Considering the long span of the Halloween franchise, knowing who plays Michael Myers is tough, especially with more than one person often playing the slasher killer in each movie. Most of the scenes in the original 1978 Halloween film saw Michael hiding in the shadows before he finally launched his attack on Laurie Strode and her friends. As a result, multiple people filled Michael’s shoes for the movie. Throughout the years, there have been 13 movies featuring Michael Myers.
As the franchise rolled on, the masked killer took a more prominent role and a few actors became well-known for portraying the man referred to in the Halloween scripts as The Shape. These movies included the original timeline, an alternate timeline where Laurie died and her daughter Jamie Lloyd became the Final Girl, another where Laurie lived and Michael kept trying to kill her, yet another with Rob Zombie’s reboot, and finally the most recent David Gordon Green movies. This allowed no less than 21 different Michael Myers actors to join the franchise.
Nick Castle, Tony Moran, Tommy Lee Wallace, James Winburn, Will Sandin, & Debra Hill
Halloween 1978
In the original Halloween movie released in 1978, six different actors played Michael Myers. As a young child in the beginning of the film, Michael is played by Will Sandin. In the first-person camera sequence when the young Michael takes a knife from the kitchen and goes upstairs to kill Judith, Michael’s hand that comes on screen to take the knife is actually that of Debra Hill, the co-writer and producer. Adult Michael Myers was portrayed mostly by Nick Castle in all the scenes where the masked killer is stalking his victims.
However, when Michael Myers is briefly unmasked by Laurie Strode, the bare-faced Michael is Tony Moran. In addition, scenes in which Michael was required to break through barriers were performed by production designer Tommy Lee Wallace. Since he had created many of the props used in the film, he knew the best way to destroy them. Finally, for Michael’s climactic fall from the bedroom terrace, stuntman James Winburn put on the Michael Myers mask to perform the maneuver so that no one was hurt on that final stunt.
Dick Warlock & Adam Gunn
Halloween II
In preparing to shoot Halloween II, John Carpenter and Debra Hill knew that due to the amount of action that the iconic villain would be a part of, a professional stunt actor would be the best choice for the role of Michael Myers. Dick Warlock, who also served as the stunt coordinator on Escape from New York and as Kurt Russell’s personal stuntman for over 25 years, was chosen for the role. For flashbacks in which Michael Myers appears again as a young boy, he was portrayed by 14-year-old Adam Gunn.
George P. Wilbur, Tom Morga, & Erik Preston
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
After the disappointing box office of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (which did not feature Michael Myers) and a long hiatus fraught with difficulties in how to resurrect the slasher killer, he finally came back to terrify audiences once again in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. George P. Wilbur and Tom Morga shared the role of Michael in the fourth film.
Tom Morga is the only actor to play Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface on screen.
Morga plays Michael in the opening ambulance sequence, the gas station scene when he’s wrapped in gauze, the dinner scene with Dr. Loomis, and in the drug store with Jamie Lloyd. George P. Wilbur portrays adult Michael Myers for the rest of the film, stalking both Jamie and Rachel. In flashbacks showing Michael Myers as a young boy, he’s portrayed by nine-year-old Erik Preston.
Don Shanks
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
In Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Michael returns to hunt down Jamie Lloyd once more. In this film, Michael Myers is played by Don Shanks, who was also known at the time for having played one of the Santas in the Silent Night, Deadly Night movies.
Shanks has a double role in Halloween 5, playing both Michael Myers and the mysterious Man in Black who attacks the police station and breaks Michael out of his cell. It should also be noted that George P. Wilbur is credited for stunts performed in this film, so it’s possible he could be behind the mask during some scenes, though that’s unconfirmed.
George P. Wilbur & A. Michael Lerner
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
The sixth installment of the Halloween movie series, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, sees George P. Wilbur return to the franchise as Michael Myers, playing The Shape through most of the film. However, because of test audience disapproval, Halloween 6 was rushed back into production. Large portions of the film were re-shot with A. Michael Lerner replacing George P. Wilbur as Michael because the studio wanted the villain to appear less bulky. This change results in the continuity error of a slimmer Michael Myers appearing in the last third of the film.
Chris Durand
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20 takes place 20 years after the original attacks on Haddonfield’s teenagers, ignoring the events of Halloween 4, 5, and 6, and serving as a direct sequel to the first two films. Michael Myers is played by Chris Durand as he comes to find Laurie Strode and her son John at a boarding school where she serves as the dean.
