Two-Face is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is an enemy of Batman. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942), and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Two-Face was once Harvey Dent, the clean-cut district attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman. However, Dent goes insane after mob boss Sal Maroni throws acid at him during a trial, hideously scarring the left side of his face. Dent adopts the "Two-Face" persona and becomes a criminal, choosing to bring about good or evil based upon the outcome of a coin flip. Originally, Two-Face was one of many gimmick-focused comic book villains, plotting crimes based around the number two, such as robbing Gotham Second National Bank at 2:00 on February 2. In his autobiography, Batman creator Bob Kane claims to have been inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, specifically the 1931 film version which he saw as a boy. Kane had not read the novel when he and Bill Finger created Two-Face. Some inspiration was also derived from the pulp magazine character the Black Bat, whose origin story included having acid splashed in his face.^[1] In later years, writers have portrayed his obsession with duality and fate as the result of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and multiple personality disorder. He obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin, one side scratched over with an X. The modern version is established as having once been a personal friend and ally of Commissioner James Gordon and Batman.

The character has appeared in multiple Batman media forms, including video games, animation, and the Batman film series. Billy Dee Williams portrayed Harvey Dent in Batman and Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Two-Face in Batman Forever, while Aaron Eckhart played both the district attorney and his villainous alter ego in The Dark Knight. Richard Moll voiced both Harvey Dent and Two-Face in Batman: The Animated Series.

Two-Face was ranked #12 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains Of All Time.^[2]

Publication history[link]

Two-Face first appears in Detective Comics #66 with the name Harvey Kent; later stories changed his name to "Harvey Dent" to avoid confusion with Clark Kent.^[3][4]

The character only made three appearances in the 1940s, and appeared twice in the 1950s (not counting the impostors mentioned below). By this time, he was dropped in favor of more "kid friendly" villains, though he did appear in a 1968 issue (World's Finest Comics #173), in which Batman declared him to be the criminal he most fears. In 1971, writer Dennis O'Neil brought Two-Face back, and it was then that he became one of Batman's arch-enemies.

In the wake of Frank Miller's 1986 revision of Batman's origin (see Batman: Year One), Andrew Helfer rewrote Two-Face's history to match.^[5] This origin, presented in Batman Annual #14, served to emphasize Dent's status as a tragic character, with a back story that included an abusive, alcoholic father, and early struggles with bipolar disorder and paranoia. It was also established, in Batman: Year One, that pre-accident Harvey Dent was one of Batman's earliest allies. He had clear ties to both Batman and Commissioner Gordon, making him an unsettling and personal foe for both men.^[6]

Other Two-Faces[link]

During Two-Face's third appearance in the 1940s, his face and sanity are restored^{[by whom?]}. Although there was a demand to use him again, the writers did not want to retcon his last story, so they had other characters assume the role. The first impostor - Wilkins, Dent's butler - uses makeup to suggest that the reformed Dent had suffered a relapse and deformed his face to appear as before.

Paul Sloane becomes the second Two-Face. An actor who was set to star in a biography of Harvey Dent, Sloane is disfigured by an accident on the set in a manner similar to Harvey Dent. Sloane's mind snaps, and he begins to think he is Dent. Sloane recovers some of his own personality, but continues to remain as the criminal Two-Face. Sloane is reused in later Earth-Two specific stories as Two-Face II of Earth-Two where the original Earth-Two Two-Face remains healed (Superman Family #211). Sloane is revived in the current continuity as a successor Two-Face (Detective Comics #777), though not replacing Dent as done in the earlier Earth-Two specific storyline.

The third Two-Face is another impostor, a petty criminal named George Blake, who like Wilkins is not actually disfigured but is wearing make-up. Furthermore, his makeup is worn on the opposite side of his face to Dent/Sloane.

Also noteworthy is a 1968 story where Batman himself is temporarily turned into Two-Face via a potion (World's Finest Comics #173).

Aside from a 1962 reprint of the Sloane storyline, this was the character's only appearance in the 1960s.^[7]

Another Two-Face appears in the Batman Sunday strips. Actor Harvey Apollo is scarred with acid when testifying against a mobster in court, and becomes a criminal. He only makes a few appearances before accidentally hanging himself after slipping on the silver dollar piece he uses as Two-Face.

As mentioned above, Harvey Dent does return as Two-Face in the 1970s. With the establishment of the multiverse, however, the Two-Face of Earth-Two (i.e., the character seen in the original Golden Age stories) is said to be Harvey Kent, who had not relapsed following his cure. The last appearance of this version of Two-Face was in Superman Family #211 (October 1981), depicting him as a guest at the marriage of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman). He meets Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and his shared name with the latter creates confusion.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths event the Paul Sloane character, with a near identical history to the pre-crisis version, appears in Detective Comics #580 and #581. In Double Image Harvey Dent (as Two-Face) employs The Crime Doctor to re-disfigure Sloane. Dent does this out of jealous bitterness and the hope that Sloane would commit crimes based on the number two, thus confusing Batman. At the end of the story Sloane is once again healed, physically and mentally.

Paul Sloane is introduced into post-Zero Hour continuity as a criminal called "The Charlatan" in Detective Comics #777 (February 2003). In this incarnation, Sloan (Now spelled without a silent e at the end.) had been hired by Gotham's costumed criminals to take Two-Face's place in a scheme to kill Batman, Dent's coin having come up unscarred. When the real Two-Face learns about this, he captures Sloan and disfigures his face. The Scarecrow then experiments on him with fear toxins. Driven insane, The Charlatan becomes obsessed with both getting revenge on the criminals who hired him and completing his mission to kill Batman.

Although Two-Face has traditionally been shown as fully aware of the actions committed as Harvey Dent and his villainous alter ego, the events of The Great Leap — shown in the Nightwing regular series — added a new twist to the character: Two-Face and Harvey Dent now appear as a stereotypical case of split personality, two different men cohabitating a shared body, as evidenced when he asks Nightwing to protect an old acquaintance of his, a witness in a mob trial, from a hired gun revealed to be Two-Face himself.

In Batman #700, which establishes Terry McGinnis as part of the DC Universe canon, it is revealed that Two-Face-Two kidnapped the infant Terry, along with an 80-year-old Carter Nichols, and tried to disfigure them in the style of the Joker. His plans were foiled by Damian Wayne, the fifth Robin and Batman's biological son. Unlike the original Two-Face, this version of the character was born deformed with a second face, rather than being scarred by acid or fire, and flips two coins instead of one. He is then killed when a machine falls on him.

