Jason Voorhees is one of the most iconic names in horror. Featuring in eleven films to date, with a twelfth right around the corner, the masked anti-hero of the Friday the 13th franchise is the very definition of a cult cinematic and pop culture icon.

Everyone knows Jason, but what about the many men who’ve donned his trademark hockey mask over the years to slice and dice scores of nubile teenagers? Here we take a look at the men who brought Friday the 13th’s killing machine to life…

Ari Lehman played Jason in Friday the 13th (1980)

In the original Friday the 13th, the killer was not Jason as we have come to expect from the subsequent entries in the franchise, but rather his Mother Pamela Voorhees, played by Betsy Palmer (sorry if you haven’t seen it!)

Driven on a murderous rampage by the death of her son, due to the neglect of camp counsellors, Mrs. Voorhees returns to Camp Crystal Lake and stalks it’s current crop of counsellors, including a young Kevin Bacon, who rather unfortunately, gets an arrow through his neck.

Jason’s lone scene in the film comes at the end of the film, when survivor Alice, having lopped off Mrs. Voorhees’ head with a machete, gets in a canoe and floats out into the middle of Crystal Lake to wait for help. She is soon attacked by the decomposing corpse of Jason himself, played by Ari Lehman. As Jason tries to pull her down into the lake’s abyss, Alice wakes up in hospital screaming; “The boy! The boy!” – A line that would foreshadow eleven films across three decades of cinema.

Ari Lehman is virtually unrecognisable in his role as Jason; his make-up job took four hours to apply. In his teens when he played the horror icon, Lehman has only recently returned to the big screen, returning to his horror heritage with roles in ThanXgiving, Hell-ephone and Terror Overload.

In the two and a half decades between his role as Jason and his recent return to the genre that made him a cult icon, Lehman toured the world with his band Ari Ben Moses Band. He released a Jason-based project in 2004 with the band Young Jason, the music was a lot darker than his usual reggae/world music flavours, with the lyrics supposedly coming from the mind of Jason Voorhees around the time of the first movie.

Steve Daskawisz / Warrington Gillette

played Jason in Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

For Part II of the Friday the 13th saga, Jason Voorhees was played by two men. Warrington Gillette received the credit for playing the unmasked Jason who leaps through the window at the end of the film. While stunt man Steve Daskawisz played Jason for most of the movie during the masked scenes.

After parts in commercials, Warrington Gillette auditioned for the part of Paul in the first Friday the 13th sequel. Although unsuccessful, director Steve Miner liked Gillette so much he offered him the part of the unmasked Jason Voorhees. After his role as Jason, Gillette appeared in the movie Time Walker before leaving acting to become a successful entrepreneur.

The media got a kick out of Jason becoming a successful entrepreneur; which gives me an awesome idea for how they can shake up the next season of Dragon’s Den. Gillette spent time on Wall Street, launched a clothing line and is also involved in horse racing. His continued success in business has not kept him from attending conventions and meeting Jason fans around the world.

Warrington Gillette even returned to acting in 2005’s Penny Dreadful a film that also starred Mrs. Voorhees herself Betsy Palmer. He is also rumoured to be producing his own horror film entitled Bloody Social.

Steve Daskawisz, now known as Steve Dash, was the man behind the mask during Friday the 13th Part II. The Jason stunt double did stunt work on Night Shift and the Bryan Brown starring camp cult classic F/X in the 80’s following Friday the 13th Part II. He also appeared in minor acting roles throughout the 80’s.

Dash, who is also a retired New York cop, and Gillette have clashed in recent years on the convention circuit over who did what in the film. Dash claiming all Gillette did was the window scene at the end and Gillette claiming that Dash was only used for a few insert shots.

Regardless of who did what under Jason’s bagged head in Part II, both men will go down in horror folklore as the first men to play Jason Voorhees during his more aggressive years.

Richard Brooker played Jason in Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

The third Friday the 13th instalment was intended to be the last of the series, but as we all now know; that most definitely did not happen. When casting Jason, series director Steve Miner wanted a big man to play the role and subsequently hired British stunt man Richard Brooker, who would become the first actor to don the iconic Jason hockey mask.

Brooker is a trained trapeze artist, which is what took him to the States initially. After Friday the 13th Part III, Brooker appeared in Deathstalker and Deep Sea Conspiracy in the 80’s.

Brooker went on to set up his own web design company and like his predecessors is a regular on the convention circuits.

Ted White played Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Ted White had been a stunt double for screen legends John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Clark Gable before he donned Jason’s blood-stained hockey mask for the fourth instalment of Friday the 13th.

His stunt work had begun in the 1950’s but it was three decades later that he took on the role he would become best known for. Initially White was unsure about playing Jason, but in need of the money, he reluctantly signed on. His time on the Friday the 13th set was tumultuous to say the least; he asked to be uncredited for his role and clashed with director Joseph Zito, even threatening to quit at one point.

In the years that followed his turn behind the mask, White continued to contribute stunt work on the big screen, most notably on Wild Wild West and Gone In 60 Seconds. As an actor his most high profile post-Jason appearance was on an episode of The X-Files in 1998.

