Gene Hackman played a Lex Luthor who was almost so comically unlike the comics that it shouldn’t have worked on paper, but it did. I still can’t believe he managed to avoid being bald for most of the film series. I don’t think any other version of Luthor had a full head of hair for the majority of the story, though it’s made clear that these are toupees.

Like most incarnations of Lex Luthor, he’s exceptionally intelligent, immensely wealthy, but not formidable in any way when it comes to physical combat. Yet he truly, deeply, really despises the Man of Steel simply for existing.

He even manages to outsmart Superman with some kryptonite, which I always found amusing. How could he possibly have known it would weaken the Man of Steel? There was no guidebook, and this was obviously the first opportunity he had to test the hypothesis. Nevertheless, Superman ultimately defeats him.

Later, he teams up with General Zod and his cohorts during Superman II. Of course, it’s only a matter of time before he decides that Superman is the lesser of the four evils, and he ironically works to bring them down.

While Gene Hackman reprised Luthor in later films, I like to pretend those don’t exist, except for Kevin Spacey taking over the role in Superman Returns, which was supposed to be the same Luthor Hackman portrayed. Despite being closer to the classic comic-book version, Spacey couldn’t hold a candle to the original Alexander Luthor.