Forget Jared Leto, Here Are Our Five Favourite Onscreen Andy Warhols

Jared Leto will play the infamous pop artist Andy Warhol in a new biopic, it was announced today.

The film, which will be written by Terence Winter (The Sopranos, Wolf Of Wall Street), is a passion project for the 44-year-old actor and musician who will also produce. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leto has long wanted to make a film about Warhol, whose kooky persona, unapologetic homosexuality, gaggle of A-list mates and hedonistic New York HQ, known as The Factory, made him one of the 20th century’s most infamous and magnetic figures.

Leto isn’t alone in his admiration of the artist. Warhol, who died in 1987, has been portrayed on film by no less than 44 different actors. Here are some of our favourite on-screen homages to the pop-art pioneer.

Jared Harris: I Shot Andy Warhol

The British-born actor is perhaps best known for the character of Lane Pryce in the hit TV series Mad Men, although he’s also a seasoned Hollywood veteran with a string of supporting roles in major blockbusters. Harris played Warhol in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol, which chronicled art critic and militant feminist Valerie Solanas’s attempted murder of Warhol in 1968.

David Bowie: Basquiat

The late, great pop-culture icon was no stranger to the silver screen, although his turn as Warhol in the 1996 film Basquiat is one of his more obscure film credits. The biopic film focused on the meteoric rise to fame of graffiti artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a collaborator and muse of Warhol’s.

Crispin Glover: The Doors

With his wiry looks and crazy eyes, Hollywood’s favourite weirdo, Crispin Glover, has made a career playing character roles, most notably in the movie incarnation of Charlie’s Angels as ‘the thin man’. Glover’s Warhol moment can be found in the 1991 biopic of Jim Morrison, The Doors, with Val Kilmer in the leading role.

Guy Pearce: Factory Girl

There’s barely an acting genre that Guy Pearce hasn’t turned his hand to. From drag queens to action heroes, ancient billionaires to Royal playboys, Pearce is one of Hollywood’s most experienced chameleons. Starring opposite Sienna Miller, he played Warhol in a film based on the rise and fall of socialite Edie Sedgwick.

John Cameron Mitchell: Vinyl

As the actor behind Hedwig & The Angry Inch and Shortbus, Mitchell knows a thing or two about playing cult characters. One of the most recent onscreen portrayals of Warhol, Mitchell won an Emmy Award earlier this week for his performance in three episodes of Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s hop onto the golden-age-of-TV bandwagon, Vinyl.  

Warhol’s top cameos:

Watchmen – Greg Travis

Men In Black 3 – Bill Hader

Futurama – David Herman

The Simpsons – Hank Azaria

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery – Mark Bringelson

The Love Boat – Played by the man himself