Lionel Luthor

Lionel Luthor is a character appearing on the television series Smallville. He was portrayed by John Glover.

The founder and CEO of LuthorCorp, Lionel was the father of Lex Luthor and, as revealed in the final season of the show, Tess Mercer.

Lionel served as the main antagonist of the show in Seasons 2-3 before becoming an ally to Clark in Seasons 4-7.

For his alternate reality counterpart, see Lionel Luthor (Earth-2).

Season 1
In the pilot episode, which begins in October 1989, Lionel is first seen riding a helicopter to Smallville, Kansas, bringing his young son Lex along with him. He orders Lex to open his eyes and look out the window, saying Luthors aren't afraid of anything and insisting his son that he has a destiny and that he won't get anywhere with his eyes closed. Later, Lionel signs an agreement with the Ross brothers to buy their creamed corn factory. Not long after, a meteor shower strikes Smallville, and Lex is caught in the onslaught. Once the meteor shower ends, Lionel frantically searches for his son and finds him in the cornfield, bald and in shock. In the present day, Lionel sends Lex to run Smallville's LuthorCorp plant.

In "Hothead," Lionel confronts Lex over his decision to increase his workforce by twenty percent instead of cut them by that same amount, and challenges his son to a fencing match to resolve the matter; he bests Lex in the match and demands that he cut his workforce the next day. When Lex manages to find a way to save money without firing a single employee, Lionel grudgingly concedes the point, prompting Lex to suggest he's upset either because the plan works or because Lionel didn't come up with it himself. Lionel tells his son empires aren't built on clever bookkeeping, to which Lex replies Lionel has no idea what he's capable of.

In "Jitters," Lionel comes to Smallville in response to Earl Jenkins, a former LuthorCorp employee, taking hostages inside the town's LuthorCorp plant. He angrily confronts Lex over his handling of the situation, only to be interrupted by Jonathan Kent; it's then it's shown that the two have some sort of history together. Lionel tries to negotiate with Earl, insisting there's no such thing as Level 3 (which Earl has been looking for), causing Earl to angrily end communication. When Lex decides to head into the plant and exchange himself for the hostages, Lionel opposes his decision but lets his son go anyway. When the hostages evacuate the plant save for Lex, Clark Kent and Earl, Lionel agrees to have the plant sealed to prevent gas from leaking out. Once the crisis is resolved, Lex confronts Lionel over Level 3, but Lionel stands firm by his claim that he moved on from Level 3 and lies to news reporters about what exactly Level 3 was, saying it was a redundant storage area.

In "Shimmer," Lionel comes to the Luthor Mansion to confront Lex about his relationship with Victoria Hardwick, the daughter of Sir Harry Hardwick, the CEO of LuthorCorp's business rival Hardwick Enterprises.

In "Leech," after Lex manages to outmaneuver Victoria and her father and absorb their company into LuthorCorp, Lionel calls Lex by phone to congratulate him, though it's clear that Lionel is taking all the credit for LuthorCorp's acquisition of Hardwick Enterprises. Lionel tells Lex he's proud of him, but Lex sarcastically replies that means a lot coming from him. Lex then receives evidence from Roger Nixon that Lionel had been sleeping with Victoria.

In "Stray," Lionel comes to Smallville to congratulate Lex on his management of the town's LuthorCorp plant and to offer Lex an opportunity to work alongside him as his Special Advisor. By the end of the episode, Lex turns down his father's offer on the belief that Lionel just wants to keep an eye on him because he views Lex as a rival. Lionel tells his son he's making a big mistake by turning him down.

In the season finale "Tempest," Lionel pays a visit to the Smallville plant to give the staff a congratulatory speech, only to then announce the plant will be closing, pinning the blame on Lex. Lex immediately realizes his father is trying to force him to come back to Metropolis and determines to oppose his father's efforts. When Lex organizes an employee buyout, Lionel comes by the mansion to mockingly inform his son that he just bought the Smallville Savings and Loan, meaning he now owns Lex's employees' bank accounts, much to Lex's frustration. Later, as a violent tornado hits Smallville, Lionel again confronts Lex at the mansion, having figured out Lex is using his late mother's LuthorCorp shares to fund his buyout. The two then argue angrily, and right after Lionel threatens to bury Lex and everyone who takes his side, the storm blows in a window and Lionel ends up trapped under a falling column. Lionel begs Lex to help him, and an injured Lex stares down at his father, seemingly contemplating letting his father die.

