The Old Hollywood Actor Who Inspired The Look Of Marvel's Kingpin

Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is one of comics' deadliest "normal" super-villains. He's got no superpowers, but he does have a vast criminal empire that enables him to make life extremely difficult for superheroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man. While Fisk has a double life as a "legitimate" businessman, the Kingpin does not wear a costume. Even so, he still has a recognizable look: bald, with a white-and-purple business suit concealing his sumo wrestler physique. (All of Kingpin's extra girth? It's muscle, not fat.)

What inspired Kingpin's design? Was it Lex Luthor, the other most famous bald villain in comic books? The going industry myth, backed up by John Romita Jr. (the son of Kingpin's co-creator and a comic artist himself), is that Romita Sr. used actor Sydney Greenstreet as a model for Fisk. A British thespian, Greenstreet is most remembered nowadays for appearing in three 1940s pictures with Humphrey Bogart: "The Maltese Falcon," "Casablanca," and "Passage to Marseille." Greenstreet's role in "Maltese Falcon" as gangster Kasper "The Fat Man" Gutman is the one that probably most directly inspired Kingpin.

In a 2023 interview with the newsletter 5AM StoryTalk, Romita Jr. mentioned how his father was a movie buff; when Romita and his brother would watch movies with their dad, he'd talk to them throughout explaining the movie and its cinematic mechanics. Romita Jr. described this as his education in storytelling. Moreover, he also learned how his dad would base his drawings on characters' faces in films. (Aside from Kingpin, Romita Sr. based Mary Jane Watson's redhead look on the starlet Ann-Margret, giving Spider-Man comics a sizzling dash of romance.)

"He would use the image of some thug's face that I'd seen in some of the films. I remember, I said, 'Dad, I know that guy. I've seen his face!' And he says, 'Yeah, that's Sydney Greenstreet. He's the Kingpin.'"

The Kingpin debuted in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #50, the famous "Spider-Man No More!" story. You know, the one that inspired Sam Raimi's superlative "Spider-Man 2," down to the shot of Peter Parker walking away from his Spider-Man suit discarded in a garbage can.

Marvel Comics

In the issue, the set-up is that with Spider-Man temporarily gone, the Kingpin's criminal businesses can flourish. But of course, Peter returns to being Spider-Man at the end of the issue. So, in issues #51-52, he has to face the Kingpin.

Like many of Spider-Man's classic villains, the Kingpin was fully formed from the start. Romita drew him in a white suit jacket and purple pinstripe pants, with a studded cane and cigarette holder.

Marvel Comics

What has changed about the Kingpin is that Frank Miller thought he'd be an even better villain for Daredevil, not Spider-Man, so he imported him wholesale to that other comic. That's why you see Kingpin pop in "Daredevil" movies and TV, played once by Michael Clarke Duncan and now by Vincent D'Onofrio. Kingpin's Greenstreet-inspired look, bald and heavy-set yet with an aura of class and power, endures even off the comic pages.

Now, the Kingpin is not a unique case here. It was and still is pretty common practice for comic artists to base characters' appearances on movie stars. Batman artists David Mazzucchelli and Alex Ross both draw a Bruce Wayne who looks like Gregory Peck, for example.

In fact, an account by Steve Ditko (Spider-Man's original artist and co-creator) suggests that Stan Lee had wanted a Greenstreet-inspired villain earlier. Ditko wrote in a 2002 mail-order essay (reported on via Vulture) that he and Lee disagreed on the design of the Vulture in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #2.

"Stan believed the most effective villain was the heavy-set one. He once mentioned the movie villain, Sydney Greenstreet, as a villain model. So Stan didn't like my thin, gaunt Vulture...An elephant's bulk can be frightening and destructive, but it is easier to escape from than the lean, fast cheetah...The bulkier anything is, the more panel space it has to take up, thereby shrinking panel space for other characters and story panel elements."

Ditko won that battle, but Lee had to wait only 48 more issues for a Sydney Greenstreet-looking villain.