Carl Grissom

“	My friend... your luck is about to change.	„
	~ Carl Grissom's betrayal to Jack.

Carl Grissom is the overarching antagonist in the 1989 Batman film.

He was Gotham City's most powerful crime lord until he was betrayed and killed by his second-in-command Jack Napier, who survived an assassination attempt arranged by his boss and is now surfacing as the infamous supervillain Joker.

He was portrayed by the late Jack Palance, who also played Yves Perret In Tango & Cash, Rothbart in The Swan Princess and Voltan in Hawk the Slayer.

History

Carl Grissom used to be the most powerful crime lord in Gotham City, as he got some or even most officers of the Gotham City Police Department (except Commissioner Gordon) on his payroll, including Lieutenant Max Eckhardt. When the recently-elected District Attorney Harvey Dent begins to make connections between Grissom and Axis Chemicals, Grissom panics, knowing that the evidence stored at the factory is enough to have him executed.

Grissom also finds out somewhere along the line that his mistress Alicia Hunt has been having an affair with Napier. So to take his revenge, Grissom sends Napier and his crew to Axis Chemicals to seize the evidence before Dent can. At the same time, he calls Lt. Eckhardt and orders him to lead a team of police officers to kill Napier. However, the plan goes wrong when Commissioner Gordon intervenes to take Napier in alive. Eckhardt then attempts to escape, but is shot in the chest and killed by a vengeful Napier. Napier is then confronted by Batman, but falls into a vat of chemicals, leaving Grissom to believe that Jack is dead, much to his delight.

The next day in the night, after a shower, Grissom has a visit from Napier, who survived the fall in the vat of chemicals and now wants revenge for setting him up. Grissom feigns relief in an attempt to grab his gun, but Napier scoffs him and plays wise to Grissom's moves by holding the crime lord at gunpoint. Grissom then pleads for his life by offering to cut a new deal with Napier, but Napier refuses and instead reveals his new identity as the Joker, with green hair, white skin, and a widened, permanent grin with red lips, much to Grissom's horror. At that point, the Joker shoots Grissom to his death and takes over his crime empire. The Joker later told Grissom's crew that the latter was away and that he was standing in for him.

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Trivia

In early drafts of the film's script, Rupert Thorne was meant to fill Carl Grissom's role before Grissom was created.
Coincidentally, Jack Palance, the actor who played Grissom in Batman, inspired the look of the face of Darkseid, a Superman rogue and another DC Comics villain (yet one actually created in the comics).
Along with Ross Webster from Superman III and Max Shreck from Batman Returns, Carl Grissom is one of the few characters created in a DC Comics live-action movie who has not been featured in actual comic media since then. Interestingly, all three characters were created to replace in their role an actual comic character.

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Villains

Villains
Movies Beetlejuice: Beetlejuice Batman (1989): Joker \| Bob Hawkins \| Alicia Hunt \| Carl Grissom \| Max Eckhardt \| Vinnie Ricorso \| Joe Chill \| Edward Scissorhands: Jim Batman Returns: Penguin \| Red Triangle Circus Gang (Organ Grinder, Poodle Lady, Tattooed Strongman, Stungun Clown, Thin Clown, Fat Clown, Sword Swallower & Knifethrower Dame) \| Max Shreck \| Catwoman \| Charles "Chip" Shreck The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie Boogie \| Lock, Shock and Barrel Batman Forever: Riddler \| Two-Face \| Sugar \| Spice \| NygmaTech (Frogmen) \| Neon Gang (Neon Gang Leader) \| Salvatore Maroni James and the Giant Peach: Aunt Sponge \| Aunt Spiker \| Rhino \| Skeleton Pirates \| Shark Batman & Robin: Poison Ivy \| Mr. Freeze \| Bane \| Snowy Cones Thugs \| Golums \| Jason Woodrue Mars Attacks!: Martian Leader \| Martians (Martian Ambassador & Martian Girl) Sleepy Hollow (1999): Lady Van Tassel \| Headless Horseman \| Reverend Steenwyck Planet of the Apes (2001) General Thade \| Attar \| Limbo Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Arthur Slugworth Corpse Bride: Barkis Bittern \| Maudeline Everglot Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Sweeney Todd \| Mrs. Lovett \| Judge Turpin \| Beadle Bamford \| Jonas Fogg \| Adolfo Pirelli 9: Fabrication Machine \| 1 \| 8 \| Machines (Cat Beast, Winged Beast, Seamstress, Steel Behemoths, Seeker Drones & Spiderbots) \| Chancellor Fredinand \| The Chancellor's Party Alice in Wonderland (2010): Red Queen \| Knave of Hearts \| Card Soldiers \| The Jabberwock \| Jubjub Bird \| Hamish Ascot Dark Shadows: Angelique Bouchard \| Julia Hoffman Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: Adam Frankenweenie: Mr. Whiskers \| Shelley \| Were-Rat \| Sea Monkeys \| Mr. Burgermeister Big Eyes: Walter Keane Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Mr. Barron \| Malthus Dumbo (2019): V.A. Vandevere \| Neils Skellig \| Pink Elephants \| Rufus Sorghum

Carl Grissom

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