Fictional character biography[link]

At 26, Dent is the youngest district attorney ever to serve Gotham City, and is nicknamed "Apollo" for his clean-cut image. He is elected about six months before Batman begins his war on crime.^[5]

Dent, Captain James Gordon, and Batman forge an alliance to rid Gotham of crime boss Sal Maroni,^[8] who is murdered by Carmine Falcone's son Alberto. Falcone hires the corrupt Assistant District Attorney Fields to disfigure Dent with sulfuric acid. Two-Face gets his trademark coin from his abusive father, who would employ the coin in a perverse nightly "game" that would always end with a beating. This would instill in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own, relying on the coin to make all of his decisions. Eventually, the scarred Dent takes his revenge on Fields and Carmine Falcone, leading to his incarceration in Arkham Asylum.^[9]

During a much later period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered Jason Todd's father, who had been one of his henchmen.^[10]

Eventually, in Arkham, the doctors in the asylum attempt to wean him off the coin by replacing it with a die and eventually a tarot deck, giving him 78 options. The treatment fails due to Dent being unable to make decisions. Batman returns the coin, telling him to use it to decide whether to kill him. He tells Batman that the coin landed scar face down, and Batman leaves safely, but the next scene shows the scar face up, meaning that he inexplicably chose to let Batman live due to it being April Fools' Day.^[11][12]

After the Gotham earthquake, Two-Face carves out a portion of the ruined city for himself and takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, maintaining a sophisticated lifestyle. His empire is brought down by Bane (employed by Lex Luthor) who destroys Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City was declared a No Man's Land, with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor. Gordon plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent cross-examines Two-Face and wins an acquittal for Gordon, determining that Two-Face has effectively blackmailed Gordon by implying that he had committed murders to aid the Commissioner.^[13]

During all this, Two-Face meets detective Renee Montoya. Montoya reaches the Dent persona in Two-Face, and is kind to him. He falls in love with her, though the romance is one-sided.^[13] and eventually, in the Gotham Central series, he outs her as a lesbian and frames her for murder, hoping that if he takes everything from her, she will be left with no choice but to be with him. She is furious, and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman intervenes, putting Two-Face back in Arkham.^[14]

In the Two-Face: Crime and Punishment one-shot book, Two-Face leads a crusade against Gotham City, culminating in the capturing of his own father to humiliate and kill on live television for the years of abuse he suffered. This story reveals that, despite his apparent hatred for his father, Dent still supports him, paying for an expensive home rather than allowing him to live in a slum. At the end of the book, Harvey and Two-Face argue in thought, Two-Face calling Harvey "spineless." Dent proves Two-Face wrong, however, choosing to jump off a building and commit suicide just to put a stop to his alter ego's crime spree. Two-Face is surprised when the coin flip comes up scarred, but abides by the decision and jumps. Batman catches him, but the shock of the fall seems to (at least temporarily) destroy the Two-Face side of his psyche.

In Two-Face Strikes Twice, Two-Face is at odds with his ex-wife Gilda, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus, a reference to the Roman god of doors who had two faces, one facing forward, the other backward. Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup to make it look as if Janus has gone insane just as Two-Face had. Batman eventually catches Two-Face and puts him away, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals a surprise twist; Batman learns from Gilda that Janus is not the father of Gilda's twins—Two-Face is. Some of his sperm had been frozen after a death threat had been made against him, and she used some of it to get pregnant. Batman uses this information to convince Two-Face to free the twins and turn himself in.

In the Batman: Hush storyline, his face is repaired once more via plastic surgery. This time around, only the Harvey Dent persona exists. However, he takes the law into his own hands twice: once by using his ability to manipulate the legal system to free the Joker, and then again by shooting the serial killer Hush. He manipulates the courts into setting him free, as Gotham's prosecutors wouldn't attempt to charge him without a body.

In the Batman story arc Batman: Face the Face, that started in Detective Comics #817, and was part of DC's One Year Later storyline, it is revealed that, at Batman's request and with his training, Dent becomes a vigilante protector of Gotham City in most of Batman's absence of nearly a year. He is reluctant to take the job, but Batman assures him it would serve as atonement for his past crimes. After a month of training, they fight Firebug and Mr. Freeze, before Batman leaves for a year. Dent enjoys his new role, but his methods are seemingly more extreme and less refined than Batman's. Upon Batman's return, Dent begins to feel unnecessary and unappreciated, which prompts the return of the "Two-Face" persona (seen and heard by Dent through hallucinations). In Face the Face, his frustration is compounded by a series of mysterious murders that seem to have been committed by Two-Face; the villains KGBeast, Magpie, The Ventriloquist, and Orca are all shot twice in the head with a double-barreled pistol. When Batman confronts Dent about these deaths, asking him to confirm that he was not responsible, Dent refuses to give a definite answer. He then detonates a bomb in his apartment and leaves Batman dazed as he flees.

Despite escaping the explosion physically unscathed to a motel, Dent suffers a crisis of conscience and a mental battle with his "Two-Face" personality. Although evidence is later uncovered by Batman that exonerates Dent for the murders, it is too late to save him. Prompted by resentment and a paranoid reaction to Batman's questioning, Dent scars half his face with nitric acid and a scalpel, becoming Two-Face once again.^[15] Blaming Batman for his return, Two-Face immediately goes on a rampage, threatening to destroy the Gotham Zoo (having retained two of every animal - including two humans) before escaping to fight Batman another day.^[16]

On the cover of Justice League of America vol. 2 #23, Two-Face is shown as a member of the new Injustice League. He can be seen in Salvation Run. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. In Judd Winick's Long Shadow arc, Two-Face realizes that there's another person under the cowl.^[17] He hires a teleporter and manages to infiltrate the Batcave. When the new Batman investigates the cave, he is ambushed by Two-Face with tranquilizer darts, and in a hallucination he sees Dent in a red and black Two-Face themed Batman costume.^[18] However, Alfred Pennyworth saved the hero from Two-Face's torture after he subdues his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that he is the real, original Darknight Detective.^[19] In Streets of Gotham, Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter. Two-Face has recently been driven out of Gotham City by Jeremiah Arkham.

Family[link]

This section details various members of Harvey Dent's family across various interpretations of the Batman mythos.

• Gilda Dent - Gilda is Harvey's wife in most comic book incarnations. ^[20] Gilda wanted to have children with Harvey but his busy schedule precluded this. This led Gilda to become the serial killer known as Holiday, who killed several key members of Carmine Falcone's criminal empire. Gilda fled after Two-Face was first arrested and was never seen again. Two-Face constantly denies the chance for plastic surgery and a life with Gilda again but has stated that Harvey Dent is a married man.^{[volume & issue needed]}
• Duela Dent - Duela is the daughter of Two-Face. Creator Bob Rozakis stated, "It didn't take too long to decide whose daughter she would turn out to be. After all, the only married villain was Two-Face. I convinced Julie (and associate editor E. Nelson Bridwell, the acknowledged keeper of DC's historical consistency) that Harvey and Gilda Dent had a daughter, that Harvey had been disappointed because she wasn't a twin, and that they'd named her Duela."^[21]
• Poison Ivy - Poison Ivy is Dent's first fiancée in Batman: The Animated Series. Dent and Pamela Isley have dated in "Pretty Poison" before Ivy poisons the D.A. as revenge for killing the endangered flowers to make way for Stonegate Penitentiary. The two later meet again in "Almost Got 'Im." Two-Face remarks that half of him wants to strangle Ivy as revenge for poisoning him. When Ivy flirtatiously asks what the other half wants, he replies, "To hit you with a truck."

