John Soursby Glover Jr. (born August 7, 1944) is an American stage, television, and film actor born in Kingston, New York.
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. Other notable bad guy parts from Glover include everything from a bit appearance as Dr. Jason Woodrue in Batman & Robin, to an absolutely chilling performance as The Devil himself in the series Brimstone. That being said, Glover has appeared in a wide variety of milieus, from Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 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 received five Emmy Award nominations, two Tony Award nominations (one of which he won), and two Saturn Award nominations for his performance as Lionel. He is openly gay.
Other Notable Roles
- Annie Hall as Actor Boyfriend
- Julia as Sammy
- The Incredible Shrinking Woman as Tom Keller
- The Evil That Men Do as Briggs
- Scrooged as Bryce Cummings
- The Chocolate War as Brother Leon
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch as Daniel Clamp
- Robocop 2 as Magnavolt Salesman
- In the Mouth of Madness as Saperstein
- Batman & Robin as Dr. Jason Woodroe
- Medusas Child as Rogers Henry (TV Movie)
- Payback as Phil
- SHAZAM! as Mr. Sivana
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Dr. Declan Gage (2 episodes)
- NUMB3RS as Simon Craft (2 episodes)
- Brothers & Sisters as Henry Mittner (1 episode)
- Medium as Carson Churchill (1 episode)
- Perception (2012) as The Devil (1 episode)
- Agent Carter as SSR Informant (1 episode)
- The Good Wife as Jared Andrews (4 episodes)
- The Good Fight as Jared Andrews (1 episode)
- You Bury Your Own as Det. Gilliespie
- We Go On as Dr. Ellison
- Tales Of The City as Bill Schwartz (1 episode)
- Evil (2019) as Byron Duke (1 episode)
- Brimstone as Satan (13 episodes)
- Fear the Walking Dead as Theodore "Teddy" Maddox (4 episodes)
- Homicide: Life on the Street as Nelson Broyles (1 episode)
This actor provides examples of:
- Abusive Dad: Not in Real Life, but between Lionel Luthor, Sylar's dad on Heroes and Thaddeus Sivana's father in SHAZAM!, he's got this trope covered.
- Large Ham: Oh yes. Given his penchant for villainous roles it often overlaps with Evil Is Hammy.
- Playing Against Type:
- His character in Gremlins 2: The New Batch was supposed to be the usual crooked unpleasant executive. Glover instead played him as an immensely likable if very eccentric businessman.
- His role in the HBO Western Comedy El Diablo. Glover plays a con artist gunfighter, but the character is actually on the side of the heroes and is probably the most affable character in the show.
- His guest role in Murder, She Wrote, in which he plays an ex-convict who was sent to prison by a Miscarriage of Justice, out to prove his innocence.
- 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.
