Lionel Luthor

Lionel Luthor is a fictional character portrayed by John Glover in the television series Smallville. The character was initially a recurring guest in season one, and became a series regular in season two and continued until being written out of the show in season seven. The character returned to the show in season ten again as a recurring guest role. In Smallville, Lionel Luthor is the father of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), and founder and CEO of LuthorCorp.  Lex Luthor's father was first introduced in Superman comics by Jerry Siegel in 1961 and has since appeared in other Superman-related media under different names. Smallville is the first appearance in which the character has been an intricate part of a Superman adaptation. Series developers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar created Lionel Luthor for Smallville to provide an antithesis to the parenting style of Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole).