John Glover: Smallville's Lionel Luthor, seven seasons between Clark and Lex

Who is John Glover, the actor behind Lionel Luthor?

John Glover is an American actor born on August 7, 1944. His birthplace varies depending on the source: Kingston, New York, according to the Los Angeles Times, or Salisbury, Maryland, according to other bios. One point everyone agrees on: he grew up in Salisbury. He studied drama at Towson State College, now Towson University, and made his stage debut at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. He later trained under Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

When the Smallville pilot aired on October 16, 2001, he was 57 and already had a long career behind him, both on stage and on screen. He played Lionel Luthor, the head of LuthorCorp and Lex's father, opposite the Clark Kent of Tom Welling. It was through this role that his name entered the Superman universe, alongside the rest of the cast. Outside the TV episodes, he revisited Lionel for a brief appearance in the web series Smallville: Chloe Chronicles, and he lent his voice to an episode of Superman: The Animated Series, which we'll come back to below.

Lionel Luthor, a father invented for Smallville

Lionel Luthor doesn't come from the comics. He was created for the series by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Their idea: give Lex a father who would serve as a counterpoint to Jonathan and Martha Kent. The season 1 companion book describes it as an “experiment in extreme parenting.” On one side, a farming couple. On the other, an industrialist who turns raising his son into a series of trials.

Lionel runs LuthorCorp, the family conglomerate. In the series, that's the name that dominates, not LexCorp. The character later made the reverse journey: the first name Lionel was picked up in the comics, notably in Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright (2003-2004), where Lex loses his father, and later in Blackest Night. On the big screen, Lex's father is never called Lionel: for Batman v Superman (2016), it was the film's promotional campaign, not the film itself, that gave him the name Alexander Luthor Sr.

The title of this article boils down to a single idea. For seven seasons, Lionel stands between Clark and Lex. At first, he tries to uncover the former's secret while wanting to toughen up the latter. He ends up protecting that secret, to the point of dying for it at his son's hand. To get a better sense of that son, the profile of Lex Luthor traces the comic-book villain's story, and his history on the big screen reviews the actors who have played him.

John Glover in Smallville: seven straight seasons, then a return

The title says seven seasons, and the count is right, as long as you read it closely. John Glover appears without a break from season 1 to season 7, from 2001 to 2008. In the first, he was only a recurring guest star, with nine episodes. He was promoted to the main cast starting with season 2 and stayed there through season 7, which means he was a series regular for six seasons. After two seasons without him, he came back in season 10 for four episodes, playing a different Lionel.

In total, he filmed a little over 90 of the series' 217 episodes. You may come across the figure of 145 in some filmographies. That number counts his mentions in the credits, including episodes in which Lionel doesn't appear, and even some that aired after the character's death. It isn't a count of actual appearances. The table below is based on the credits, episode by episode. To place each season in the overall storyline, the guide to all ten seasons goes through the series in order.

A father who wants to toughen up Lex

Lionel is there from the pilot. In 1989, he comes to Smallville to buy the Ross Creamed Corn cannery, just before the meteor shower that sets the series in motion. Twelve years later, he sends Lex to run the town's fertilizer plant, as a test. For Lex, played by Michael Rosenbaum, it is both an exile and a trial.

Lionel's whole method fits in a single motto: “No risk, no reward.” In Jitters (season 1, December 11, 2001), he decides to have the gates locked at the plant where Lex is being held, to toughen him up. According to the season 1 companion book, Glover himself singles out this episode. In Tempest, the season 1 finale (May 21, 2002), he shuts down the plant and pins the blame on Lex. During the tornado, he ends up trapped under a beam in the mansion, and Lex hesitates to save him.

Season 2 adds a twist. In Vortex (September 24, 2002), Lex has him rushed into emergency surgery: the operation succeeds, but Lionel loses his sight. In Prodigal (February 11, 2003), Lucas, his illegitimate son, played by Paul Wesley (credited as Paul Wasilewski), discovers that Lionel has been faking his blindness for a while. The blind father was, above all, a father who was watching.

Murder, prison, and a body swap with Clark

Season 3 darkens the portrait. We learn that Lionel had his own parents killed with the help of Morgan Edge, played by Rutger Hauer, and that he funded LuthorCorp with the insurance money. He has Lex committed to a psychiatric facility. The testimony of Chloe Sullivan helps get him arrested. He also learns that he has terminal liver disease.

In Covenant, the season 3 finale (May 19, 2004), Lionel shows up in prison with a shaved head. The idea came from Glover, who had to cut his hair for a stage play anyway, according to that season's companion book. In Gone (season 4, September 29, 2004), he is convicted of murdering his parents.

A month later, Transference (October 27, 2004) hands him a one-of-a-kind acting challenge. Thanks to a Kryptonian stone, Lionel swaps bodies with Clark. In the hero's body, he wreaks havoc in Smallville. The swap works both ways, so Glover also has to play Clark's mind trapped inside Lionel's body. When each of them gets his own body back, Lionel turns out to be cured of his liver disease.

From rival to ally: Lionel, Jor-El's go-between

The turning point comes in season 5. In Hidden (October 13, 2005), the artificial intelligence of Jor-El takes possession of Lionel's body to bring Clark back to life. Lionel becomes its vessel, its go-between on Earth. Some databases even credit Glover as Jor-El for this episode.

From then on, Lionel covers for Clark. He provides excuses, explains away disappearances, keeps the secret. He also grows closer to Martha Kent after the death of Jonathan, played by John Schneider. Still, the character remains a Luthor. In Promise (season 6, March 15, 2007), he forces Lana Lang to marry Lex by threatening Clark.