In the two-part episode "Two-Face", Gilda becomes Grace (although this name change draws from several of Gilda's comic appearances — including Batman Annual #14 and Secret Origins Special #1 — where she is identified by this alternate name). Dent is about to announce their wedding date as part of his reelection speech, but is interrupted by a late night meeting with crime boss Rupert Thorne, which results in his disfigurement. In the animated series' tie-in comic book, The Batman Adventures, Two-Face tries to kill her after the Joker manipulates him into believing that she is having an affair with Bruce Wayne; after Batman apprehends him, Grace realizes that Two-Face will never be cured, and leaves him.

The novelization to The Dark Knight gave the names of his parents as Harry and Lucy Dent. The novelization explains that Harry, a respected police officer, was an alcoholic who abused his wife and son, and used his connections with the Gotham City Police Department to avoid prosecution for domestic violence. Harry gave his son a misprinted silver dollar coin, with two face, or head, sides, which Harvey considers his good luck charm; after he is disfigured (and one side of the coin is burned), he uses it to decide whether his victims will live or die.

In Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment, Christopher Dent, the father of Harvey Dent, was a mentally ill alcoholic who frequently abused his son. Harvey represses this trauma for years, fueling the inner torment that eventually turns him into Two-Face.

In Batman: Jekyll & Hyde, it is learned that when he was a kid, Harvey had an older brother, Murray Dent, who died as a result of arson because his brother was too scared to save him. The comics explain that Murray is Harvey's second personality, and the death of his brother explains the alcoholism and violence of his father.

In Batman Gotham Adventures #2: Lucky Day, Two-Face plans to rob a game-show contestant of 2.2 million dollars on live TV while seeking revenge against his father (this version named Lester), who has just won it big on the show, to get revenge on the abuse he suffered as a child before Lester left his wife when Harvey was 13. At the conclusion of the storyline, Two-Face destroys the prize money when Batman interrupts his attempt to shoot his father, confidently informing Lester that the insurance company won't cover the lost money, and with Lester being unable to cash in on his "lucky streak" after cheating death, as the remaining money must be bagged as evidence.

Abilities and weapons[link]

Before his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent was one of the best attorneys in Gotham City, proficient in nearly all matters pertaining to criminal law.

Following his disfigurement, he developed multiple personality disorder, and became obsessed with duality, from staging crimes around the number two - such as robbing buildings with '2' in the address or staging events so that he will take action at 10:22p.m. (22:22 in military time) - to carrying and using dual firearms (such as .22 semiautomatics or a double barreled shotgun). Two-Face does things according to chance and therefore leaves all the decisions he makes to fate at the flip of his two-headed coin in an almost obsessive-compulsive desire, to the point that the Bat-family have been able to exploit his 'need' for the coin to their advantages more than once by depriving him of the coin mid-toss to delay his ability to make decisions; on other occasions Two-Face has even helped them when a coin-toss turns out in their favour, such as providing Batman with the antidote to a poison even after he, Joker and Penguin had been the ones to poison the Dark Knight.

During the Batman: Face to Face story arc, it is revealed that Batman has trained Dent extensively in hand-to-hand combat and detective work, enhancing his already proficient talent in both. He also tends to carry with him a large assortment of conventional weaponry, including guns, knives, rocket launchers, and poison gases, along with being an expert marksman.

Other versions[link]

As one of Batman's most recognizable and popular opponents, Two-Face appears in numerous comics which are not considered part of the regular DC continuity, including:

The Dark Knight Returns[link]

In the alternate future setting of The Dark Knight Returns, plastic surgery returns Dent's face to normal, but at the unforeseen cost of permanently destroying the good-hearted Harvey Dent personality, leaving the monstrous Two-Face in control forever - to the extent that one of his henchmen now refers to him only as 'Face'. He attempts to blow up the Gotham Twin Towers with his face swathed in bandages. As he puts it when Batman captures him, "At least both sides match." Later in the series, his psychiatrist (who is characterized as completely inept) describes Dent's condition as "recovering nicely".

Batman Black and White[link]

Two-Face has a brief short story in the first issue of Batman Black and White, in the comic titled "Two of a Kind" featuring him receiving plastic surgery to regain his original identity as Harvey Dent, only to suffer a relapse when his fiance — his former psychiatrist — is revealed to have a psychotic twin sister, who kills her sister and forces him to become Two-Face again in order to take his revenge.

Elseworlds[link]

In the Elseworld story Batman: In Darkest Knight, Harvey Dent is the Gotham District Attorney and distrusts Green Lantern (who in this reality is Bruce Wayne) because of his vigilante tactics, made even worse due to Commissioner Gordon's distrust of Lantern due to his sheer power. Sinestro, after becoming deranged from absorbing Joe Chill's mind, then scars Dent's face and gives him powers similar to those of the main continuity's Eclipso. He calls himself Binary Star and works with Star Sapphire (who in this reality is Selina Kyle).

Two-Face also appears in the Elseworlds Batman/Daredevil crossover book, partnered with Marvel villain Mr. Hyde for the purpose of using Hyde as an "incubator" to grow an organic microchip, giving Hyde drugs to speed up this process (regardless of the fact that this would kill him). It is also revealed in this book that Harvey Dent had once been friends with Matt Murdock, who is secretly Daredevil. Prior to his disfigurement, Dent believed in giving criminals a chance at rehabilitation, while Murdock believed in final justice; having reversed his outlook to what Dent had once believed, Murdock talks Two-Face out of killing Hyde without Two-Face using his coin. Two-Face, however, insists that act is merely "the last of Harvey Dent."

In the Elseworlds comic Batman: Masque, a pastiche of The Phantom of the Opera, Harvey Dent takes the role of the Phantom.

In the Elseworlds book Batman: Crimson Mist, the third part of the trilogy that began with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, where Batman become a vampire, Two-Face—accompanied by Killer Croc as his muscle—forms an alliance with Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth to stop Batman when his insane thirst for blood drives him to kill his old enemies. After Batman is believed killed in the old Batcave, Two-Face turns on the two men, forcing Alfred to flee and rescue Batman while Gordon kills Two-Face's men. As he confronts Gordon, however, Two-Face is interrupted by the restored Batman, who drives two crossbow bolts into each side of Two-Face's head, citing it as "One for each face".

In the Elseworlds tale Batman: Claws of the Catwoman, explorer and adventurer Finnegan Dent is revealed to be stealing the sacred artifacts of an African Tribe in the lost city of Mnemnom. During an encounter with Batman and Tarzan- Tarzan had been visiting Gotham to attend to business when Batman learned about Dent's true agenda, teaming up with the Dark Knight to help him stop Dent raiding the city-, half of Dent's face is mauled by a lion, prompting him to decide to remain in Mnemnom and establish himself as its ruler on the grounds that society would have no place for a man with half a face. He is last seen being sealed away in a tomb of the rulers of Mnemnom after he triggers an explosion in a fight with Tarzan and Batman, Tarzan informing Dent as he takes the unconscious Batman to safety that taking Dent back to Gotham to face trial is Batman's idea of justice rather than his; he later tells Batman that Dent died when the falling rubble that knocked Batman unconscious crushed him.

