9 Actors Who Played Supervillain Lex Luthor on Screen, Ranked
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a superhero often upstaged by his arch-nemesis! Yes, Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman is the pride of Metropolis, but if he’s the Man of Steel on screen, then Lex Luthor is the Man of Scene-Stealing.
Michael Cudlitz is the latest actor to take on the role of Lex, playing the part in The CW’s Superman & Lois. And he’s a series regular for the show’s fourth and final season, airing Mondays at 8/7c.
Cudlitz is one of our favorite Lexes, but he’s not number one. Check out the photo gallery below to see which Lex leads our lineup.
Superman & Lois, Mondays, 8/7c, The CW
9. Jesse Eisenberg, DC Extended Universe
Eisenberg gave his take on the character in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2017’s Justice League, and 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But as Lex turns from billionaire to bad guy, Eisenberg’s tics and jitteriness turn from endearing to annoying. A little less Lex-presso for this guy.
8. Jon Cryer, Arrowverse
This “narcissist sociopath, evil genius … douchebag,” in the words of Ryan Choi (Osric Chau), was certainly a threat to the Arrowverse and its infinite Earths. But Cryer — who played Lex’s nephew Lenny Luthor in Superman IV — didn’t disappear into the part, perhaps because he was a recognizable sitcom star at that point of his career.
7. Kevin Spacey, Superman Returns
Before his career was derailed by multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment, Spacey played Lex in Superman’s 2006 return to the big screen. That film continued the storyline of Superman and Superman II, and though Spacey is good at playing bad, his Lex paled in comparison to Gene Hackman’s.
6. John Shea, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
As the big bad of Lois & Clark’s first season, Shea’s Lex was debonair, charming, and erudite… and more than a little smarmy. Though Shea sold the character’s upstanding persona, Superman (Dean Cain) didn’t need X-ray vision to know Lex wasn’t the legitimate Metropolis businessman he claimed to be.
5. Clancy Brown, DC Animated Universe
Brown has played many TV villains, but he’s been playing Lex in DC Animated Universe projects since 1996, including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. Though only heard and never seen, Brown put his mark on the character — you can hear the snarl in his voice.
4. Michael Cudlitz, Superman & Lois
Of all the Lexes on screen, none has seemed as physically intimidating as Cudlitz’s version of the character, who emerged from prison with a shaved head and an axe to grind against Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch). Pair that physicality with a hair-trigger temper, and you have a Lex not to be reckoned with.
3. Titus Welliver, Titans
In this live-action series based on the Teen Titans supergroup of comic-book fame, Welliver didn’t chew scenery like some of the other Lex Luthor portrayers on this list. Instead, he played the character as cool, calm, and collected… and that restraint made the bald baddie all the more menacing.
2. Gene Hackman, Superman films
In the Superman films starring Christopher Reeve, Hackman wigged out as a toupéed Lex who heralds himself as “the greatest criminal mind of our time.” The character was a classic supervillain — the ego, the underground lair, the bumbling assistant — and Hackman hammed it up accordingly.
1. Michael Rosenbaum, Smallville
As Smallville depicted Superman’s ascent to superhero status, it also tracked Lex’s descent into villainy, with Rosenbaum playing the character as a tragic figure. This was a Lex wounded by his father’s neglect and all too curious about best friend and brother figure Clark Kent (Tom Welling), and Rosenbaum almost made him sympathetic.
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