The Toxic Avenger: Every Actor Who Played Toxie

The Toxic Avenger is the most well-known film from independent production company, Troma Entertainment, and brought them such success that the main character, Toxie, is essentially the company’s mascot — here’s every actor who has taken on the role to date. First introduced in 1984, The Toxic Avenger is the tale of weak, constantly harassed janitor Melvin Ferd, who falls into a vat of toxic chemicals and is hideously mutated but also gifted with superhuman size and strength.

Now unable to return to his old life, Melvin, now dubbed The Monster Hero or The Toxic Avenger—Toxie for short—decides to use his new superhuman abilities to fight crime in Tromaville, taking out gangsters, thieves, human traffickers, and a full-scale crime ring that goes all the way up to Tromaville’s mayor.

Though Toxie remains essentially the same character over the course of all of the Toxic Avenger movies, he still goes through some changes over the course of his career. Through a total of four full-length movies and an animated series, Toxie is played by three different physical actors as well as four different voice actors, each of which bring their own touch to the character.

Mitch Cohen, & Kenneth Kessler (The Toxic Avenger)

The original Toxic Avenger brought Mark Torgl to the screen as skinny, pitiful janitor Melvin Ferd III before his transformation into The Toxic Avenger. But, once Melvin becomes Toxie, he’s played by Mitch Cohen, who also appears as a background character in several other movies, including Kevin Smith’s inaugural 1994 picture, Clerks. The voice of Toxie, on the other hand, is Kenneth Kessler, who primarily served as a production manager or assistant director in films of the 40s and 50s, lending his voice only to The Toxic Avenger and the 1986 film, Monster in the Closet.

Ron Fazio & John Altamura (The Toxic Avenger Part II & III)

The Toxic Avenger Part II and Part III were originally filmed as one movie, but when Lloyd Kaufman realized he had shot too much footage for one movie, he re-cut it into two separate movies. Because of this, both movies share the same Toxic Avenger actor. However, there are still two actors credited as The Toxic Avenger in both movies. This is because John Altamura was originally cast in the role, but was fired during production and replaced with Ron Fazio. His scenes were kept in the final cut of both movies, though, and thus both Fazio and Altamura are credited as The Toxic Avenger.

David Mattey & Clyde Lewis (Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV)

Despite being the third sequel to The Toxic Avenger, Citizen Toxie serves as the official sequel to the first movie, skipping the events of the first two sequels. In this film, The Toxic Avenger is played by David Mattey, who is primarily a stunt actor, but who has appeared in both El Camino and Better Call Saul as Man Mountain. He also plays the role of The Noxious Offender in this movie. For the voice of Toxie, Clyde Lewis lent his voice to the film. Though Lewis has voice acted for a few other productions, he’s primarily known as a radio personality in the paranormal investigation space.

Rodger Bumpass (Toxic Crusaders)

Toxic Crusaders is the short-lived animated series that followed the Toxic Avenger movies, featuring Toxie as the leader of a group of mutant superheroes who combat pollution. In this series, Toxie is voiced by Rodger Bumpass, who is most famous for his long-running role as Squidward Tentacles on Spongebob Squarepants, and has had a long and highly successful career in other animated series.

Though Rodger Bumpass is the most modern incarnation of Toxie, most Troma fans still think of the original The Toxic Avenger and Mitch Cohen’s portrayal of the character as the most iconic. However, this may change with the upcoming reboot of The Toxic Avenger bringing Peter Dinklage on board as Toxie.

About The Author