Is there anyone in Hollywood who is as likable as Michael Keaton? If you haven’t watched Keaton’s Screen Actors Guild Best Actor acceptance speech for Dopesick yet, then prepare to laugh and cry simultaneously in a way only Keaton can make you feel. From the very beginning of his career to his exciting comeback over the past decade, it's been impossible to pin down Keaton as just one type of actor. He’s a comedian, a character, a family man, and a hero all at once. Keaton got his start in the great comedies of the 1980s, and stood out by the risks he took playing eccentric characters. When Keaton landed the role of Bruce Wayne in the first live-action Batman adaptation since Adam West, it sparked an extremely negative fan reaction. After actually seeing him in the role, many fans would still cite Keaton as the best to ever wear the suit. Expectations are high for his return in the upcoming DCEU film The Flash.
If you look back at Keaton’s best work, narrowing down his run of classics is no easy task. Great films like The Trial of the Chicago 7, Batman Returns, Toy Story 3, The Founder, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Worth, and Mr. Mom had to be left off the final list. Here are the nine greatest Michael Keaton performances, ranked.
9. Hunt Stevenson in Gung Ho (1986)
Keaton frequently collaborated with director Ron Howard, a former comedy actor himself who understood how to give someone as versatile as Keaton room to bring both humor and heart to his characters. In 1986’s Gung Ho, Keaton starred as the Pittsburgh auto plant manager Hunt Stevenson, who is assigned to work alongside a rival Japanese company during a corporate takeover. While not all the humor has necessarily aged well, nothing about Keaton’s performance is mean spirited. He brings to life the pressures that a sympathetic boss feels to protect his employees’ jobs.
8. Ray Nicolette in Jackie Brown (1997)
Keaton embodies fast-talking charisma, so of course he’s perfectly suited for the dialogue of Quentin Tarantino. Jackie Brown is among the most underrated films of Tarantino’s career, and like all of his films, every performance is stellar regardless of how much screen time they have. The ATF agent Ray Nicolette (Keaton) and LAPD detective Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) may think that they’re smarter than the titular heroine (Pam Grier), but their overconfidence and ignorance comes back to bite them. Keaton and Bowen have terrific chemistry; they shouldn’t be nearly as likable when playing these corrupt law enforcement officers.
7. Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing imagines one of Shakespeare's most iconic comedies as a glorious melodrama. Every performance is dialed up to eleven, but Keaton’s depiction of the wacky cop Dogberry might be the most heightened of the entire film. As any Shakespeare fan knows, it's the “keystone cop” who surprisingly ends up solving the central crisis, proving his heart was in the right place all along. The rest of the cast does a great job bringing the wit of Shakespeare's wordplay to life, but Keaton brings a sense of physical comedy that diversifies the humor.
6. Bill Blazejowski in Night Shift (1982)
Keaton gave his breakout performance in his first collaboration with Ron Howard. The 1982 comedy Night Shift follows the New York morgue employees Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler) and Bill Blazejowski (Keaton) as they run an underground prostitution ring out of their office. If it sounds raunchy, Night Shift is surprisingly more absurd than it is shocking. In his autobiography The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, Howard reflected on how during the height of Happy Days, Winkler was so beloved by audiences that none of his co-stars could ever top him. In one of his debut performances, Keaton was able to outshine “the Fonz” himself.
5. Henry Hackett in The Paper (1994)
Keaton’s other collaboration with Howard was a more mature project for both of them. While The Paper featured just as much absurd antics as Night Shift and Gung Ho, it told a relevant story about the importance of good journalism. The film is nuanced in its depiction of the pressures that a newspaper staff feels to respect its readers. Keaton stars as the New York Sun metro editor Henry Hackett, who is given 24 hours to save the publication amidst a city-wide controversy regarding a recent murder. Keaton brings to life Hackett’s diligence; he’d never be able to live with himself if he let his readers, his staff, or his family down.
4. Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman (1989)
While some fans may cite Tim Burton’s second film Batman Returns as the stronger of his two DC Comics adaptations, 1989’s Batman is effectively the film that started the modern superhero craze. The film remains ahead of its time; Burton drew inspiration from 1930s German Expressionist films to create an idiosyncratic gothic mystery. Ironically, Batman is really the genesis story of Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and Keaton doesn’t opt for a big performance. He perfectly captures the loneliness of Bruce Wayne without ever needing an elaborate origin story.
3. Walter Robinson in Spotlight (2015)
After brilliantly embodying a fictional editor in The Paper, Keaton brought to life a real hero of journalism with his performance as Walter Robinson in the Best Picture winner Spotlight. Spotlight is a difficult film to watch because of its disturbing subject material, but the entire cast is incredibly respectful of their real-life counterparts. The film explores the investigation by the Boston Globe reports into the coverup of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and it does a great job at exploring the important role that each member of the staff plays in breaking the story. Robinson isn’t the only brave figure within the story, but he’s a center point who the investigation team can rally behind.
2. Riggan Thompson in Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Keaton’s modern resurgence began with his awards-nominated performance in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s surrealist dark comedy Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). The role of a washed up actor who used to play a superhero was perfect for Keaton, but it was more than just stunt casting. Keaton showed how artistic drive can make anyone a little crazy, and he’s completely vulnerable as Riggan faces the consequences of committing to his roles. Keaton’s Academy Award loss to Eddie Redmayne is one of the biggest crimes in recent Oscar history; fans might enjoy the satisfaction of watching Keaton act circles around Redmayne just a few years later in The Trial of the Chicago 7.
1. Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice (1988)
Beetlejuice is a title character that nobody else could have played. How do you be charismatic, scary, hilarious, and detestable all at once? Burton has never been more innovative than he was in this 1988 classic; he merged both his comedic and horrific impulses together for a unique film. Keaton bravely swings for the fences with a performance that easily could have become grating, but throughout all the makeup, his personality shines through.