10 Famous Clowns: From Comical to Creepy

We owe thanks (or blame) to this English performer, who is considered the “father of modern clowning.” In the early 1800s Joseph Grimaldi created the character “Joey,” who reportedly was the first clown to wear whiteface makeup and paint on large smiling red lips. He also wore colorful outrageous clothing and specialized in the classic physical tricks. Grimaldi’s popularity is so great that remembrances in his honor are held every year at a London church.

Known as the “king of clowns”—which we assume was meant as a compliment—the Swiss acrobat Charles Adrien Wettach began performing as a clown in 1903. That year he took the name Grock. Unhappy with the circus setting, he began performing in music halls. This inaugurated a new chapter in clowning, as more performers began to appear in vaudeville and other stage shows. A gifted musician, Grock often incorporated instruments into his act.

He might be considered the Tom Brady of clowns. Like the famed NFL quarterback whose big break came when he replaced a hurt teammate, Oleg Popov took the lead when the Moscow Circus’s main clown was injured. The rest is history. In 1956 he became head clown and went on to become one of the most beloved clowns in the Soviet Union. Known as the “Sunshine Clown,” Popov created a “positive character,” one who was noted for his optimism.

Who needs happy and cheerful when you can have sad and tragic? Going against the trend, Emmett Kelly created Weary Willie, a down-and-out hobo who wore tattered clothes. Arguably his most famous routine involved him trying to sweep up a spotlight and then appearing startled when it disappeared. Kelly reportedly modeled his character on Depression-era tramps.

This fictional character appeared on various TV shows in the United States, most notably Bozo’s Circus (later The Bozo Show), which premiered in Chicago in 1959 and later was syndicated throughout the United States. The prototypical clown, Bozo sported fiery red hair and a red bulbous nose and wore oversized shoes. His popularity with children was undeniable as the show lasted for a number of decades.

He might also be popular with children, but some adults find Ronald McDonald downright scary. He’s been the mascot of McDonald’s since the early 1960s, when Willard Scott reportedly created the character. In the early 21st century, it was estimated that more than 95% of America’s youth recognized him. That has caused concern among some who believe that Ronald contributes to childhood obesity by promoting unhealthy food. Although he remains the McDonald’s “spokes-clown,” he now rarely appears in commercials.

Perhaps besting Bozo as the best-known clown on television is Krusty the Clown. One of the most popular characters on the animated series The Simpsons, Herschel Schmoeckel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky (as he was born) is an unlikely clown. He is a cigarette-smoking bender-prone cynic with a pacemaker who often finds himself in various predicaments, many of his own making—such as running up a gambling debt to mobsters and cheating on his taxes. Through it all, however, Bart and Lisa Simpson remain devoted fans. Rumors that Krusty would be killed off in 2014 thankfully never came to pass.

This serial killer is arguably guilty of starting the modern trend of evil clowns. In the 1970s John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 boys and young men in the Chicagoland area. When he wasn’t committing his horrific crimes, Gacy was performing as Pogo the Clown at charity events and children’s parties. Despite claiming that “clowns can get away with murder,” he was convicted in 1980 and executed by lethal injection in 1994.

Possibly modeled on Gacy, Pennywise appears in Stephen King’s classic horror novel It (1986). The evil clown is one of the forms the demonic It assumes to murder dozens of children in the fictional Derry, Maine. Perhaps the most frightening clown in pop culture, Pennywise was believed to have inspired a clown hysteria in 2016 following a rash of scary clown sightings.

When the first film adaptation of It premiered in 2017 (it had been filmed previously as a TV miniseries in 1990), Pennywise joined a long list of creepy clowns on the big screen. Notable among them are the clown-attired bloodthirsty aliens in Killer Klowns from Outer Space. In this 1988 horror-comedy classic, the evil extraterrestrials employ inventive ways of killing their victims, such as encasing them in cocoons fashioned from cotton candy.