In the Elseworlds series Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham, model Darcy Dent has half her face scarred when a rival model hires a hitman to lace her facial cream with acid. Unlike the regular Two-Face, Darcy does not rely on a coin toss to make her decisions, nor does she suffer from any type of personality disorder. Her motive is simply revenge based against those responsible for her disfigurement, and her motif is mutilating her victims faces and wearing a half business suit with a spiked metal bikini.

Thrillkiller[link]

In the Thrillkiller universe, there are two versions of Two-Face. One is Detective Duell, a corrupt officer on the Gotham City Police Department, whose face is scarred in a manner similar to Dent's. Duell is shown as being arrested at the end of Thrillkiller: Batgirl and Robin. In the sequel, Batgirl and Batman: Thrillkiller '62, Harvey Dent is shown as the new District Attorney. He appears at the end as the new mayor of Gotham.

Earth-Three[link]

The new Earth-Three features a heroic female counterpart to Two-Face: Evelyn "Eve" Dent—"Three-Face"—the mother of Duela Dent. Her original affiliation is to the heroic Riddler Family (like the similar Batman Family); it included herself, Quizmaster, Jokester, and Riddler's/Joker's Daughter (her daughter Duela). They were later part of Alexander Luthor's Justice Underground, opposing Ultraman's Crime Syndicate.

Evelyn has three personalities (Irrational, Practical, and Hedonistic). To portray this, she wears a costume that is divided in three parts. Her right side favors loud fabrics like polka-dots, stripes, or plaids; her left side favors animal prints like tiger or leopard; and the center is a wide stripe of green. Over her leotard she wears a leather jacket that is a brown bomber jacket on the right and a black biker jacket on the left. Her face is not scarred but is instead usually painted all white with a vertical green center stripe and dark green or black lipstick; sometimes she is shown with her face parted into light green on the right, white in the middle, and mauve on the left. Her black hair is divided into cropped short on the right (sometimes dyed pink or red), worn shoulder-length on the left, and a mohawk in the center. She carries a revolver in a holster slung on her right hip.

She later has a cybernetic left arm, after Superwoman mutilates her and leaves her for dead.

Gotham By Gaslight[link]

The Earth-19 version of Two-Face is a serial killer called "The Double Man", as mentioned in Countdown: Arena.

Tangent Comics[link]

On the Tangent Earth, Harvey Dent is an African-American man with psionic powers and is that world's Superman, although he has no other similarities to the Two-Face character.

Flashpoint[link]

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Harvey Dent did not become Two-Face. Instead, he is now a judge and has a wife and twin children. When the Joker kidnaps Dent's children, Harvey asks Thomas Wayne for help in their search, agreeing to do anything he asks of him. When Harvey asks Thomas for his help, he warns Wayne that will shut down everything he owns, including Wayne Casinos unless his children are saved.^[22] Chief James Gordon locates the Joker in Wayne Manor, and he goes in without any backup. Gordon is tricked into shooting Dent's daughter, as she has been taped to a chair and had her mouth taped shut with a smile on the tape, so she is disguised as the Joker. The Joker then appears and kills Gordon before Batman arrives.^[23] Batman rushes in and manages to save Dent's daughter by resuscitating her. Batman then moves them away from the Joker.^[24]

The Batman Adventures[link]

In The Batman Adventures, which is set in the continuity of Batman: The Animated Series, Two-Face is on the verge of being cured when the Joker convinces him that his fiancee, Grace, is cheating on him with Bruce Wayne. Enraged, his evil personality takes hold once again, and he kidnaps Grace. Batman and Robin foil his plan and send him back to Arkham; Grace, meanwhile, realizes that Harvey Dent is truly gone forever, and leaves him.

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• Although Clint Eastwood was discussed for the role of Two-Face in the 1960s Batman television series, reimagined as a news anchor who was disfigured when a television set exploded in his face,^[25] he did not appear, as the character was labeled "too gruesome and too violent" for the "kid-friendly" attitude that surrounded the show (comics and cartoon strips were subject to strict censorship at this time). Malachi Throne's portrayal of False-Face appeared in the series for a substitution.

• Two-Face appears in Batman: The Animated Series, (voiced by Richard Moll). District Attorney Harvey Dent suffers from deep-seated psychological trauma resulting from years of repressing anger, after he hit a bully. As a child, Dent developed another personality, "Big Bad Harv," who is as evil as the "Dent" personality is noble. This alter ego shows itself whenever Dent loses his temper, prompting him to seek therapy. He has a fiancee named Grace. Mob boss Rupert Thorne gets a hold of his psychiatric file and plans to blackmail him. At this provocation, Dent loses his temper, leaving "Big Bad Harv" in control, and he physically lashes out at Thorne and his men, chasing Thorne through a chemical plant. Stray gunfire when Batman stops a thug shooting Dent results in an electrical fire and an explosion that hideously scars the left half of Dent's body. After the accident, Dent is driven to insanity after discovering half of his face now hideously damaged and becomes a gangster known as "Two-Face" and soon begins his own crusade to bring Thorne down. However he still feels love for Grace, who tries to help him. In subsequent episodes, he becomes a crime boss and supervillain in his own right, although he is constantly locked in a battle of wits against the Dent personality, demonstrated in the episode "Second Chance," where he apparently kidnaps himself before he can undergo an operation that will restore his face and eradicate his evil personality once and for all. In the episode "Pretty Poison", set before his disfigurement, he dates Pamela Isley, who is actually Poison Ivy; she attempts to seduce and kill Dent in retaliation for his unintentional extermination of the last of a rare flower species to green-light the construction of Stonegate Penitentiary. While Ivy nearly succeeds in killing the DA with a poisonous kiss, Batman subdues Ivy and cures Dent. His relationship with Ivy is acknowledged in the later episode "Almost Got 'Im", when Two-Face says that half of him wants to strangle her while the other half wants to hit her with a truck. (Ivy's response: "We used to date.") In the episode "Trial", he acts as "prosecutor" when Batman's rogues gallery hold him prisoner in Arkham Asylum and try him in a kangaroo court. He also makes an appearance in the first episode, "On Leather Wings", prior to his disfigurement. Unlike other versions of Dent, he appears to be perfectly willing to prosecute Batman as a vigilante (although on that specific occasion, Batman had been framed by Man-Bat).
• In The New Batman Adventures episode "Sins of the Father", Two-Face (again voiced by Richard Moll) is most notable for his connection to the origins of the new Robin (Tim Drake) whose father had once worked for Two-Face but betrayed him after learning that Two-Face planned to hold Gotham ransom with a deadly gas. Although Two-Face acquires the chemicals and almost unleashes the plague, Batman, Batgirl and Robin subdue him in time and send him back to Arkham. In the series' final episode, Two-Face's psyche fragments a second time, creating a third personality called "The Judge" (voiced by Malachi Throne), a violent court-themed vigilante who attempts to eliminate all of Gotham's criminals. Two-Face, looking to eradicate this new threat to him, has no idea that he himself is the Judge. At the end of the episode he is sent back to Arkham.
• An android of Two-Face appears in the Batman Beyond episode, "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot", battling the future Batman (Terry McGinnis) in a simulation. In the unedited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, it is shown that Bruce Wayne has wax replicas of some of his old foes including Two-Face. Bruce decapitates the Two-Face statue with a batarang while testing his aim.
• An alternate version of Two-Face from the Justice Lords dimension makes a cameo appearance in the Justice League episode "A Better World", where he, along with the Joker, the Ventriloquist and Poison Ivy, has been lobotomized by Superman and is now the harmless janitor of Arkham Asylum.
• Two-Face did not appear in The Batman due to an agreement with Warner Bros. because of the movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He was replaced with a similar character named Ethan Bennett, who later becomes the villain Clayface.
• Two-Face is featured in Batman: The Brave and the Bold voiced by James Remar and briefly reprised by Richard Moll in "Chill of the Night!" Two-Face first appears in "Legends of the Dark Mite!" as part of Bat-Mite's fantasy. He also makes a cameo in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" singing with the other villains in Arkham Asylum. His first speaking role is in the teaser of "The Fate of Equinox" where Two-Face readies his henchmen to kill Batman when he arrives. After his coin flip lands on good heads, Two-Face ends up teaming up with Batman against the henchmen. Before he can flip again, he is knocked out by Batman. In "Sidekicks Assemble", he is one of the multiple villains Robin, Speedy, and Aqualad face-off against in a simulation in the Batcave. In the episode "Chill of the Night", Two-Face appears again among other villains in a bidding for a supersonic weapon held by arms dealer Joe Chill. He joins the villains in attacking Joe Chill when they learn that Joe was partially responsible for the creation of Batman. Two-Face, alongside the other villains, are defeated by Batman, but manage to escape when the warehouse collapses. He also appears in "The Mask of Matches Malone!", where he is pursued by Black Canary, Huntress, and Catwoman. Meanwhile, Batman becomes Matches Malone and The Birds of Prey go into a bar where he also went. They sing the number "Birds of Prey" as Malone captures them and Two-Face (disguised as Batman) saves them.

