Warner Bros.
Batman is as definitive of an American cultural staple as cola, baseball and cheeseburgers. Virtually anywhere on planet Earth, you show someone, anyone, the iconic Batman logo and they’ll know what it represents. There are exceedingly few symbols in this world that have such uniform recognition — and in the Dark Knight’s case, reverence.
Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman made his debut in the 27th issue of the comic book Detective Comics on March 30, 1939. In the year 1966, the Adam West starring Batman series premiered on ABC and introduced the character to an entirely new audience.
After about two decades in the television and cinematic wilderness between the conclusion of West’s Batman and the release of Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, the character has since had a strangle-hold on the superhero genre, both in comic books and movies, and is now the tenth-highest grossing film franchise of all time.
Along the way, the Dark Knight has been brought to life on the big screen by seven actors: West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson. Here’s how we believe they stack up against each other.
Ranking all of the live-action Batman actors, from Adam West to Robert Pattinson
Honorable Mention: Kevin Conroy – Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Arkham video games, et al.
Warner Bros.
While Kevin Conroy is definitely not a live action Batman actor, you simply cannot list the best Batman portrayals of all-time without mentioning his name, regardless of medium.
Conroy was *the* definitive Batman for an entire generation and is considered by some, particularly during his Batman: The Animated Series and Arkham video game days, to be the most complete portrayal of the Dark Knight.
Some even go as far as arguing that Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the best Batman movie ever made. And while I won’t be going as far as making that case, I also can’t help but note that… I can’t really come up with an argument against that notion, either.
7. George Clooney – Batman & Robin
A beloved Academy Award-winning actor who unfortunately found himself at the center of a dumpster fire movie with plastic Bat-nipples plastered to his chest. We can’t all have all the luck in the world — even George Clooney.
6. Adam West – Batman: The Movie
Bang! Pow! Shoom! Adam West’s iconic Batman and its pop-art sincerity — no winking, no cynicism, just a square-jawed do-gooder sprinting through a world of Dutch angles and onomatopoeia — is single-handily responsible for not just introducing but popularizing the Caped Crusader to a mass audience.
It shouldn’t work but it does because he plays it straight. Without West, there’s no on-screen Batman to reinvent later — he’s the control group the rest of them keep reacting against, and despite its stark differences from the Batman we’ve come to know and love, remains relevant and remembered all the same.
5. Val Kilmer – Batman Forever
A cool, interior Bruce Wayne trapped inside Joel Schumacher’s neon-soaked sugar rush fever dream, Val Kilmer underplays the role, bringing a subtle melancholy to Bruce Wayne — a man trapped in a life he never asked for, unable to enjoy the true comforts of mankind: friendship, family, love.
Is he a top-tier Batman? Maybe not. But as Bruce, he’s quietly compelling, which is perhaps a perfect summary for the mercurial Kilmer’s career at large. Rest in Peace, Iceman.
4. Ben Affleck – Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Flash
Tired, angry, and terrifying, Ben Affleck brought the physicality of a Pro Bowl linebacker to the role and turns the suit into a blunt instrument, with the warehouse fight in Batman v. Superman remaining the high-water mark for live-action Batman combat.
Affleck’s performance, in fact — as both Bruce Wayne and Batman — is the best element of that movie, making his subsequent performances and appearances all the more jarring (in the atrocious Suicide Squad, for example, he literally attacks and arrests Deadshot in front of his daughter… in an alleyway).
The DCEU chaos drags down the total package, but the aim was clear and almost accomplished: older, cynical, branding-iron vigilantism shading into redemption. You can see the great solo movie that never happened gasping for air buried beneath a directionless franchise — a definitive veteran Dark Knight, stuck in a universe that wouldn’t get out of his way.
The whole openly killing people thing, though… well, that’s a different debate for another day.
3. Christian Bale – Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises
Putting Christian Bale third is going to absolutely ENRAGE people, and rightfully so. But hand to the cinema gods, I am not doing it to be reactionary or get a rise out of you. Let me make my case, first, then you can decide if I’m an idiot or not.
The Dark Knight trilogy is, without a doubt, the most complete portrait of Batman ever put to screen (although if Matt Reeves’ The Batman series can keep up its current trajectory, it’ll certainly test that status).
It unfolds like a true modern epic, growing in scale with each passing film and culminating in a mythic conclusion. Everything about those movies are simply spectacular. But *that* is why Bale finds himself third.
Let’s forget the fact that he’s a better Bruce Wayne than Batman and that the single thing most people remember about his performance is the silly “Batman voice.” Are you firing up any of these three movies to marvel at Bale’s work? I doubt it.
The main features of The Dark Knight trilogy are the elite quality of storytelling and filmmaking — and, to me, the performances of the villainous actors, Heath Ledger most notably — and not necessarily Bale’s performance as the Caped Crusader.
Would these movies be any worse if it were, let’s say, Jake Gyllenhaal as Batman? I doubt it. I won’t even be mean and hit you with the thought exercise of “What would we think of these movies if Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight didn’t exist.
The reason Bale works as Batman is more because of Bale’s raw talent as an actor (one of the best of his generation) and less the actual, complete characterization, which could, at times, be grounded to a fault, as its realism stripped the character of the pulp and gothic eccentricity that makes him so everlasting.
2. Michael Keaton – Batman, Batman Returns, The Flash
There is no Batman (on screen, at least, in the way we know him), without Michael Keaton.
The casting looked insane on paper in 1989 and sparked the sort of fan-led backlash that can now be commonplace within the industry — but Keaton weaponized stillness and those piercing eyes of his into a new cinematic grammar for the character.
Since the rubber suit couldn’t turn its neck, Keaton turned it into a feature — a statuesque, predatory silhouette that made every micro-flinch, tilt and grunt feel like a threat.
As Bruce, he’s the first to really play the weirdo billionaire angle — aloof, off-rhythm, a touch unhinged. The “You wanna get nuts?” outburst is the mask slipping in real time. And in Returns, he refines it: fewer quips, more haunted monk, with the Selina/Bruce ballroom scene (no masks, all trauma) doing as much for the character as any rooftop brawl.
Keaton’s take isn’t about bulk; it’s about intent. He codifies the duality — Bruce is the disguise, Batman is the person — and everyone after him is either echoing it, rejecting it, or remixing it. That’s legacy.
1. Robert Pattinson – The Batman, The Batman: Part II
Maybe this is recency bias. But here’s the difference between The Dark Knight and The Batman: The Dark Knight is the best movie to ever feature Batman… but The Batman is the best *Batman movie* ever made.
And at the center of that movie is the most convincing portrayal of Batman we’ve ever seen, as it refuses to shy away from the ultimate essence of the character, which is that Bruce Wayne is both lonely, and, frankly, quite weird. Not the Keaton kind of weird, where you wonder what kind of fetishes this guy gets up to in his free time, but the sort of weird that suggests the character is, to a certain extent, unwell.
Pattinson’s Batman is realistic, sure, but he’s also fantastical enough to wear a suit strong enough to get lit up by machine guns at point blank range, which ultimately strikes the best tonal blend of the Dark Knight that we’ve gotten on the big screen thus far. This is to say that, while you could see him patrolling the streets of New York City, you could also see him fighting Mr. Freeze in the sequel. That’s a difficult difference to split and yet Pattinson pulls it off in The Batman, creating a Dark Knight that’s both relatable alone yet mythically threatening.
The Batman turns that subtext into text, ultimately, with Pattinson’s Batman realizing that he needs to be more than just the embodiment of fear to save his city — he needs to be a hero.