Dick Wieand played Jason ‘copycat’ Roy Burns

in Friday 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Friday the 13th’s fifth instalment Friday 13th: A New Beginning technically had no Jason; the killer was a copycat who eventually turned out to be ‘loner’ Roy Burns, who was played by Dick Wieand. Friday the 13th was the highlight of Wieand’s acting career, although he’s not especially proud of his work behind the hockey mask. Wieand went on to become a photographer, his most recent screen work coming in 2003 with Every 43 Seconds.

The ‘new beginning’ moniker of the film didn’t really come to fruition when fans lashed out against the film and it’s ending, which implied Tommy Jarvis, who it looked as though had finally killed Jason once and for all in the previous instalment, would become the ‘next Jason’ when he is seen wearing the famous hockey mask at the end of the film, about to pounce on an unsuspecting victim.

This whole twist was quickly dropped and seemingly forgotten about when Friday the 13th returned for a sixth outing in which Jason was quickly, and ridiculously, resurrected.

C.J. Graham played Jason in

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

C.J. Graham was reportedly playing Jason in a nightclub act when he decided to audition for the role of the machete-wielding killer for the franchise’s sixth outing. Initially knocked back, Graham was shocked to later hear from producers that they did, in fact, need him for the role as the original actor they had cast wasn’t coming across with the force and screen presence they expected.

The former nightclub owner loved his time as Jason and during the usual rounds of autograph signings speaks extremely fondly of his experience making the film. His only other film role of note was beneath layers of make-up in 1992’s Highway to Hell as Hellcop Sgt. Bedlam.

C.J. Graham also donned the Jason hockey mask for Alice Cooper’s music video ‘He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)’, a song recorded for Jason Lives. Graham returned to his former line of work after his screen jaunts, working in a Las Vegas casino for a number of years.

Kane Hodder played Jason in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993) and Jason X (2001)

Kane Hodder is easily the most well known of the men behind Jason’s hockey mask, having played Mrs. Voorhees’ baby boy in four films, he also has the unusual distinction of having a middle of the road American punk band named after him.

Considered the definitive Jason by many, Hodder was always destined to be a hulk of a man, he was reportedly the largest baby ever born in his hometown in California. Hodder was extremely outspoken about not being invited back to play Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason, supposedly quipping at a convention when asked about Jason’s look in the film “I guess they wanted Jason to look like a skinny little bitch this time…”

A stunt man by trade, Hodder’s portrayal of Jason ensured he would become somewhat of a legend with horror fans across the globe, a status amplified further by his work on the third Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Hodder has provided stunt work on the likes of Under Siege, Demolition Man, Se7en, Spawn and Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects. As an actor, Kane Hodder’s biggest film roles have all been in horrors; he played the title character in Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield and played the killer Mr. Crowley (Ozzy would be proud) in Hatchet.

Hodder’s passion for his role of Jason Voorhees saw him have the word ‘Kill!’ tattooed on the inside of his lip. Yet despite his physically imposing physique and his love of playing maniacal killers on screen, he is reportedly an extremely friendly guy.

A keen poker player, who’s been known to play in celebrity tournaments, he’s a regular at the conventions that seemingly all ex-Jasons must attend. Hodder has a great deal of time for his fans and also spends time in children’s burns centres, something he has a deep connection with after he was badly burnt during a stunt accident years back.

He has a number of horror projects in the pipeline and will also reportedly be returning for a Hatchet sequel, so much like Jason, you can’t keep Kane Hodder down.

Ken Kirzinger played Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)

Before director Ronny Yu asked Kirzinger to take over as Jason for 2003’s clash of the titans Freddy Vs. Jason, Kirzinger already had ties with Friday the 13th having played a cook in Jason Takes Manhattan, a film he also worked as a stunt co-ordinator on.

He may look like The Rock’s Dad but Ken Kirzinger has had a pretty solid career, not only as a stunt man but also as an actor. Kirzinger’s stunt work began in the early 80’s and by the mid-eighties he’d secured several, albeit small, acting roles.

His work has not just been limited to genre films, having appeared in comedies such as Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and the awesome Hot Rod. He recently played one of the mutant cannibals in the DTV sequel Wrong Turn 2: Dead End.

In terms of stunt work, Kirzinger has worked on everything from Happy Gilmore to the X-Men sequels. And while Kane Hodder has often expressed his resentment at not being offered the hockey mask for a fifth time, taking a couple of jabs at Kirzinger in the process, the two maintain a friendly relationship on the convention circuit.

Derek Mears plays Jason in Friday the 13th (2009)

Even without the Jason get-up, Derek Mears is a scary looking dude (don’t tell him I said that!). Looking eerily like the illegitimate love child of WWE wrestler Kane and Brain from Pinky & The Brain (don’t tell him I said that either!) The 6’5” actor/stunt man has some pretty big shoes to fill, both figuratively and literally.

Mears was a relative unknown until he was cast as the Crystal Lake killer for the Michael Bay produced remake of the classic slasher film. He’s had small roles on TV shows such as E.R., The Shield and Alias and in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Men In Black II and The Hills Have Eyes 2 on the big screen.

Mears has an impressive stunt resume as well, having worked on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (even if it did suck), World Trade Center and two Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Putting on the infamous Jason Voorhees hockey mask will undoubtedly be Derek Mears’ biggest role to date though, and on Friday the 13th February 2009, we’ll see how he measures up to his many predecessors when the Friday the 13th remake slashes it’s way into cinemas.

Who is your favourite Jason…?