Lachlan Luthor was the father of Lionel Luthor and grandfather of Lex Luthor, Lucas Luthor, Tess Mercer and Julian Luthor. He serves as one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Zod) in the WB TV series Smallville.
He was portrayed by the late John Mann.
Biography[]
Past[]
Lachlan Luthor was born in Scotland in 1916. As a young adult, he met a woman named Eliza and married her. She gave him a son that they named Lionel and moved to America, settling in Kansas in a poor part of Metropolis called Suicide Slums.
Lachlan was extremely abusive and indifferent towards his boy. Lachlan had been a low-level criminal and while passing through Smallville in 1961, he tried to mug a young woman named Louise McCallum at gun point. Louise tried to fight Lachlan off, but he knocked her down.
A drifter named Joe super speeds to her rescue and threw Lachlan against a light post. Deputy Tate arrived on the scene and took Lachlan into custody. A few days later, Lachlan was released from jail, by Deputy Tate. In return for his release, Lachlan agreed to kill the drifter. Lachlan found Joe and Louise as they were embracing one another at the McCallum Farm. When Lachlan shot the drifter, the bullets bounced off him, with one fatally hitting and killing Louise McCallum. Lachlan fled the scene in terror and returned to his life in Metropolis.
Death[]
Years later, Lionel conspired with his friend, Morgan Edge, to kill Lachlan and Eliza in order to collect their insurance money. Lionel agreed to an arrangement with a slumlord of the Suicide Slums district and planned the murder out. Lachlan and Eliza perished in a building fire that was set by Edge. Lionel used the money to start his business, LuthorCorp, while Morgan became a crime lord.
Season Three[]
Lionel later confessed that he made up the story of his father being a hard-working entrepreneur, descended of Scottish nobility in order to win friends and influence people during his rise among over-achieving Ivy Leaguers, but he didn't lie about his death. Years later, Lex questioned his father about his grandparents after talking to Clark Kent about a "Lachlan Luthor" who was arrested for attempted theft in 1961 to which Lionel said that he had no idea.