Film[link]

• In Batman (1989), Billy Dee Williams appears as a pre-disfigured Harvey Dent. Williams took the role specifically to guarantee his casting in a sequel, reinforced by a pay or play contract. Williams was set to reprise the role in a more villainous light in the sequel, Batman Returns (1992), but his character was deleted and replaced with original villain Max Shreck. However, when Two-Face was to become a secondary villain to Jim Carrey's Riddler in the third movie, director Tim Burton had abdicated to Joel Schumacher, who decided to pay Williams' penalty fee to hire Tommy Lee Jones.^[26]

• In Batman Forever (1995), Tommy Lee Jones portrays Two-Face alongside Jim Carrey's Riddler and opposite Val Kilmer's Batman. He is built up to be the main antagonist of the film until the emergence and rise of the Riddler, whom he teams up with on the promise he will be told Batman's secret identity. The origin of his criminal personality is exactly the same as it was in the original Golden Age comics. "Harvey Two-Face" plays up the "two" gimmick to the point where he even refers to himself in the plural (using "we," "us," and "our"; however, there are three occasions where he refers to himself in the singular "I" and "me"). In the film, Two-Face was originally Gotham's District Attorney Harvey Dent, but was later disfigured by Boss (Salvatore "Sal") Maroni, who threw acid at him, scarring the left side of Dent's face, which drove him insane. He blamed Batman for failing to save him. After Batman failed to stop him during a hostage situation, Two-Face (instead of Tony Zucco, as in the original comics) is responsible for the origin of Robin when he kills Dick Grayson's (Chris O'Donnell) family. Also, Jones' Two-Face uses his coin flipping more frequently; in one scene, he flips his coin multiple times, once for everytime Bruce Wayne comes within range of his gun, until the scarred side comes up and he finally fires. This version, unlike others, also does not have an eye bulge and exposed teeth on the deformed side. At the movie's climax, as Two-Face eventually holds Batman, Robin and Chase Meridian at gunpoint while standing on a metal frame over a pit, Batman prompts Two-Face to flip his coin to decide if he should shoot them. Two-Face does so and Batman throws a handful of coins into the air; Two-Face panics and scrambles to find his coin, but loses his balance and falls to the bottom of the pit to his death with the coin landing in his hand with the "heads" side facing up. This version of Two-Face, as well as the film itself, was met with a mixed response among critics and audiences alike. Scott Beatty, in particular, noted that he felt that the Batman Forever version of Two-Face was more of a Joker knock-off than the multifaceted character in the original comics.^[27] However, Jones was nominated for "Best Villain" at the MTV Awards for his performance.

• In Batman & Robin (1997), Two-Face's costume can be seen in Arkham Asylum.

• Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent/Two-Face in The Dark Knight (2008), the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins. In this film, Dent is portrayed sympathetically as a tragic hero, albeit lacking the gimmickry and dissociated personalities commonly associated with the character in the comics. Harvey Dent is the new District Attorney planning to take down the Mafia. He is engaged to Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and forms a tenuous alliance with Batman (Christian Bale) and James Gordon (Gary Oldman). Dent jokingly flips his "father's lucky coin" to make decisions; he eventually gives it to Rachel, revealing it to be double-headed. Throughout the film, Dent, Gordon and Batman intend to take down the Mafia by using marked bills to trace their money. When the Joker threatens to start killing people until Batman turns himself in, Dent tells Batman that he can't quit because Gotham needs a hero. Batman tells Dent that he is the symbol of hope and that the former could never be and that he will turn himself in at a press conference. At the press conference, Dent falsely confesses that he is Batman to draw the Joker out so Batman can arrest him. After surviving an assassination attempt by the Joker, Dent and Rachel are kidnapped by corrupt police officers working with the Mafia and held prisoner in two abandoned buildings filled with barrels of oil set to explode. Dent attempts to free himself from captivity, but the chair he is strapped to falls over into a puddle of gasoline from a barrel he knocks over, soaking the left half of his face and body. Batman arrives to save him just as both buildings explode. Rachel is killed, and the sparks from the explosion ignite the gasoline on Dent's body, setting it on fire and horrifically scarring the left side of Dent's face. The physical trauma, coupled with Rachel's death, drives Dent insane and, after being manipulated by the Joker, he decides to exact revenge on those responsible for Rachel's death, using his lucky coin (one side scarred by the explosion) to decide their fates. As part of his revenge, he takes up the name "Two-Face," a nod to a pejorative nickname given to him when he worked in the police department's internal affairs squad. As Two-Face, he hunts down the people who were responsible for Rachel's death, and eventually sets a trap for Gordon by kidnapping his family, taking them to the warehouse where Rachel died, intending to inflict upon him the pain of losing a loved one. As Two-Face flips for the life of Gordon's son, Batman arrives and challenges Two-Face to judge the individuals who forced the Mob to turn to the Joker for assistance: himself, Batman, and Gordon. Two-Face then flips the coin for Batman, whom he shoots, and himself, whom he spares. Instead of flipping for Gordon, however, Two-Face again opts to flip for his son. As the coin flips through the air, Batman tackles the former D.A. off the ledge. Batman saves Gordon's son, but Two-Face falls to his death. In order to cover up Dent's crimes, Batman decides to take the blame for Two-Face's murders in order for Dent to be remembered as a hero.

