Lex Luthor (Smallville)

Lex Luthor is a character in the television series Smallville, portrayed by Michael Rosenbaum. Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, Lex was adapted to television in 2001 by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar - this is only the third time the character has been adapted to a live action television series. The character has also appeared in various literature based on the Smallville television series, none of which directly continues from or into the television episodes. Rosenbaum played the character as a series regular from the pilot episode until the seventh season finale, but returned as a guest star for the two-hour series finale.

In this series, Lex Luthor is sent to Smallville, by his father Lionel Luthor, to run the local LuthorCorp fertilizer plant. After driving his car off a bridge, he is saved by Clark Kent and quickly develops a new friendship with the farm boy. As the series unfolds, Lex's curiosity about Clark and all things connected to Clark ultimately destroys their friendship. Lex's relationship with his father is tension-filled from the start of the show, and eventually comes to an end when Lex murders his father in an effort to discover Clark's secret.

The Smallville incarnation of the character is first introduced as a morally ambiguous character, who walks a fine line between good and evil. Lex is an inquisitive person, and it is that curiosity that drives him to attain as much power as possible as the series progresses—it will ultimately lead him to being Clark's greatest enemy. Michael Rosenbaum has been nominated for and won a Saturn Award and a Teen Choice Award for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville.

Lex Luthor, introduced in the pilot as the son of billionaire Lionel Luthor (John Glover), is sent to Smallville by his father to run the local fertilizer plant. As a child, he is caught in the first meteor shower that renders him completely bald as well as providing him with perfect health. Years later as a young adult, Lex first meets Clark Kent (Tom Welling) saving his life from drowning and the two quickly become friends. During the early seasons of the show, Lex's friendship with Clark inspires him to try to be a better person than his father, but his motives are usually driven by curiosity for the unexplained, like the day Clark rescued him from drowning. Over the course of seven seasons—beginning in the pilot episode on the day Clark rescued him from drowning—Lex has been trying to uncover the secrets that Clark and the town of Smallville keeps.

In season one, Lex helps Clark try and get together with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) while also trying to figure out the mystery behind his car crash. His friendship with Clark is seen as suspicious by Jonathan Kent (Jonathan Schneider) who would often refuse Lex's offers of financial aid despite knowing that Lex hadn't done any wrong. He hires Roger Nixon (Tom O'Brien), a reporter for the tabloid newspaper The Inquisitor, to discover how he survived the automobile accident where Clark saved him from drowning. All the evidence points to Clark having been hit by Lex's car, but Lex refuses to believe that's what happened so Nixon attempts to expose Clark to everyone. Around the same time, Lex also enlists the help of Dr. Hamilton (Joe Morton) to study the effects of the meteor rocks, finding an octagonal disc with unknown symbols imprinted on the disc's surface that match those on Clark's ship, while searching for traces of an alien ship that landed in Smallville in 1989. The disc is eventually stolen from Lex by Nixon in an attempt to open Clark's ship.

In season two, Lex's curiosity with the symbols continues. Lex first kills Nixon before the reporter can kill Jonathan for protecting Clark from Nixon. When Clark discovers the Kawatche Caves under a LuthorCorp construction site, Lex opts to be the curator of the caves to preserve them after he notices symbols on the cave walls that match the symbols on the disc, as well as an octagonal shape in the wall of the cave that would fit the disc perfectly. His interest grows more and more when he finds Clark constantly in the caves, and later with a piece of paper that appears to indicate that Clark has deciphered the language on the cave walls, but Clark denies being able to read the language. Lex's company eventually loses the Kawatche caves as Lionel has also developed an interest in the caves and the octagonal disc. During all this, Lex also met and courted Dr. Helen Bryce (Emmanuelle Vaugier) but Helen would try to kill him on their honeymoon.

Season three revealed why Lex endured Lionel's harsh parenting; his father blames him for his younger brother Julian Luthor's death but Lex took the blame to protect the true killer, his mentally unwell mother Lillian Luthor (Alisen Down), from Lionel's wrath. Also, Lex's curiosity into the symbols (and Clark) leads to a blowout between the two. When Lionel gives Clark a key to a room in the Luthor Mansion where Lex has been collecting information on Clark's family, Clark informs Lex that their friendship "is over".

In season four, Lex replaces his father as LuthorCorp's CEO and turns his attention turns toward finding three ancient stones, which contain the same symbols as those in the cave and on the disc. He fails to find all three stones but suspects that Clark did, and used the stones to find the treasure of knowledge they were supposed to have led to, often having confrontations with Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles). Around this time, Lex's lifestyle of bedding women and then leaving them the next day would catch up to him when one (Cobie Smulders) that he had previously slept with attempts to kill him after framing him for the murder of another one of the said women.