The Many Actors Who Played the Penguin
With Max's The Penguin series upon us, we look back at the many actors who have dared to carry the umbrella.
“Crossing the path of the Batman, most feared of all crime-fighters, waddles the strange, almost ludicrous, figure of the Penguin… the umbrella man! The jovial face of the Penguin seems to radiate good will toward all men… but behind that smiling mask lurks an evil mind!” This loquacious introduction to Detective Comics #58 (1941) captured the tone of the Penguin, even as it fails to sound like the first appearance of one of the most enduring villains in popular culture. Throughout the story “One of the Most Perfect Frame-Ups” (by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, and George Roussos), the Penguin uses his unthreatening appearance to steal beautiful works of art with the help of his trick umbrellas.
Like the rest of Batman’s rogue’s gallery, the Penguin varies from laughable to horrific, and everything in between. But his staying power is helped in part from the actors who have brought the dapper baddie to life on screens big and small. Here are some of the best actors, all with interesting takes on the umbrella man.
Burgess Meredith – Batman (1966 – 1969)
The 1966 Batman TV show enjoyed brief but wild popularity, turning many of the Batman baddies into pop culture icons. Burgess Meredith’s take on the Penguin might have been the most striking of them all. Like everyone else on the show, the veteran character actor played the comic book material broad, which gave the show the campy tone that made it such a phenomenon.
Meredith played up the gimmicks of his character, including his waddling posture and long-stemmed cigarette holder. Meredith even expanded the character by adding an occasional squawk to his speech (reportedly as a way for the non-smoking actor to deal with the cigarette without coughing). With his growl and sneer, Meredith retained a bit of menace to the Penguin, which helped sell him as a dangerous criminal mastermind.
Of course it would hardly be the only time that Meredith played a little guy who intimidates someone bigger and stronger. In 1976, Meredith would receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for playing opposite Sylvester Stallone the role of Mickey, Rocky’s trainer. It’s a part he would reprise two more times. In fact, Rocky earned Meredith his second consecutive Best Supporting Actor nod, having been nominated for a former vaudeville star in the 1975 satire The Day of the Locust.
Burgess was equally effective on television. Before playing the Penguin, Meredith starred in several memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the all-time classic “Time Enough at Last.” Meredith took home an Emmy in 1977 for Tail Gunner Joe and received a nomination the next year for The Last Hurrah. With such a long and impressive career, it’s no wonder that Meredith remains the defining take on the Penguin. Also fun fact, he was briefly married to Paulette Goddard, star of the Charlie Chaplain classics Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940).
Danny DeVito – Batman Returns (1992)
Like its 1989 predecessor, Batman Returns worked to distance itself (somewhat) from the silly 1960s version of its characters. Thus Danny DeVito’s take on the Penguin drew somewhat from grittier Bronze Age comics. Primarily, however, he stemmed from director Tim Burton’s sympathy for outsiders and “freaks,” as this film’s Penguin proudly describes himself. DeVito’s Oswald Cobblepot was born to a respectable Gotham family (with parents portrayed by Paul Reuben and Sandra Bernhard), but was shunned for his grotesque appearance.
Channeling the energy that he’ll bring later to Frank Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, DeVito leans into the disgusting nature of the Penguin. Bile spews from his mouth when he eats fish and he bites off a snotty executive’s nose. Burton and screenwriter Daniel Waters use the character’s unpleasant elements as a way to satirize politics. That of course leads to the most unrealistic part of the movie, when video of Cobblepot saying horrible things about citizens ends his political campaign instead of, you know, sending people to storm Gotham’s capitol building.
In the 1980s and ‘90s, casting DeVito seemed like the most obvious thing in the world, mostly because of his size. The sub-five-foot actor excels at playing short men with huge personalities. But that’s hardly the only skill in the actor’s toolbox. After supporting turns in movies such as Oscar Best Picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), he broke out for his role as cantankerous boss Louie DePalma in the sitcom Taxi. Between Taxi and Always Sunny, however, DeVito worked almost entirely in film, starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the comedies Twins and Junior, and directing Matilda and Death to Smoochy. We’re also quite fond of his underrated comedy turns in Romancing the Stone and a variety of other Tim Burton movies, including where he played a more benevolent version of his Penguin in Big Fish.
In addition to Screen Actors Guild nominations for his roles in Get Shorty and LA Confidential (two superb neo-noirs, the latter of which is decidedly NOT a comedy), DeVito earned an Academy Award nomination for producing Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich.