Season 2
In "Vortex," Lex rescues Lionel, who is hospitalized. Lex gives the go-ahead for the surgeons to operate on Lionel, but the procedure leaves Lionel blind.

In "Duplicity," Lionel decides to stay in Smallville and dismisses Lex's suspicions that he just wants to follow up Dr. Hamilton's claims of extraterrestrial life in the town, saying he just wants to spend time with Lex.

In "Red," Lionel makes his own alterations to the Luthor Mansion and guilt-trips Lex into letting him go on with it. Later, he has his first meeting with Clark who, under the influence of red kryptonite, bluntly tells Lionel he's not welcome at the mansion. Moments later, when U.S. Marshal Ted Palmer enters the room and Clark takes his gun and fires it into his own palm, Lionel worriedly wonders what's going on, but Clark tells him that Palmer missed. Sometime after that, Lionel is told off by Lex for using his blindness as an excuse to feel sorry for himself, and he commends his son's directness, remarking he got it from Clark, all the while fingering flattened bullets from Palmer's gun.

In "Nocturne," Lionel hires Martha Kent as his personal assistant, drawing Lex's ire. He mocks Lex for wanting to become a part of the Kent family, contemptuously drawing a comparison between his son and the Greek god Prometheus. Lex angrily warns Lionel to stay away from the Kents, threatening to end their "father/son détente" if he doesn't.

In "Lineage," a woman named Rachel Dunleavy shows up in Smallville, claiming to be Clark's biological mother. After learning that Lionel founded the agency that handled his adoption by the Kents, Clark confronts his parents, who then tell him about what happened after the meteors hit Smallville in 1989: After they found young Kal-El and his spaceship, the Kents ran into Lionel and Jonathan helped get an injured Lex to safety. Grateful to Jonathan for helping his son, Lionel told Jonathan to call him if there was anything he needed. When he and Martha decided to adopt Clark, Jonathan called Lionel, who drew up the necessary paperwork to make the adoption look legitimate. Lionel, however, asked for something in return: He wanted Jonathan to ask the Ross family to sell their creamed corn factory. When Jonathan demurred, Lionel advised Jonathan to be careful with the adoption papers lest it come out that Clark's adoption is a sham; this prompted Jonathan to convince the Ross family to sell their factory, allowing LuthorCorp to gain a foothold in the town. The incident also sparked Jonathan's long-standing hatred and distrust of the Luthor family. "Lineage" also reveals that Lionel had an affair with Rachel, resulting in the birth of a son named Lucas. Lionel claims to Lex that Lucas died in infancy, but in actuality, the boy is still alive, as evidenced by a picture Lionel kept of a young Lucas.

In "Visage," it is revealed that Lionel tried to bribe Lex's girlfriend Helen Bryce to leave him; when she refused, he had the money wired to her account, driving a temporary wedge between Lex and Helen.

In "Insurgence," Lionel is revealed to have had Lex's office bugged with surveillance hardware, thus explaining how LuthorCorp was able to beat LexCorp at gaining profitable business deals. Lex confronts Lionel on this, but Lionel contemptuously dismisses him. Later, Lionel and Martha are taken hostage by a team hired by Lex to bug Lionel's own office, and it is revealed that Lionel's safe contains several bars of green kryptonite, a file on Clark and the key to Clark's spaceship. Once he and Martha are rescued, Lionel tells Lex he's going to move out the mansion.

In "Suspect," Lionel is shot three times by an unknown assailant, and suspicion falls on Jonathan. Lionel is hospitalized and left in critical condition. According to a statement given by Lana to the police, Lionel was confronted earlier by an angry Jonathan, who found an expensive watch Lionel had given to Martha as a token of appreciation. Lionel and Jonathan exchanged words, and Jonathan ordered Lionel to stay away from Martha, promising he would regret it. According to Lionel's lackey Dominic Santori, Lionel had a heated exchange over LuthorCorp buying out LexCorp, giving Lex a motive for shooting Lionel. Lex later claimed that Dominic was angry at Lionel for going back on an arrangement between them. It's revealed that Ethan Miller, Smallville's sheriff, is the shooter. As it turns out, Lionel blackmailed him into his service and Ethan sought to get free of him. Lionel recovers from the shooting and refuses to accept any responsibility for what happened, instead laying the blame at Lex's feet. He tries to convince Lex to come back to work for him at LuthorCorp, but Lex refuses and leaves the hospital room.