• Harvey Dent appears in Batman: Year One voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.

• Harvey Dent will be mentioned in The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy, which takes place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight.^[28].In the trailer, a portrait of him is seen in his memorial service. A picture for the The Dark Knight Rises shows villain Bane holding a picture of Dent on top of a stolen tumbler, intending to reveal the truth about Dent's crimes.^[29]

Video games[link]

Two-Face appears in several Batman-related video games:

• A pre-disfigured Harvey Dent appears as a hostage of Poison Ivy in the video game Batman: The Animated Series.
• As Two-Face, he is a boss in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis, the video game adaptations of Batman Forever, and Batman: Chaos in Gotham (in which he is the final boss).
• He appears in Lego Batman: The Video Game (in which his vocal effects are done by Steven Blum) as an enemy of Batman. He possesses an immunity to toxins.^[30]
• Two-Face is mentioned at the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum. In one cutscene, the Joker talks to Batman over a computer screen and asks "You were expecting Two-Face?" After finally defeating the Joker, a call comes in over the police radio that Two-Face is robbing the Second National Bank. Batman then cuts his conversation with Commissioner Gordon short in order to pursue the criminal. His cell is also seen in the Penitentiary with a poster advertising a "Vote Dent" campaign as an answer to one of the Riddler's riddles. He is also one of the villains whose name is on the Joker's Party List, listed as Harvey Dent. Interestingly, Two-Face is said to have been cured on the Arkham Asylum website.
• Two-Face is the first boss in the Wii version of Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame, with James Remar reprising the role. He appears in the teaser to the first episode and has kidnapped Mayor George Hill. In the fight, he has tied Mayor Hill to a giant penny and flips him to decide whether to send henchmen to fight Batman and Robin or to leave himself open to attack. After he is defeated, Batman states that there is still hope for Two-Face to reform, and Two-Face responds by declaring that he will escape from Arkham.
• Two-Face appears in DC Universe Online voiced by Edwin Neal.
• Two-Face appears in Batman: Arkham City voiced by Troy Baker. In the introductory sequence of the game, he manages to thwart Catwoman's plans to pilfer some of her ill-gotten gains from a safe in his hideout. The character later goes on to put her on trial before a kangaroo court in an abandoned city courthouse, secretly planning to gain prestige among other Arkham inmates through her execution. Batman, having overheard an Arkham City security report indicating Catwoman's plight, saves her for the sake of their past relationship. Two-Face is promptly left strung up by his feet over a vat of acid, but swears revenge. Late in the game's storyline, Dent returns and makes a new bid for influence by taking over the Penguin's turf in the prison city.
• Two-Face appears in Batman: Arkham City Lockdown.
• Two-Face has been confirmed to appear in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes. A recent video of Gameplay shows Troy Baker reprising his role from Arkham City.

Miscellaneous[link]

• During the Batman Sunday comic strips that ran from 1943–1946, he is an actor (Harvey Apollo) who is testifying at the trial of criminal Lucky Sheldon. He is killed at the end of the story arc. Also, his origin is again altered in the Batman daily strips published from 1989 to 1991. In this version, Harvey Dent is scarred by a vial of acid thrown by an unnamed bystander, and intended for the Joker.
• Two-Face appears in the comic-book one-shot "Two of a Kind" in Batman Black and White #1, written and drawn by Bruce Timm (this vintage vignette, like the rest of the Black and White miniseries, isn't considered canon). Harvey Dent has been reconstructed, rehabilitated, and released from Arkham, but along the way he and his plastic surgeon Dr. Marilyn Crane fall in love and plan to marry. A chance meeting with Marilyn's twin sister Madeline ignites his obsession with duality and his new life begins to crumble as she seduces the Two-Face personality out of hiding. Dent calls off the affair to save his sanity, but Madeline kills Marilyn and a distraught Dent brings Two-Face back to avenge his fiancee's murder by burning one side of his face and shooting Madeline. After the murder, Two-Face waits for Batman to take him back to Arkham.

In popular culture[link]

• In the final season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, in the episode "The Strike", Jerry dates a woman whom George nicknames "Two-Face" after Jerry comments that she appears attractive in some settings and ugly in others. Jerry asks George: "Like the Batman villain?" An annoyed George responds: "If that helps you."^[31]
• Two-Face appears in the Robot Chicken episode "The Ramblings of Maurice" voiced by Neil Patrick Harris. Two-Face is scarred again becoming "Three-Face". His modus operandi as "Three-Face" switches to a three sided dice where one represents life, two represents death, and three represents Batman and Two-Face drinking hot chocolate. When he tries to kill Batman in the hospital, he ends up falling face-first into the bleach becoming "Four-Face". His modus operandi as "Four-Face" is switched to a game of four straws where the shortest one represents death, the longest one represents life, and the other two will have Four-Face determine if he should throw bleach on Batman's costume or they drink hot chocolate together. Batman chooses one of the medium straws which leads to him and Four-Face drinking hot chocolate together at a restaurant. When Four-Face ends up wanting Batman's soup, he ends up accidentally splashed by Batman's soup.
• In Bat Thumb, the character is renamed "No Face", because he has no face. His plan was to disappear everyone's face in Gaaathumb City and marry Vicki Nail all to himself.

See also[link]

• List of Batman Family enemies
• Batman: The Long Halloween
• Batman: Dark Victory
• Gilda Dent

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Two-Face

• Two-Face at the Internet Movie Database
• Two-Face at the DC Database Project

Aaron Eckhart
Eckhart at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010
Born	Aaron Edward Eckhart (1968-03-12) March 12, 1968 (age 44) Cupertino, California, United States
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present

Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year. He left high school without graduating, but earned a diploma through an adult education course, and graduated from Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH) in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film. For much of the mid-1990s he lived in New York City as a struggling, unemployed actor.

As an undergraduate at Brigham Young, Eckhart met director and writer Neil LaBute, who cast him in several of his own original plays. Five years later Eckhart made a debut as an unctuous, sociopathic ladies' man in LaBute's black comedy film, In the Company of Men (1997). Under LaBute's guidance he worked in the director's films, Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Nurse Betty (2000), and Possession (2002). Eckhart has chosen roles in an eclectic range of movies, from science fiction films such as The Core (2003) and Paycheck (2003) to romantic dramas like Conversations with Other Women (2006) and No Reservations (2007).

Eckhart gained wide recognition as George in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed film, Erin Brockovich (2000), and in 2006 received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking. In 2008 he starred in the big-budget studio film The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Eckhart starred alongside Nicole Kidman in the film Rabbit Hole (2010).