Season 7 reveals what he had been hiding. In Traveler (March 20, 2008), Lionel has Clark kidnapped, and we discover Veritas, a secret society that brings together the Luthor, Queen, Teague, and Swann names, founded to welcome “the Traveler.” Swann is Dr. Virgil Swann, the character played by Christopher Reeve in the series. Lionel no longer needs to uncover Clark's secret: he knows it, and he protects it.

Descent: the death of Lionel Luthor

Lionel dies in Descent, the sixteenth episode of season 7, which aired on April 17, 2008. Lex wants the medallion his father wears: it holds the second key to a vault in Zurich. He takes it from him, then throws him out of the window of his LuthorCorp office. The father who wanted to toughen up his son dies at his hand, for having protected Clark's secret.

The scene comes very early, in the cold open, before the credits. Critic Billie Doux regretted that choice: in her view, it greatly weakens the impact of the death. She also sees it as the moment Lex goes over the edge for good. In the same episode, Clark acknowledges Lionel as one of his three fathers, alongside Jonathan Kent and Jor-El.

John Glover left the cast at the end of season 7, as did Laura Vandervoort, Michael Rosenbaum, and Kristin Kreuk. His departure coincided with the character's death, and the series carried on without Lionel for two seasons. To find out what this murder changes for Lex, turn to the profile of Michael Rosenbaum.

John Glover's return in season 10: the Lionel of Earth-2

In August 2010, the press announced that John Glover was coming back for season 10. Lionel is dead, but Smallville finds a way around that. In Luthor (December 3, 2010), a Kryptonian box sends Clark into a parallel reality where the Luthors adopted him instead of the Kents. His double there goes by Ultraman, the same name as the evil double from Earth-3 in the comics. On his way back, Clark unknowingly brings back the Lionel of that Earth-2.

This Lionel raised Clark, and he has nothing in common with the ally of seasons 5 to 7. In Beacon (February 11, 2011), he takes control of LuthorCorp by passing himself off as his dead double. In Scion (March 4, 2011), he slips a red kryptonite ring onto the finger of Conner, played by Lucas Grabeel. Tess Mercer, played by Cassidy Freeman, proves that he is an impostor and takes back the company.

He returns one last time in the second part of the Finale, which aired on May 13, 2011. Tess shoots him dead while escaping. Lionel then trades his soul to Darkseid in exchange for Lex's resurrection. Darkseid later takes possession of his corpse, which Clark destroys. So, through Lionel's body alone, Glover ended up playing two Lionels, Clark's mind, Jor-El, and Darkseid.

Glover and Rosenbaum: a father-son duo, two nominations

The heart of the role is the face-off with Lex. Glover and Michael Rosenbaum were nominated together at the Saturn Awards, in the Best Supporting Actor on Television category, two years in a row. At the 29th ceremony, on May 18, 2003, the award went to Victor Garber for Alias. At the 30th, on May 5, 2004, it went to James Marsters. In 2006, the website IGN compared the relationship between Lionel and Lex to the one between Norman and Harry Osborn, the father and son in Spider-Man.

The character didn't win everyone over. A DVD Verdict critic felt in season 4 that Lionel was taking airtime away from the main characters, and that the producers should have killed him off at the end of season 3. The writers themselves found the shift from antagonist to ally difficult to pull off, and felt that the arc fell short of what they were aiming for.

The reunions continued after the series ended. Glover was a guest on Inside of You, Rosenbaum's podcast, on June 18, 2019, then again in 2021 and in November 2023. He also stopped by Talk Ville in December 2022 and in November 2023: it's the rewatch podcast that Tom Welling and Rosenbaum have been hosting since July 2022. Finally, the season 1 companion book points out that during season 1, Glover flew back and forth between New York and Vancouver every week because of his theater commitments.

John Glover beyond Smallville: the Riddler, Gremlins 2, and Broadway

Glover has a second, more discreet foothold in the Superman universe. In Superman: The Animated Series, he voices the Riddler, known as “le Sphinx” in the French version, in the episode “Knight Time,” which aired on October 10, 1998. In it, Superman disguises himself as Batman to help Robin find Bruce Wayne, who has gone missing. Robin takes on the Penguin, the Riddler, Bane, the Mad Hatter, and Roxy Rocket, and it is Brainiac who is pulling the strings. Glover had already voiced the Riddler in three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, between 1992 and 1994.

On the big screen, he crossed paths with the DC universe twice more. In Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), he plays Dr. Jason Woodrue, the scientist who creates the super-soldier Bane. In Shazam! (David F. Sandberg, 2019), he is Mr. Sivana, the father of the villain Thaddeus Sivana, played by Mark Strong. He only joined the film during additional photography: the role had first been played by two actors, depending on the character's age, and he replaced both of them, at both ages. The film's hero also shares a long history of alliance and rivalry with Superman.

The rest of his career comes down to a few milestones. On stage, he won a Tony Award in 1995, for Best Featured Actor in a Play, for Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!, in which he played twins, John and James Jeckyll. He reprised that dual role in the 1997 film, and he was nominated for a Tony again in 2009 for Lucky in Waiting for Godot. On film, he can be seen in a small role in Annie Hall (1977) and as Daniel Clamp, the tycoon in Gremlins 2 (Joe Dante, 1990). On television, he has racked up five Emmy nominations, without a win.

Conclusion

Lionel Luthor didn't exist before Smallville. John Glover gave him seven straight seasons, from the industrialist who sends his son into exile to the man who dies protecting Clark's secret, followed by an epilogue on another Earth. The first name even ended up making its way into the comics.

To go further, the profile of the series places Smallville in the history of Superman on television, and the overview of the actors situates Glover among everyone who has orbited the Man of Steel. And if you want to follow another figure from the series, the profile of Kristin Kreuk tells the story of the Lana Lang whom Lionel forced to marry Lex.