His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz In the 1914 film
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, the Lion was played by Fred Woodward.
The Wizard of Oz (1925) In the 1925 silent film
The Wizard of Oz, directed by and starring
Larry Semon, the Lion was played in disguise by
Curtis McHenry.
The Wizard of Oz (1939) as the Cowardly Lion for the 1939 film. In the classic 1939 film
The Wizard of Oz, the Lion was a humanoid
biped and played by
Bert Lahr, a popular vaudeville and Broadway star, with many of Lahr's trademark mannerisms deliberately worked into the film. In this version, the liquid courage given to him by the Wizard is replaced with a medal marked "
Courage". Bert Lahr's biography, written by his son
John Lahr, is entitled
Notes on a Cowardly Lion. In the film, the Lion walks on his hind legs instead of all four, except when he is first seen bounding out of the forest to attack Dorothy's friends. After roaring fiercely at them on all fours, he does stand up on his hind legs. Lahr also portrayed the Lion's Kansas counterpart, Zeke, one of Aunt Em and
Uncle Henry's
farmworkers. Screenwriter
Noel Langley created this character for the film. Zeke helps Hickory, Tin Man's alter ego, lower a bed into its place on a wagon at the farm. He then moves the hogs into the pig pen and pours feed into their trough. When Dorothy falls off the railing that encircles the pen, Zeke jumps in and rescues her. With Dorothy safe, Zeke sits down beside the pen, breathing heavily and seemingly about to faint. The others realize that he had been afraid of the pigs, and playfully mock him. Zeke wears his hat throughout the entire film because he does not struggle to open the
cellar when the tornado approaches the farm. Hunk, Scarecrow's alter-ego, closes and locks the cellar with him when Dorothy arrives at the farmhouse. Zeke and Professor Marvel, the Wizard's alter-ego, are the only men wearing hats when Dorothy awakens from being unconscious.
Cowardly Lion Courage Medal The original Courage Medal prop from the 1939 film, a cross-shaped medal made of poly-chromed metal and measuring 7.5 × 7.5" (19.1 × 19.1 cm), features a lion in profile above a crown and a knight's helmet and the word "Courage" in raised blue scroll lettering. In the late 1950s, Mal Caplan, the head of the costume department at
MGM was in a life-threatening automobile accident, and spent months in the hospital before returning to work. For sometime he was unable to sit upright and had to work from a chaise longue. In recognition of his courage, his colleagues and the management at MGM presented him with the Lion's Courage Medal. He was also given the
Tin Man's "heart", but he gave that to "someone who needed it", a man in the same hospital who was having open heart surgery. The current whereabouts of the heart clock are unknown. The Courage Medal remained in the Caplan family until it was consigned to a
Sotheby's Entertainment Memorabilia auction in May 1997. The medal was purchased by a New Jersey collector, and in November 2010 was featured on episode 7 of the TV show
Hollywood Treasure.
Cowardly Lion costumes An original Cowardly Lion costume from
The Wizard of Oz was packed away after filming and forgotten for decades. It was found barely in time to be included in the
landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, where it sold for $2400 to a California chiropractor. He had it restored by a taxidermist and "recreated the headpiece with a lifelike sculpture of Lahr". Curator James Comisar acquired the costume, after verifying to his satisfaction that it had been worn in the film, and set about restoring it. The major challenge was the weight of the tail caused rips across the back of the costume that needed to be patched, which was done by Cara Varnell, a textile conservation expert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Cowardly Lion's original facial appliances had been glued directly to Bert Lahr's face and did not survive the production, The costume is thought to be among the most valuable and iconic Hollywood objects in existence. “Most of us cannot relate to not having a brain or a heart; we can all relate to not having enough courage, and it is for this reason I believe the Cowardly Lion is the character we respond to the most,” said Comisar. where it received great interest and realized the selling price of $3.1 million, and this is the highest known price point for a costume worn by a male performer in any Hollywood production. William Stillman, a noted historian and co-author of several books about the film, featured a full-page photograph of this Cowardly Lion costume in his book,
The Wizardry of Oz: The Artistry and the Magic of the M.G.M. 1939 Classic. The accompanying text states, "While Bert Lahr appears to wear the same costume throughout the picture, others were available for dress rehearsals or for the stunt double to bound onto the Yellow Brick Road, leap through a window in the Emerald City, or scale the cliffs outside the Witch's castle." In 1998, both Comisar and auctioneering company Profiles in History, on behalf of Mack, insisted they had Lahr's costume.
The Wiz The Lion is a featured character role in
The Wiz, an all-Black
Broadway musical adaptation of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with songs by
Charlie Smalls, a book by
William F. Brown, and direction by
Geoffrey Holder.
Ted Ross first portrayed the Lion named Fleetwood Coupe de Ville when
The Wiz debuted on Broadway in 1975, and he won the 1975
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal. Ross reprised his role as the Lion in
Motown Productions and
Universal Pictures'
1978 film version of
The Wiz, directed by
Sidney Lumet.
David Alan Grier portrayed the Lion in 2015's
The Wiz Live!, an
NBC television special adapted from the musical by director
Kenny Leon and teleplay writer
Harvey Fierstein.
Return to Oz In the 1985
spiritual sequel to
The Wizard of Oz, the Lion is briefly seen at the end of the film. Unlike the 1939 film, this version is a puppet and walks on all fours. He is also shown growling rather than speaking.
The Oz Kids In the 1996 animated cartoon series
The Oz Kids, the Lion (voiced by unknown) rules the kingdom to the south of Emerald City, Quadling Country and has two cubs, Bela and Boris. His son Boris is afraid of things, like his father.
''Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return'' The Lion appeared in the animated film ''
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, which is based on Dorothy of Oz'', voiced by
Jim Belushi.
Oz: The Great and Powerful The Lion makes a brief cameo in the 2013 film
Oz: The Great and Powerful, as a
CGI character. He briefly tries to attack Oz (played by
James Franco) and his monkey companion Finley (voiced by
Zach Braff), but Oz uses his magic to create a velvet fog that intimidates the Lion, causing him to immediately retreat.
Wicked and Wicked: For Good In
Wicked (2024), adapted from the first half of the
stage musical and its
originating novel, the Lion appears as a cub used in a demonstration on how to subdue talking Animals by keeping them in cages.
Elphaba, the eventual
Wicked Witch of the West, stages a rescue, and the experience radicalizes her in favor of the Animals and their rights. The Cowardly Lion returns in
Wicked: For Good (2025), motion-captured by Omari Bernard and voiced by
Colman Domingo. Now an adult, he appears when Elphaba attempts to convince the other Animals to confront the Wizard rather than flee. He harbors resentment for Elphaba abducting him from the only home he knew, despite Elphaba protesting he would have gone mute otherwise, and dissuades the Animals by revealing her to have given the flying monkeys their wings. Later on, after joining Dorothy's group in the hunt for Elphaba, the Tin Man blames the Witch for the Lion's cowardice, claiming he wouldn't be that way if she let him fight his own battles. ==Later works and parodies==