John Glover



John Soursby Glover Jr. is an American stage, television, and film actor, born in 1944. He is best known for playing numerous villainous roles, and will be instantly familiar to many television viewers as Lionel, Lex Luthor's Archnemesis Dad on the show Smallville, the Trope Codifier for Magnificent Bastard and all things related to it. Other notable bad guy parts from Glover include everything from a bit appearance as Dr. Jason Woodrue in Batman and Robin, to an absolutely chilling performance as The Devil himself in the Too Good to Last series Brimstone. That being said, Glover has appeared in a wide variety of milieus, from Gremlins 2, to Broadway productions of Love!Valour!Compassion! and Waiting for Godot, to Batman: The Animated Series, where he provided the voice of The Riddler.

Glover is a well-regarded actor, and has recieved two Emmy nominations (one of which he won), two Tony Award nominations (one of which he again, won), and two Saturn Award nominations for his performance as Lionel. He is openly gay.


 * Abusive Dad: Not in Real Life, but between Lionel Luthor and Sylar's dad on Heroes he's got this trope covered.
 * Badass Beard: Most of his roles see him sporting one. Often overlaps with Beard of Evil.
 * Badass Long Hair: As Lionel Luthor.
 * Hey, It's That Guy! & Hey, It's That Voice!: Glover turns up everywhere from episodes of Murder, She Wrote to video game voice work.
 * Large Ham: Oh yes. Given his penchant for villainous roles it often overlaps with Evil Is Hammy.
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: Glover has played a lot of truly terrible people, but is reportedly a very pleasant guy behind the camera. This apparently surprised the members of Smallville's new make-up crew when he returned in Season 10; they had expected him to be more like Lionel Luthor.
 * Playing Against Type: His character in Gremlins 2 is played up as being the usual crooked unpleasant executive, like Donald Trump. Glover instead played him as an immensely likeable if very eccentric businessman.
 * Sharp-Dressed Man: In many, many appearances. Often overlaps with Badass in a Nice Suit and especially Man of Wealth and Taste.
 * Typecasting: His stage work may be all over the place, but his television roles are almost inevitably of the sinister variety.