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 in the show Smallville. 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 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
Film
- Shamus (1973) as Johnnie
- Annie Hall (1977) as Actor Boyfriend
- Julia (1977) as Sammy
- The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) as Tom Keller
- The Evil That Men Do (1984) as Briggs
- 52 Pick-Up (1986) as Alan Raimy
- Something Special (1986) as Fred Niceman
- Rocket Gibraltar (1988) as Rolo Rockwell
- Scrooged (1988) as Brice Cummings
- The Chocolate War (1988) as Brother Leon
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) as Daniel Clamp
- RoboCop 2 (1990) as Magnavolt Salesman
- In the Mouth of Madness (1994) as Saperstein
- Night of the Running Man (1994) as Derek Mills
- Batman And Robin (1997) as Dr. Jason Woodrue
- Medusa's Child (1997) as Rogers Henry (TV Movie)
- Payback (1999) as Phil
- You Bury Your Own (2015) as Det. Gilliespie
- We Go On (2016) as Dr. Ellison
- SHAZAM! (2019) as Mr. Sivana
- The Home (2025)
Television
- Tales from the Crypt (1991) as Sebastian Esbrook (1 Episode)
- Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1994, 1998; recurring) as Edward Nygma/The Riddler
- Homicide: Life on the Street (1998) as Nelson Broyles (1 episode)
- Brimstone (1998-1999) as Satan (13 episodes)
- Smallville (2001-2011) as Lionel Luthor
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006-2008) as Dr. Declan Gage (2 episodes)
- NUMB3RS (2006) as Simon Craft (2 episodes)
- Brothers & Sisters (2009) as Henry Mittner (1 episode)
- The Good Wife (2011-2015; recurring) as Jared Andrews (4 episodes)
- Medium (2011) as Carson Churchill (1 episode)
- Perception (2014) as The Devil (1 episode)
- Agent Carter (2015) as SSR Informant (1 episode)
- The Good Fight (2019) as Jared Andrews (1 episode)
- Tales Of The City (2019) as Bill Schwartz (1 episode)
- Evil (2019) as Byron Duke (1 episode)
- Fear the Walking Dead (2021; recurring) as Theodore "Teddy" Maddox (5 episodes)
- TRON: Uprising (2012-2013) as Dyson (4 episodes)
This actor provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Between Lionel Luthor, Sylar's dad on Heroes (2006) 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.
- Typecasting: His stage work may be all over the place, but his television roles are almost inevitably of the sinister variety.