Lionel Luthor - Portrayal

Portrayal

Lionel Luthor was created by Al Gough and Miles Millar specifically for the show, in an effort to provide a parallel to the Kents, as an "experiment in extreme parenting". Although Lex's father has been depicted in other mediums in the past, the character of Lionel Luthor is entirely the creation of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Like Allison Mack, whose character Chloe Sullivan was also created for the show, Glover appreciates the "clear canvas" he has to work with when developing his portrayal of Lionel. In season one, John Glover had to travel from New York to Vancouver every week while filming his scenes, as Glover was already committed to stage acting in New York at the time. John Glover looked to a friend's personal battle with cancer when trying to portray Lionel's struggle with terminal liver disease. Glover recounts that his friend was a "cheerleader to people", always supporting and boosting everyone when they were feeling bad. When he learned he had cancer he fought hard to get over it, but when he learned that it was terminal, that there was nothing he could do, he simply went to bed and stopped eating until he finally died in a week-and-a-half. This helped Glover understand how someone so powerful and full of life could end up taking their own life in the end — just as Lionel was preparing to do at the end of "Crisis" when he learned that there was nothing else he could do to stop his cancer.