Marius Pontmercy Appearances
Like other characters from the Broadway musical Les Misserables, Marius has a long history of different actors portraying the role on stage, as well as a long, long list of actors who have performed in film adaptations of the original novel. Before the musical, Marius was a far more central protagonist in most adaptations since he was the most traditionally heroic character. A lof the adaptations are from the early days of french and italian cinema, but I'm going to skip ahead just a little:
This is cool: golden age hollywood tough-guy Cameron Mitchell, who appeared in classics like They were Expendable, Garden of Evil and Hell or High Water, actually started his career on Broadway. He played Marius in the 1952 film Les Miserables, and while the movie predates the Broadway musical, I kind of like to imagine that he could have played him on stage as well.
One of my personal favorite takes on the story is the 1978 TV movie, mostly because I love Anthony Perkins as Javert. Christipher Guard played Marius, and while you're starting to see the youthfullness that would eventually become his main character trait in later portrayals, he still has a certain strength of character that I think makes this my favorite version of Marius.
The original Marius in the musical Les Miserables was Michael Ball, who played the part on the West End in 1984 at 22. He would later return to the part as part of the show's 25th anniversary celebration, even taking over the part he had originated in the regular West End production.
1998's film Les Miserables starring Liam Neeson is one of the most sucessful film adaptations of the original novels, and they featured Hans Matheson as Marius.
the 2000 TV miniseries Les Miserables starring Gerard Butler as Valjean featured italian actor Enrico Lo Verso as Marius. I can't really say too much about his career as most of it isn't in English, but what I can say is dear LORD this guy is good looking.
while talking about adaptations of the novel... BBC did a new miniseries as recently as 2018. Marius is played by Josh O'Conner, who won a BAFTA award for his role in 2017's God's Own Country
This is actually one of my favorite takes on the musical version of Marius: Nick Jonas is probably one of this centuries best examples of a teen heartthrob thanks to his international fame as one of the Jonas Brothers, but before that happened he was a child actor on Broadway, and actually played Gavroche in the original run of the show. Fast forward to 2010, and the kid whose face was on zillions of teen girls walls actually took on the role of Marius on the West End, and by all indications totally crushed it. He even played the part in the 25th anniversary concert. Nick's been doing a great job as an actor in the last few years, so this is very cool.
While the 2012 Tom Hooper movie is... kinda eh... you really can't fault Oscar and Tony winner Eddie Redmayne, whose performance as the "irritatingly gormless, callow, wet-behind-the-ears pretty boy" is more a function of the movies production. Eddie, like always, acted the crap out of this part. Just... ugh.