Early life[link]

Eckhart was born in Cupertino, California, the son of Mary Eckhart (née Lawrence), a poet and children's author, and James C. Eckhart "Jim Senior", a computer executive.^[1] He is the youngest of three brothers.^[2] Eckhart was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Mormon) church, and served a two-year LDS mission in France and Switzerland.^[3][4]

Eckhart's family relocated to England in 1981,^[1][5] following his father's job in information technology.^[6] The family resided in Surrey, South East England, first in Walton-on-Thames,^[7] later moving to Cobham.^[6] While living in England Eckhart attended American Community School, now known as ACS International Schools,^[6] where he was first introduced to acting, starring in a school production as Charlie Brown.^[8][9] In 1985 he moved to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, where he attended American International School of Sydney for his high school senior year; he further developed his acting skills in productions like Waiting for Godot, where he admits that he did a "terrible" production.^[10] In the fall of his senior year^[2] Eckhart left the school in order to take a job working at a mall movie theater.^[11][12] He eventually earned his diploma through an adult education course.^[13] This also allowed Eckhart time to enjoy a year of surfing and skiing in Hawaii and the coastal waters of France.^[1][14] In 1988, Eckhart returned to the United States and enrolled as a film major at Brigham Young University–Hawaii,^[15] but later transferred to Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.^[1] He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.^[11][16]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

While at Brigham Young University,^[17] Eckhart appeared in the Mormon-themed film, Godly Sorrow, and the role marked Eckhart's professional debut. At this time he met director/writer Neil LaBute,^[17] who cast him in several of his own original plays.^[18] After graduating from BYU, Eckhart moved to New York City, acquired an agent, and took various occasional jobs, including bartending, bus driving, and construction work.^[9] His first television roles were in commercials. In 1994 he appeared as an extra on the television drama series, Beverly Hills, 90210.^[9][19] Eckhart followed this small part with roles in documentary re-enactments, made-for-television movies, and short-lived programs like Aliens in the Family.^[20]

In 1997 Eckhart was approached by Neil LaBute to star in a film adaptation of LaBute's stage play, In the Company of Men.^[21] He played a frustrated white-collar worker who planned to woo a deaf office worker, gain her affections, then suddenly dump her.^[22] The film, his first feature to reach theaters, was critically well received,^[23] with Desson Howe of The Washington Post reporting that Eckhart is the "movie's most malignant presence" and that he "is in chilling command as a sort of satanic prince in shirtsleeves".^[24] In the Company of Men was a critical success, winning Best First Film at the 63rd annual New York Film Critics Circle Award.^[25][26] His performance won him the Independent Spirit Award in the category of Best Debut Performance.^[27] The film was ranked as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies" by Premiere magazine.^[28]

The following year Eckhart starred in another LaBute feature, Your Friends & Neighbors (1998),^[16][17] as Barry, a sexually frustrated husband in a dysfunctional marriage. For the role Eckhart was required to gain weight.^[29] In 1999 he starred opposite Elisabeth Shue in Molly, a romantic comedy-drama in which he played the self-absorbed brother of an autistic woman who was cured by surgery.^[30] Eckhart also starred that year as a football coach, an offensive coordinator in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday.^[31]

Critical success[link]

Eckhart first gained wide exposure in 2000 as George, a pony-tailed biker, in Steven Soderbergh's drama, Erin Brockovich.^[32] The film was met with reasonable reviews,^[33] and was a box office success, earning $256 million worldwide.^[34] His performance was well received by critics; Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, wrote that Eckhart "may be playing a bit of an ideal [...] but he makes goodness as palpable as he did yuppie evil in 'In the Company of Men'."^[35] In an August 2004 interview, Eckhart claimed that he had not worked for nearly a year before he was cast in the movie. "I felt like I sort of was getting away from what I wanted to do as an actor. [...] I had nine months off, but it wasn't a vacation. Sure, I didn't earn any money for nine months, but every day I was reading scripts, I was producing my own material, I was taking meetings, I was working on my craft."^[36]

Nick Nolte, Eckhart, Joshua Michael Stern, and Alan Cumming promoting Neverwas at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

Following the release of Erin Brockovich, Eckhart co-starred with Renée Zellweger in LaBute's Nurse Betty (2000).^[16] He next appeared in Sean Penn's mystery feature The Pledge (2001), in which he played a young detective partnered with a veteran detective, played by Jack Nicholson.^[37] The movie received generally favorable reviews,^[38] but it did not fare particularly well at the box office.^[39] The following year, he collaborated with LaBute in a film adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Possession (2002).^[40] In 2003, Eckhart co-starred with Hilary Swank in The Core, a film about a geophysicist who tries to detonate a nuclear device in order to save the world from destruction.^[41] The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.^[42][43] Also in 2003, he appeared in The Missing, in which he played Cate Blanchett's lover,^[44] and in the action-thriller Paycheck opposite Ben Affleck.^[45] Paycheck, based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, garnered generally negative reception.^[46] Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars (out of four), saying that he "enjoyed the movie" but felt that it "exploits [Dick's story] for its action and plot potential, but never really develops it."^[47]

The following year, away from film, Eckhart guest starred in two episodes of NBC's comedy sitcom Frasier, where he played a boyfriend of Charlotte, Dr. Frasier Crane's love interest.^[48][49] His next film role was in E. Elias Merhige's thriller Suspect Zero, a movie about an FBI agent who tracks down a killer who murders serial killers.^[50][51] Upon release, the movie received broadly negative reviews.^[52] Despite the reception, Eckhart's performance was favored by critics; Newsday wrote that Eckhart was a "classically handsome leading man ... but Merhige demands of him complexity and anguish."^[53] Suspect Zero was a box office disappointment, earning $11 million worldwide.^[54] Also in 2004, Eckhart starred on the London stage, opposite Julia Stiles, in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Garrick Theatre. The drama ran until mid-2004.^[55] For this performance, Eckhart received favorable critical reviews.^[36][56] In 2005, returning to film, Eckhart appeared in Neverwas as a therapist who takes a job at a rundown mental hospital that once treated his father (Nick Nolte). The feature was never given a full theatrical release, eventually being released straight to DVD in 2007.^[57]

Worldwide recognition[link]

Eckhart's next project was Thank You for Smoking, in which he played Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist who researched the link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. Eckhart said that he felt challenged playing the role: "You have to say these words that are crazy, and yet do it with a smile on your face and have the audience like you. At one point, I'm doing a talk show with a kid who's dying of cancer, and he's going through chemotherapy and the whole thing, and I spin it so the anti-smoking people are the bad guys and I'm the good guy, and I'm this guy's best friend. I mean, it's whacked out."^[58] The film was screened at a special presentation at the 30th annual Toronto International Film Festival in 2005.^[59][60] It had a limited release in March 2006 and was released worldwide the following month.^[61][62] For his performance, Eckhart received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.^[63] A contributor of USA Today wrote that he gave a "standout, whip-smart performance" citing that as Nick Naylor he kept him "likable even in his cynicism."^[64] In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer review of the film, it was reported that "Under his chummy but compassionless smile" Eckhart radiated charm and "Naylor's true joys: manipulating arguments, steering debate, cooking words."^[65]

