My Favourite Characters: The Joker (The Dark Knight)

Every week I will be posting a feature detailing some of my favourite fictional characters from film, T.V and videogames. This I will be talking about the Batman villain the Joker from The Dark Knight played by the late Heath Ledger.

There have been many portrayals of the classic Batman villain in the years since his creation, whether it be through films, videogames or T.V, however none has done it as good as Heath Ledger's portrayal in the Christopher Nolan directed sequel The Dark Knight. Not only does Ledger manage to bring the clown into a realistic universe with ease, he manages to steal the show from Batman and secondary villain Two-Face.

Joker doesn't care about money he just wants anarchy and chaos or as Alfred says 'some men just want to watch the world burn'. Although you can argue Jack Nicholson's Joker is more psychotic his character was going for laughs, whereas Ledger's portrayal is very creepy and really gets under your skin. It's a testament to Ledger's great talent that he managed to pull off this character amazingly and it looks like all those weeks studying the Joker and acting like him even off set really pulled off and it is very sad that a man of such talent died so early. Ledger's amazing acting was clearly and rightly recognised and won many awards for his portrayal of The Joker including a BAFTA for best actor in a supporting role and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.