One Out of Three Ain't Dead

Cesar Romero
Feb. 15, 1907 – Jan. 1, 1994

Heath Ledger
Apr. 4, 1979 – Jan. 22, 2008

I must admit I didn't see the most recent Batman movie, Batman Begins, and I probably won't see this year's upcoming Batman The Dark Knight. While I did like Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, the awful sequels left me flat. Same with Superman, really. But that's not really the point.

The new Batman sequel caused a lot of buzz when Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker and then even more talk when he died suddenly last month, sparking rumors of a "Joker curse". Well let's clear this up...there is no curse. Heath Ledger died of an overdose of prescription drugs (accidental or intentional) and Cesar Romero (the Joker from the 1960s Batman TV show who was born 101 years ago today) died because he was old. Period.

If there is a Joker curse, it hasn't affected Jack Nicholson, who played the part the 1989 version. He declined to take a salary but instead took a cut of the film's merchandising, thereby earning many times what he otherwise would have. Since then, he's continued to make (mostly unwatchable) movies, including 1994's Hoffa and 2007's The Bucket List. No one seems to remember that Nicholson publicly bemoaned the fact that no one had asked the 70-year-old actor to reprise his Joker role in the new film. He was the worst thing about the 1989 film because he was too old for the part then. Geez.

To make matters worse, Nicholson gave an interview after Ledger's death in which he said he knew that the young actor had a problem. I'm not sure how Jack knew this, unless he was stalking him. I wonder if he called the director and asked if they needed an actor to fill the role of the Joker. What? Too soon?

In all of this, Cesar Romero's frantic portrayal of the first Joker is largely ignored. He was a good actor and didn't seem too old to be the Joker, even though he was in his 60s when he got the part. He refused to shave his moustache for the role, so if you look closely it's just covered by white makeup. And, not that it makes any difference, but I only discovered that Cesar Romero was gay moments ago. Today I guess it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but under the old Hollywood system, being an open homosexual could ruin your career.

But the most interesting tidbit I learned about Cesar Romero is this, quoted directly from his Wikipedia entry:

Romero believed in 'liberation theology,' a political system combining Marxism with Christianity, which purports that, despite the fact that Karl Marx called religion 'the opiate of the masses,' religion and communism are still compatible. Romero was very Christian yet still believed in a utopian society whose belief is that Christ's kingdom would be very similar to Marx's envisionment of communism, and held to this belief until his death.

You learn the most interesting things about people from their Wikipedia entries. I can only wonder how much you see there is true. I'd check Jack Nicholson's entry, but I don't really care that much.