In this same year, he starred with Helena Bonham Carter in Conversations with Other Women (2006).^[66] While promoting this film, Eckhart revealed that he wishes not to be typecast or repeat himself, saying he does not want to play any more villains.^[2] He appeared in the 2006 film noir The Black Dahlia—based on a real 1947 crime—as Sergeant Leland "Lee" Blanchard, a detective investigating the murder of Elizabeth Short, later dubbed the "Black Dahlia".^[67][68] The film premiered at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival.^[69][70] Reception for the movie was mixed,^[71] but many critics enjoyed Eckhart's performance; Time Out magazine praised Eckhart and co-star Hillary Swank for their performances, writing "...both [are] great in their secondary roles."^[72]

Internationally viewed as a sex symbol, he was named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in 2006.^[73][74] The following year, Eckhart was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[75] He starred in No Reservations (2007), a remake of the 2001 German romantic comedy, Mostly Martha. He starred opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones as an up-and-coming hotshot chef.^[76] The film was met with mixed reviews and was unfavorably compared to the original film.^[77] Eckhart starred in the 2008 comedy Meet Bill, in which he played the eponymous character, a sad executive working at his father-in-law's bank.^[78][79] He gained 30 pounds and donned a fat suit for the role.^[21][80]

Eckhart signing autographs for fans during promotion of The Dark Knight in 2008.

Also in 2008, Eckhart portrayed the comic book character, Harvey Dent/Two-Face, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins.^[81][82] Nolan's decision to cast Eckhart was based on his portrayal of corrupt characters in the films In the Company of Men, The Black Dahlia, and Thank You For Smoking.^[83][84] He noted in his depiction of the character that "[he] is still true to himself. He's a crime fighter, he's not killing good people. He's not a bad guy, not purely", while admitting "I'm interested in good guys gone wrong."^[83][84] The Dark Knight was a big financial and critical success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of $1 billion worldwide,^[85] it became the fourth highest grossing film of all time,^[86] and the highest grossing film of Eckhart's career. Roger Ebert opined that Eckhart did an "especially good job" as his character in the feature,^[87] while Premiere magazine also enjoyed his performance, noting that he "makes you believe in his ill-fated ambition ... of morphing into the conniving Two-Face."^[88]

Following the success of The Dark Knight, Eckhart next appeared in Alan Ball's Towelhead (2008), an adaption of the Alicia Erian novel of the same name, in which he played a Gulf War Army reservist who sexually abuses his 13-year-old Arab-American neighbor.^[89][90] The film was screened under the name Nothing is Private at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.^[91] When he was first approached for the role, Eckhart revealed that he did not want to play a "pedophile".^[90] When asked about the sex scenes, Eckhart said: "Those were difficult times .... The way I did it was to really trust Alan. It was in the words. I really trusted Summer [Bishil], and I tried to get her to trust me, to build a relationship when we were doing physical scenes. We'd really rehearse them mechanically, and I'd say, 'OK, I'm going to put my hand here, I'm going to do this.' ... I think I found it more difficult."^[92] Towelhead was critically and financially unsuccessful.^[93][94]

He next co-starred with Jennifer Aniston in the romantic drama, Love Happens, released in September 2009, as a motivational speaker coming to terms with his own grief.^[95][96] The movie received ambivalent reviews,^[97] with a contributor of the Orlando Sentinel reporting that Eckhart plays "broken" for the whole movie.^[98] The following year he starred alongside Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole (2010), an adaption of David Lindsay-Abaire's 2005 drama of the same name.^[99][100] The feature premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.^[101] In 2011, Eckhart starred in Jonathan Liebesman's science fiction film Battle: Los Angeles, in which he portrayed a combat veteran Marine platoon sergeant, the film was set in modern day Los Angeles and followed a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Air Force Special Operations Sergeant and some Army Infantry Soldiers. This group of fighting men and women are engaged in combat operations against the alien enemy in the city of Los Angeles.^[102] He appeared alongside Johnny Depp, Richard Jenkins, and Amber Heard in Hunter S. Thompson's novel adaptation The Rum Diary, directed by Bruce Robinson.^[103][104] In the film, Eckhart played Sanderson, a wealthy landowner, who believes everything has a price and introduces Paul Kemp (Depp) to a different standard of living.^[103][104] For the future, among the actors Eckhart hopes to work with are Jeff Bridges and Angelina Jolie.^[105]

Personal life[link]

Eckhart once was engaged to actress, Emily Cline, whom he met during filming of In the Company of Men, but they separated in 1998.^[16][55] He always has been reluctant in speaking about his relationships in interviews.^[2] Eckhart dated Country Music songwriter and member of SHeDAISY, Kristyn Osborn, from 2006-2007.^[16][55] He appeared in the group's video for their hit, "I'm Taking the Wheel".^[55]

In various interviews Eckhart has talked about his beliefs, his way of life, and his future career ambitions. Talking to Entertainment Weekly regarding his Mormon faith, he revealed: "I'm sure people think I'm a Mormon, but I don't know that I'm a Mormon anymore, you know? To be honest, to be perfectly clear, I'd be a hypocrite if I did say that I was, just because I haven't lived that lifestyle for so many years."^[106] In other interviews he has divulged that, through hypnosis, he quit drinking, smoking, and partying,^[2][107] and that in his spare time, he enjoys photography.^[108] In an interview with Parade magazine, Eckhart revealed that before he discovered acting, he wanted to become a songwriter.^[8]

Filmography[link]

Eckhart at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Additional sources[link]

• Mitchell, Peter. "Dundee a talisman for Eckhart." The Age. May 1, 2003. Accessed December 15, 2008.
• Head, Steve. "IGN interviews Aaron Eckhart." IGN. August 24, 2004. Accessed December 30, 2008.
• Roberts, Farin. "BBC Movies - Aaron Eckhart interview." BBC Films. June 16, 2006. Accessed December 30, 2008. (Farin Roberts interviews Aaron Eckhart in discussion of Thank You for Smoking.) [Includes video clip].
• Fischer, Paul. "Aaron Eckhart No Reservations Interview." Femail. Accessed December 30, 2008.
• Berkshire, Geoff. "'Dark Knight' Q&A: Aaron Eckhart." Chicago Metromix. July 14, 2008. Accessed December 15, 2008.
• Blades, Nicole. "Aaron Eckhart Interview." Women's Health. July 16, 2008. Accessed October 24, 2008.
• Mottram, James. "Aaron Eckhart interview." Marie Claire. July 28, 2008. Accessed December 30, 2008.
• Fischer, Paul. "Aaron Eckhart The Dark Knight Interview." Femail. Accessed December 30, 2008.
• Berk, Phillip. "Man of the Hour." Filmink. September 16, 2008. Accessed October 3, 2008.

References[link]