting, dragging Joker off the helicopter rope ladder and causing him to fall to his death. Gordon finds Joker's corpse, with an activated laugh-box in the pocket of his tailcoat.

In Crisis on Infinite Earths, the reality Joker lived on is dubbed "Earth-89".[8]

Several actors were considered for the role of the Joker before Nicholson was cast. Robin Williams, Tim Curry, Willem Dafoe, Ray Liotta, David Bowie, and James Woods were all considered. Burton initially wanted to cast character actor John Glover (who would later appear in Batman & Robin as Dr. Jason Woodrue and voice the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series). Burton also considered Brad Dourif;[9][10] but ultimately the studio insisted on using a bankable movie star.[11] John Lithgow met with Burton about the part, but during their discussion attempted to talk the budding director out of casting him, which would be something he would later regret. Lithgow was also director Joe Dante's first choice for the role of the Joker when he was attached to direct the film in the early 1980s.[12] Jack Nicholson had been the studio's top choice since 1980. Jon Peters approached Nicholson as far back as 1986, during filming of The Witches of Eastwick. Peter Guber took Burton and Nicholson on a horseback riding excursion in Aspen to get the pair acquainted and convince him to take the role. Nicholson's contract featured an "off-the-clock" agreement, specifying the number of hours he could have off, and allowed him to take time off to attend Los Angeles Lakers home games.[13][14][15][16][17]

As a part of Nicholson's contract, he was allowed to have approval over the makeup designer to create the look of the character. Nicholson chose Nick Dudman as his makeup designer. Dudman used an acrylic-based makeup for the bleached white face. Dudman cited the scene in the art gallery where Napier gets splashed with water by Vicki Vale as being the most difficult effect to achieve. To create the smile, Dudman did a regular face cast of Nicholson with a relaxed face, then asked him to do another one while pulling the largest grin he could muster. Dudman attempted to sculpt a smile that was always there but would take full effect when Nicholson smiled in the makeup; he also worked to ensure that the prosthetics wouldn't dilute Nicholson's face.[18][19]

The character's origin in the film of falling into a vat of chemicals was inspired by the then-recent graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore. However, certain elements of the character's origin were changed, including making him having been a gangster rather than a failed stand-up comedian, and cutting the Red Hood persona from the character. Napier is seen to have always been a criminal, having been responsible for the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, rather than Joe Chill, who instead serves as his accomplice.[20][21]

In the cancelled fifth film in the series, titled Batman Unchained, Nicholson was intended to return as the character via hallucinations from Scarecrow's Fear Toxins. The character of Harley Quinn was also rumored to have been involved in the story, and this adaptation was supposed to be the character's daughter, rather than girlfriend, who was seeking revenge on Batman for the death of her father.[22] However, due to the critical and commercial failure of Batman & Robin, the project was scrapped.

The Batman series would be rebooted in 2005 by director Christopher Nolan with Batman Begins. The sequel to the film, The Dark Knight, featured the Joker portrayed by actor Heath Ledger. Ledger died before the film's release, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor posthumously.[23][24] Nicholson was among many who praised Ledger's performance.

Heath Ledger, who portrayed the character in Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight, cited Nicholson's portrayal as an influence on his interpretation of the character: "This character was too good to turn down. And yes, it would be a crime to attempt to [step in or to] follow Jack Nicholson's footpath that he so heavily stands into my memory of The Joker. I mean, I adore what he did and him in general."[35] Mark Hamill, who voiced the character in Batman: The Animated Series, as well as in the Batman: Arkham video game series, has also cited Nicholson's adaptation of the character as an influence, but was told by show producers to avoid using Nicholson's Joker as a direct source of inspiration.[36][37][38][39]

The character's quote "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" has become synonymous with the character as well as one of the character's most iconic phrases. The quote was nominated for the American Film Institute's 100 Movie Quotes list, but did not make the list.[40][41] The quote was the title track for the unreleased song written by Prince for his soundtrack for the film. The track, titled "Dance with the Devil", was cut by Prince due to the darker tone of the song not fitting in with the rest of the upbeat songs on the soundtrack. It was replaced at the last second with "Batdance". Throughout the music videos for the singles released from the album, Prince was dressed as an amalgam of Nicholson's Joker and Keaton's Batman in a persona he titled Gemini. Nicholson's Joker can be heard in soundbytes during songs like "Batdance" and "Partyman".[42][43][44][45][46][47]

Two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, which was first produced in 1992, gave the Joker's real name as Jack Napier: "Dreams in Darkness", which depicted Dr. Bartholomew citing Jack Napier, Harvey Dent and Pamela Isley as the real names of the Joker, Two-Face and Poison Ivy; and "Joker's Wild", where businessman Cameron Kaiser's dossier about the Joker contained criminal records with the name Jack Napier. In the sequel series, The New Batman Adventures, the Joker was shown to adopt a multitude of aliases, hinting that in the DC Animated Universe continuity, "Jack Napier" was merely one alias, a reference to the comics where the Joker's real name is unknown.

Most notably, the alias was used in the comic series Batman: White Knight, where The Joker is seemingly cured of his insanity, and takes up the civilian name of Jack Napier.[49]

The Jack Napier alias is also used in the first two seasons of Batwoman. The Joker is said to have been killed by Batman prior to the events of the first season, although it is believed by most people that he remains locked up in Arkham Asylum. Batman left Gotham sometime afterward, leaving his cousin Kate Kane to take on the mantle of Batwoman to protect Gotham City in his place. In season two, it is discovered that Napier worked on a painting using intestinal blood from one of his victims as it is discovered that it contained the map to the island of Coryana where Jacob Kane suspects that Kate is being held prisoner. While the painting that Jacob took off a defeated Wolf Spider was a fake, the real one is in the possession of Safiyah Sohail's former minion Ocean. In the third season, the Joker (portrayed by Nathan Dashwood) is revealed to have been driving the bus which caused Kate and Beth Kane's accident. A young Marquis Jet (portrayed by Kendrick Jackson and later as an adult by Nick Creegan) attempted to stop him, but the Joker pressed a joy buzzer to his head, which drove Marquis insane. Marquis is eventually restored to sanity in the season's climax with the same joy buzzer.