Paul Williams – Batman: The Animated Series (1992 – 1996) and The New Batman Adventures (1997 – 1999)
You may not recognize the name Paul Williams, but you do know his words. Williams wrote some of the greatest pop hits of all-time, including “Cried Like a Baby” by Bobby Sherman, “An Old Fashioned Love Song” by Three Dog Night, and “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “We’ve Only Just Begun” for the Carpenters. A frequent collaborator with Jim Henson, Williams also wrote “The Rainbow Connection” for The Muppet Movie and the songs in The Muppet Christmas Carol.
And, oh yes, he also played the Penguin on Batman: The Animated Series! The Penguin isn’t really known for his show stopping numbers (at least, not until Minnie Driver’s version in this year’s Batman: Caped Crusader). But Williams has a long career as an actor in film and television. Williams played Little Enos Burdette in the Smokey and the Bandit movies and, more recently, the Butcher in the Edgar Wright movie, Baby Driver. Williams’ television credits include guest spots on The Love Boat (for which he wrote the theme song), The Muppet Show, Babylon 5, and Star Trek: Voyager.
By casting Williams for the Penguin, legendary voice director Andrea Romano helped set the character apart from DeVito’s version. Although the character looked like the Cobblepot of Batman Returns, Williams gave him a more controlled and sinister edge. However, he never played an insane or feral Penguin, which fit the show, in which he launched bird-themed heists.
Robin Lord Taylor – Gotham (2014 – 2019)
Robin Lord Taylor gave one of the most popular versions of the Penguin since Burgess Meredith in the last live-action Batman TV show. Which is a surprise, given Taylor’s slight physique. Then again, everything about Gotham is a surprise. The prequel series set out as something between an adaptation of the comic book series Gotham Central and the story of the city before the Batman arrived. Instead it became a wacky adventure that somehow is weirder than any Batman comic.
Taylor does a lot to build that craziness. His delicious performance as a sniveling, duplicitous Cobblepot feels part Scarface and part Norman Bates, thanks to his relationship with his mother (played by Carol Kane). Taylor’s Penguin starts out working for big crime boss Fish Mooney and then keeps shifting back and forth between a boss in his own right and an ally to Batman. Part of the pleasure offered by Gotham was getting to watch Taylor work. He threw himself into the role, the first major part of his career. Before that Taylor had parts in the underrated horror film Would You Rather? and a recurring bit as “Darrell, the Late Show page with the fake British accent” on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Thanks to the Penguin, Taylor’s worked steadily since Gotham wrapped up. In addition to a season two stint on You, Taylor had a regular part on Kevin Can F**k Himself and Law & Order: Organized Crime, as well as voicing the Outsider in the Dishonored video game series.
Colin Farrell – The Batman (2022) and The Penguin (2024)
By drawing from David Fincher’s Seven and Zodiac instead of Michael Mann’s Heat, director Matt Reeves’ The Batman managed to be even more grounded than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Well, mostly grounded. The film does, however, make allowances for the goofy whenever Colin Farrell as Oz Cobblepot shows up.
The thin Irish character actor makes for a unique choice to play the Penguin. After breaking out as a sensitive soldier in Joel Schumacher’s Tigerland (2000), Farrell spent most of the following decade as a handsome leading man in The Recruit, S.W.A.T., Alexander, and Phone Booth. Even in this period, though, Farrell showed a desire to be more than a pretty face in Hollywood blockbusters. He played the assassin Bullseye as a twitchy weirdo in Daredevil and made a point to work with auteurs such as Michael Mann (Miami Vice), Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), and Terrance Malick (The New World). Farrell’s work with Yorgos Lanthimos in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Lobster and with Martin McDonagh, most recently in The Banshees of Inisherin, has won him major critical raves and awards consideration, including a Best Actor nod at the Oscars for the latter.
For his version of the Penguin, Farrell combines both aspects of his Hollywood run. Yes, The Batman is a big budget blockbuster for a major studio, with stars such as Robert Pattinson and Barry Keoghan. But Farrell goes as big as possible for the Penguin, covering himself in tons of make-up to add girth and a twisted, scared expression. Farrell has the most fun in The Batman, fun he’ll hopefully bring to his upcoming solo show The Penguin. Perhaps the series will finally let one of Batman’s oldest and weirdest baddies be the hero of his own twisted tale.
Written by
Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!