In "Prodigal," Lionel is reunited with his long-lost son Lucas, whom Lex found and brought to Smallville in a plan to oust Lionel from LuthorCorp. Instead, Lucas sides with Lionel, and Lionel disowns Lex and kicks him out of the Luthor Mansion, forcing him to move in with the Kents. It is later revealed that Lionel has since regained his sight.

In "Witness," Lionel stops by the Luthor Mansion ostensibly to congratulate Lex on his pending marriage to Helen and to question Lex about materials stolen from a LuthorCorp truck, which Lex denies any involvement with. After the Smallville Torch is vandalized, Lionel steps in and offers to repair it.

Season 3
In "Phoenix," Lionel is confronted by an angry Lex, who accuses him of engineering his plane crash, but Lionel denies any involvement in the matter and insists Helen is responsible, prompting an angry reaction from Lex. It's later revealed that Lionel is good friends with crime boss Morgan Edge, whom he demands returns a stolen sample of blood (from Clark).

In "Extinction," Lionel welcomes Lex back to LuthorCorp and has him sign an insurance premium due to his tendency to attract life-threatening situations.

In "Slumber," Lionel insists that Lex undergo a full psychological evaluation so he can be assured that Lex is trustworthy.

In "Relic," Lionel reveals to Lex that he made up his family's privileged background as Scottish nobles to impress his Ivy League peers and that his parents, Lachlan and Eliza, died in a tenement fire years ago. Later, Lionel is informed by Lex that his parents were, in actuality, murdered.

In "Magnetic," Lionel is revealed to have been friends with Morgan Edge since childhood.

In "Covenant," Lionel has his hair shaved.

Season 5
In "Arrival," Lana discovers Lionel in a strange trance with his eyes glazed over, scratching a Kryptonian symbol on the floor of Lex's office. Lionel then looks at the kryptonite in Lex's safe and says "Their home is their poison," leading Lana to realize that the green meteor rock is Nam-Ek and Aethyr's weakness.

In "Mortal," Lex has Lionel committed to Belle Reve. In the following episode, "Hidden," Lex confronts his father about the Kryptonian symbol that appeared on the underbelly of the black ship that crash-landed during the second meteor shower. Lionel, still in his trance, only says "Only he can open it."

Later, in "Hidden," when Clark is shot and dies, Lionel, suddenly displaying super-strength and super-speed, breaks out of Belle Reve. When Clark wakes up in the Fortress of Solitude, he is greeted by Lionel, who addresses him as "Kal-El," his Kryptonian name. When Clark demands to know how he knows that name, Lionel replies he's his son, realizing Clark to realize Lionel is actually Jor-El. Jor-El explains that when the Crystal of Water was activated after Clark united the other two Stones of Power, Lionel's body became a vessel for him to inhabit should Clark need his help. Later on, Lionel reappears at the Luthor Mansion, back to normal but claiming to have no memory of what happened the past few weeks.

Season 7
In "Fracture," Lionel's past abusive behavior towards Lex and Lillian is seen.

In "Descent," Lionel arrives at LuthorCorp and enters his office, sitting silently and at a loss over what to do, when Lex steps out the shadows and confronts him about Veritas and what he knows about the Traveler (Clark). Lionel keeps Clark's secret and tries to convince Lex to stop his pursuit of the safety deposit box in Zurich, warning him if he opens the box, there will be no redemption for him ever. Lex refuses to listen and sends Lionel falling to his death. By the episode's end, Clark finally recognizes Lionel has truly changed for the better and pays his respects to Lionel at his funeral, sprinkling dirt onto his grave.

Season 10
In "Abandoned," it is revealed to that Lionel is Tess' biological father.

Trivia

 * John Glover also provided the voice of Edward Nygma/The Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series, and also played Dr. Jason Woodrue in the 1997 film Batman & Robin.