The Green Goblin is Spider-Man's most dangerous adversary. No other villain has inflicted the level of pain and tragedy on Peter Parker that Norman Osborn has. It's no surprise many other villains have tried to claim the title for themselves or how frequently the original Goblin appears in adaptations.
Looking across the major adaptations of Spider-Man that feature the Goblin, including film and animation, there have been many performers in the role. While some mediums may have an unfair advantage over others, some Green Goblin actors perfectly captured the essence of Spider-Man's archenemy.
10 Len Carlson In Spider-Man (1967)
Spider-Man's first foray into animation was the 1967 cartoon produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation then Krantz Films. The series is infamous for its low budget, which is clear in both its animation and performances. Across three appearances as the Goblin, Len Carlson does a fairly generic screechy villain voice.
The Goblin is also vastly different from the comic book version, and instead of a maniacal mastermind, he's a dimwitted robber obsessed with magic. Combined with no reference to his human identity, the implication is that he's an actual Goblin.
9 Rino Romano In Spider-Man Unlimited
Spider-Man Unlimited stranded the hero on "Counter-Earth," populated by unusual versions of his usual supporting cast. This version of the Goblin is a superhero, for one thing. His real name is Hector Jones, and instead of a glider, he traverses with mechanical wings.
Voiced by Rino Romano (who also voiced Spider-Man himself), the Goblin's eccentricities are played more for comedy than menace. Like Unlimited itself, Romano's performance is the black sheep oddball in the Goblin pantheon.
8 Dennis Marks In Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends
The Marvel cartoons of the 1980s were only a marginal improvement on the cheapness of the 1960s. The Green Goblin was the debut villain in Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. This iteration was also one of the first to play up the Jekyll & Hyde dichotomy within the villain.
This Norman Osborn transforms into the Goblin versus just wearing a costume. However, Dennis Marks gets scant screen-time as Osborn, and his Goblin voice is too high-pitched to be scary.
7 Dane DeHaan In The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Chris Cooper briefly played Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but he never got a chance to suit up as the Goblin. Instead, his son Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) becomes the Green Goblin, even usurping comic Norman's claim to fame as Gwen Stacy's murderer.
Before his heel transformation, DeHaan plays Harry as too obviously disturbed and unlikeable, and he gets only scant screen-time suited up as the Goblin. The grotesque (in a bad way) design does little favors for DeHaan's performance. His cackle isn't too shabby, though.
6 Steven Weber In Ultimate Spider-Man
Despite its name, Ultimate Spider-Man took only slight influence from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley's acclaimed comic. One of the comic's ideas that the series did use was having Norman Osborn physically mutate into a Goblin-like creature.
Steven Weber voiced both sides of the character. While he does a passable job capturing Norman's smarm, his Goblin voice is a fairly generic "deep bad guy voice."
5 Josh Keaton In Marvel's Spider-Man
The most recent animated Goblin featured in Disney XD's Marvel's Spider-Man. Puzzlingly, this Norman Osborn (voiced by Josh Keaton) is never actually referred to as "The Green Goblin." Instead, he first assumes the Hobgoblin identity from his son Harry (the opposite of the usual succession) then becomes the Dark Goblin in Season 3, subtitled Maximum Venom.
Keaton isn't bad in the role, but for viewers familiar with his past voice-work as Spider-Man himself, there's a dissonance that can be hard to overcome.
4 Mark Rolston In Spider-Man (PS4)
Insomniac Studios' Spider-Man took a different route with Osborn. Instead of the Green Goblin or an industrialist, he's New York City's authoritarian mayor, and just as much a thorn in Spider-Man's side as usual. Mark Rolston is quite good as Osborn, disarming in one breath and sinister in another.
Rolston clearly uses his previous experience voicing Lex Luthor on Young Justice as the basis for his Osborn. However, since he hasn't yet voiced the Goblin, he can't be ranked any higher.
3 Neil Ross In Spider-Man (1981) And Spider-Man (1994)
Neil Ross had two chances to voice the Goblin. The better of his performances is in 1994's Spider-Man. Ross spends the first two seasons voicing Norman Osborn before reprising the Goblin in Season 3. Like some past performances, his Goblin voice is a bit too high-pitched to be scary.
It's rather reminiscent of the one Alan Oppenheimer used for Skeletor on He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, and it pales in comparison to Mark Hamill's cool, menacing performance as the Hobgoblin. However, Ross does succeed at making Osborn and the Goblin sound like distinct entities. This was a vital attribute, since this series played up the Goblin as an alternate personality of Osborn's.
2 Alan Rachins And Steve Blum In The Spectacular Spider-Man
While The Green Goblin's true identity is common knowledge, The Spectacular Spider-Man chose to replicate the original mystery surrounding the character, and he was only unmasked in the series finale, "Final Curtain." It's a testament to the series' writing that they still created a compelling mystery and, thanks to some misdirection, the inevitable conclusion didn't always seem that inevitable.
Different voice actors were used for Norman Osborn and the Goblin to preserve the uncertainty, as Alan Rachins played the former while Steve Blum played the latter. Alan Rachins is reliably good as the stern and aloof Norman, but Blum is an outright scene-stealer and the first voice actor to successfully make the Goblin scary.
1 Willem Dafoe In Spider-Man And Spider-Man: No Way Home
Willem Dafoe is one of the greatest living actors, and he's pitch-perfect as both Norman and the Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. He conveys the differences between the more timid Norman and the animated Goblin with intonations and body language — it's never subtle, but he's not trying to be. Indeed, so many of Dafoe's facial expressions and line readings in Spider-Man have become iconic it'd be impossible to list them all. Dafoe's Green Goblin is so good that it couldn't be anyone else.
Dafoe was so perfect, in fact, that Marvel Studios conceded no other actor could outdo him as the Goblin, and so just brought back the man himself for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Hopping back into the role like he never left, Dafoe's enormous and entertaining performance highlights an energy often absent from MCU performances — he's not just acting, he's having fun.