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A brief history of the Joker

Joker

By Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Where did the Joker come from?

Christopher Nolan's film, "The Dark Knight," certainly doesn't give us any clues. But though the character has many versions of his origin in the fictional world, his actual history is a multimedia mash-up of drawing, voice-overs and visual performance. He's gone from evil clown to annoying clown, to dark, evil, murderous clown that gives you nightmares. And if the buzz continues into the spring, the latest man in the makeup, Heath Ledger, may win a posthumous Oscar for his Joker performance.

But to understand where Ledger came from in his acting, you have to go back to see the characters development over the last 68 years.