Santa Claus has been a staple of big-screen entertainment and has remained so for as long as movies have been around. From A Miracle on 34th Street to The Santa Clause, and every classic Christmas film in between, Saint Nick was always showing off his theatrical prowess. Regardless if it wasn’t the genuine Santa Claus, those who have dressed in red, grown beards, and gained a few pounds have succeeded in channeling the big man to varying degrees.
Of course, a bad Santa Claus is the absolute worst. Indeed, there have been excellent, poor, and ugly Santa performances, but even when they weren’t outstanding, the joliday spirit persisted. This list includes the Christmas stories that made all the creepy old guys we encountered as kids in shopping center courtyards appear even worse. Here are the most illustrious on-screen Santa Clauses from the film industry.
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10 Edward Asner
New Line Cinema
American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Eddie Asner, sadly passed away in 2021. One of the rare television performers to play the same character in both a comedy and a drama, he is most known for his role as Lou Grant from the 1970s through the 1980s on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant. Asner portrayed Santa Claus in the 2003 film Elf, which stars Will Farrell as a human who was raised by Santa’s elves and learns he’s not actually an elf. On a quest to figure out where he came from, Elf visits New York City to see his biological father.
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9 Edmund Gwenn
20th Century Studios
Edmund Gwenn, who passed away in 1959, was an English stage performer in the West End and on Broadway. He was connected to a variety of contemporary playwrights’ works. Gwenn settled in the US after the Second World War and enjoyed a prosperous career on Broadway and in Hollywood. Gwenn is most known for his portrayal of Kris Kringle, a.k.a. Santa Claus, in the 1947 holiday movie Miracle on 34th Street, for which he received both the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
8 Noah Emmerich
Juha Wuolijoki
American actor and director Noah Emmerich is most known for his work on the big screen in movies including Beautiful Girls, The Truman Show, Frequency, Miracle, Little Children, and Super 8. He played FBI agent Stan Beeman in the FX series The Americans from 2013 to 2018. In the 2007 Finnish movie Joulutarina (Christmas Story), which explores the origin story of Santa Claus, Emmerich provided the English portrayal of Santa.
7 Richard Attenborough
20th Century Fox
Baron Richard Samuel Attenborough was an English actor, producer, and businessman who passed away in August 2014. His performances in the movies Brighton Rock, I’m All Right Jack, The Great Escape, Doctor Dolittle, and Jurassic Park are the most recognizable. In the 1994 theatrical production Miracle of 34th Street, Attenborough played Kris Kringle, also known as Santa Claus. In the movie, Cole’s Department Store hires Kringle, who is reputed to be the genuine Santa Claus, to take over as the store’s Santa Claus after their former employee was terminated for getting wasted before the Thanksgiving parade.
6 Kurt Russell
Netflix
Kurt Russell, an American actor, has done practically everything. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Escape from New York, Vanilla Sky, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sky High, The Fast and the Furious series, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are just a few of the movies in which he has appeared. In The Christmas Chronicles, two kids must work quickly to undo their error after they unintentionally cause Santa’s sleigh to crash and all the presents to be lost. In the sequel The Christmas Chronicles 2, Santa returns to the kids as they face adolescence. Russell portrays Santa Claus in both movies. Russell was selected by The Guardian as one of the top actors who were never nominated for an Academy Award.
5 J.K. Simmons
Since his debut in 1986, Jonathan Kimble Simmons, better known by his stage name J.K. Simmons, has had parts in more than 200 movies and television shows. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Juno, La La Land, Justice League, and The Closer are a few of his most notable roles. Additionally, Simmons contributed a ton of voiceovers to animated films and shows, including The Legend of Korra, Zootopia, and Gravity Falls. Simmons plays Klaus, a toymaker and initially solitary woodsman, in the 2019 animated feature Klaus. For its “beautiful hand-drawn animation and a humorous, heartwarming narrative,” the movie has a 95% approval rating on the review website Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it an “instant candidate for holiday classic status.”
4 Tom Hanks
Warner Bros. Pictures
American actor and director Tom Hanks is renowned for both his tragic and humorous performances, which typically include amazing movie transformations. Hanks has established himself as one of the most well-known and recognizable movie actors in the world thanks to his roles in movies like A League of Their Own, Forrest Gump, Catch Me If You Can, You’ve Got Mail, Cast Away, Sully, and many more. In the Toy Story movie series, Hanks is also widely recognized for providing the voice of Sheriff Woody. Hanks appeared in Robert Zemeckis’ 2004 family movie The Polar Express, which was adapted from the 1985 Chris Van Allsburg children’s book of the same name. The actor portrayed a number of motion capture characters in the film, including the legendary figure in red known as Santa Claus.
3 John Goodman
Golden Books Family Entertainment
In the ABC comedy series Roseanne, where he played the family patriarch Dan Conner and won a Golden Globe, American actor John Goodman rose to national prominence. In addition, Goodman acted in movies including Inside Llewyn Davis, Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, and The Big Lebowski, choosing to do a lot of his work with the Coen Brothers. He gained recognition for his voiceover work in movies including The Princess and the Frog, Clifford’s Really Big Movie, Bee Movie, The Emperor’s New Groove trilogy, Monsters, Inc., and ParaNorman. Goodman has also played the part of Santa Claus on several occasions, most notably in 1998’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie and in 2012’s It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!.
2 Ed Ivory
Touchstone Pictures
Although Edward “Ed” Ivory only appeared in a small number of movies, he is most remembered for his voice work as Santa Claus, the king of Christmas Town, in Tim Burton’s 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the movie, Santa is in charge of the yearly Christmas celebration and gives out gifts to kids in the real world. Additionally, he is referred to as “Sandy Claws” by Jack and the inhabitants of Halloween Town. The movie’s introductory narration is likewise delivered by Ivory.
1 Tim Allen
Walt Disney Pictures
Timothy Alan Dick, known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is well-known for his roles as Mike Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing and Tim Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. Allen provides the voice of Buzz Lightyear, the space ranger toy, for the Toy Story film series. Tropical Snow, Galaxy Quest, Joe Somebody, Zoom, Wild Hogs, and many other movies are among Allen’s filmography. The Santa Clause franchise, which includes the 1994 film The Santa Clause, the 2002 film The Santa Clause 2, the 2006 film The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and the 2022 Disney+ miniseries The Santa Clauses, stars Allen as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus.