This brought the Halloween franchise back to its roots and allowed fans to cheer on Laurie once again as she battled The Shape. Other than Halloween H2O, Durand has worked almost exclusively as a stuntman on movies like The Crow, Pearl Harbor, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Brad Loree
Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection follows Michael Myers as he finally kills off Laurie Strode, then returns to Haddonfield to find that his derelict childhood home is used for a live internet horror show. In this film, Michael Myers is played exclusively by Brad Loree, though Busta Rhymes and cameraman Charlie, played by Brad Sihvon, both don a Michael mask at certain points in the film. Like most of the Michael Myers actors, Loree was mostly a stuntman in movies, with work in Jennifer’s Body, Cabin in the Woods, and the Child’s Play reboot in 2019.
Tyler Mane & Daeg Faerch
Rob Zombie’s Halloween
Rob Zombie’s reimagining of the original Halloweenbrought more human elements to Michael Myers, exploring his backstory and also ramping up the psychopath element. Because of this, a lot more screen time is devoted to the young Michael Myers, played by Daeg Faerch. For the monstrous adult Michael Myers, Tyler Mane, also known for playing Rufus “RJ” Firefly, Jr. in Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects, took the role.
A retired professional wrestler, Mane brought the size and strength to the role that Zombie wanted, while also having the stunt know-how from his wrestling background that allowed him to do anything Michael might need to do.
Tyler Mane & Chase Wright Vanek
Rob Zombie’s Halloween II
In Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, Tyler Mane returned to his role as the adult Michael Myers, chasing after Laurie Strode and killing swaths of teens in his wake, while the young Michael Myers was played by Chase Wright Vanek. Daeg Faerch had originally signed on to reprise his role as the young Michael Myers actor in this film but was recast due to having grown quite a bit taller since the first movie. Faech was 12 when he played Michael Myers in Halloween while Vanek was 13 when he took on the role in Halloween II.
James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle & Airon Armstrong
Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022)
In the Blumhouse revival of Halloween, Nick Castle returned to his role as Michael Myers 40 years after he originated the role, with actor and stuntman James Jude Courtney supporting him. While it was originally announced by the production company that the role would primarily belong to Nick Castle, with Courtney being there to supplement, it was revealed after the movie’s release that most of the screen time shows Courtney behind the Michael Myers mask. Castle appears as Myers in the window scene and is responsible for Michael’s breathing sounds.
Courtney received the role after being recommended by stunt coordinator Rawn Hutchinson for his ability to do both physical stunts and genuine acting (via The Morning Sun). Director David Gordon Green explained to Courtney his vision for Michael Myers’ mannerisms as being a combination of a cat-like grace and Nick Castle’s original performance. These two also returned in the sequels, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. Additionally, Airon Armstrong joined for Halloween Ends to do the stuntwork in the flashback scenes to the 1978 movie.
Frédéric Poirier
Dead by Daylight
While Michael Myers appears in many video games, Dead by Daylight is the only game in which Myers is credited to a voice actor. Though Dead by Daylight’s version of Michael Myers holds true to the original killer in Halloween and never speaks in the game, his breathing and grunts are done by Frédéric Poirier, an animator and composer known for his work on Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money.
Who Was The Best Michael Myers?
Given that the actors who play Michael Myers are often silent behind the iconic mask, it is impressive that a number of them have stood out in the role. Those who have seen every Halloween movie understand that there are some films in which Michael is more effective. However, when choosing who is the best Michael Myers, there are various factors to consider, but the most important is obviously which version of the masked horror movie killer is the scariest.
While there have been hints of supernatural aspects to Michael Myers in past movies, Tyler Mane’s version of the character in the Rob Zombie movies was the closest the character felt to a horror movie monster. Mane’s massive size made for the most imposing Michael Myers as he seemed like an unstoppable force of evil who used his brute strength to deliver some of the most brutal kills in the Halloween franchise.
However, while Mane’s version is the most physically intimidating, Nick Castle’s take on “The Shape” in the original movie set the benchmark for the franchise and created a horror movie icon. While he might not seem as impossibly strong or as frighteningly big as Mane’s version, Castle gave Michael Myers that eerie quality that he was just a shape moving through the shadows.
The physicality of the role was key to how effective the villain was as there was a mindlessness to his actions which gave the character the emotional detachment that made him all the more terrifying. While the mask helps a lot, Castle proved the one under the mask was instrumental in Halloween‘s success.
