There’s no easy way to say this: Gene Hackman, though a brilliant actor and a lot of fun in the ‘Superman’ flicks on the 1970s, was a pretty terrible Luthor. It’s hard to admit, but… it’s true. Michael Rosenbaum from ‘Smallville’ did a better job with a Live-Action Lex, but I can’t help but wonder if it would have worked with a fully powered, costumed Superman. As for Jesse Eisenberg, his “Tech Bro” Luthor was intriguing, but didn’t ever feel as dangerous as a Luthor should, leading to today’s balding query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) isn’t usually the “latest-take-is-best-take” guy, but Jon Cryer’s Lex in the Arrowverse is near the top of the list for me, especially since Clancy Brown only did a voice, asking: Which Live-Action Lex is the Luthor supreme?
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Far and away, it’s John Cryer, both for his performance and for his version actually being a strongly capable scientist as well as tactician/businessman.
Agree on Cryer. It’s weird how some of the most inspired superhero/supervillain casting has been people we never would have expected to be able to play the role and in more than one case, got up in arms about… Keaton, Ledger, Downey Jr… Schwarzenegger
Okay, CHILL, that last one is a joke… but the list does go on.