Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)

In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past. The novel confirms that Erik has traveled to multiple countries including France, Russia, Persia, and northern Vietnam, learning various arts and sciences from each region. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his birth deformity, and that his father, a true master mason, never saw him. Most of the character's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian or the Daroga, who saved Erik's life in Persia, and followed Erik to Paris; other details are discussed in the novel's epilogue (e.g., his birthplace is given as a small town outside of Rouen, France).

In the original novel, Erik is described as corpse-like and is referred to as having a "death's-head" (human skull) throughout the story. He has no nose; eyes that are sunken so deep that all is seen are two skull-like eye sockets except when his golden eyes glow in the dark; skin that is yellow and tightly stretched across his bones; and only a few wisps of dark brown hair behind his ears and on his forehead. (His mouth is never described in as much detail, but is referred to as a 'lipless' 'dead mouth' by Christine, and Erik acknowledges that his mouth is abnormal when lifting up his mask to display ventriloquism.) He is described as extremely thin, so much so that he resembles a skeleton. Christine graphically describes his cold, bony hands, which also either feel or smell like death (there is debate among both English and French speakers as to whether the original French word used here, "sentir," was intended by Leroux to mean "smells like" or "feels like," as the French word is used for both feel and smell depending on the context). Erik woefully describes himself to Christine as a corpse who is "built up with death from head to foot." According to the Persian, Erik was born with this deformity and was exhibited as le mort vivant in freak shows earlier in his life. Erik sometimes plays up his macabre appearance, such as sleeping in a coffin and dressing up as the Red Death for the masked ball.

Lon Chaney's characterization of Erik in the silent film The Phantom of the Opera (1925) remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. In this version, Erik is said to have been deformed from birth. Chaney was a masterful make-up artist and was considered avant-garde for creating and applying Erik's facial make-up design himself. It is said that he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the women of the time that theatres showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand.

Several movies based on the novel vary the deformities. In Universal's 1943 adaptation, he is disfigured when the publisher's assistant throws etching acid in his face. In the musical horror film Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Winslow (the Phantom character) gets his head caught in a record-press, while the horror version starring Robert Englund has him selling his soul to Satan and having his face mutilated as a result. This version also has a gruesome variation on the mask, in which Erik is sewing flesh to his face.

In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation, only half of Erik's face is deformed (thus the famous half-mask often associated with Erik's appearance.) His show was originally planned to have a full mask and full facial disfigurement, but when the director, Harold Prince, realized that it would make expression onstage very difficult, they halved the mask. The logo featuring a full mask was publicized before the change. The deformity in the musical includes a gash on the right side of his partially balding head with exposed skull tissue, an elongated right nostril, a missing right eyebrow, swollen lips, different colored eyes, and a wrinkled, warped right cheek. It is covered by a white half mask and wig.

In the 2004 film adaptation of the musical, Erik's makeup was made to look much less gruesome than previous adaptations of the story. Instead of a skull-like face, his disfigurement resembles that of a mildly malformed face, which he covers with the mask. Film critic Roger Ebert noted that Butler was more "conventionally handsome" than his predecessors "in a GQ kind of way".[2]

The 1998 film adaptation starring Julian Sands as Erik is notable in that the character is not deformed and has instead a classically handsome face.

• The Phantom appears in Bob Dylan's 1965 song "Desolation Row", disguised as a priest.
• The heavy metal band Iced Earth has a song called "The Phantom Opera Ghost" on their album Horror Show.
• The heavy metal band Iron Maiden has a song called "The Phantom of the Opera".
• The violinist Lindsey Stirling made a cover of the song "Phantom of the Opera" on YouTube.
• The Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish performed a cover of "The Phantom of the Opera", the title song of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, on their 2002 album Century Child–with bassist Marco Heitala as The Phantom.
• Symphonic metal group Dreams of Sanity also covered "The Phantom of The Opera" from Webber's musical, featuring Tilo Wolff from Lacrimosa as the phantom, the band was signed to Wolff's record label "Hall of Sermon".
• The Phantom has also featured in the Night Gallery episode "The Phantom of What Opera?", starring Leslie Nielson as Erik, though he is never directly referred to by name.
• The Count Duckula episode "A Fright at the Opera" parodies the story.
• Universal Studios' attraction, Beetlejuice's Rock n' Roll Graveyard Revue, features the Phantom of the Opera as a rock star.
• The 1988 animated film Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School shows The Phantom (voiced by Hamilton Camp) is now a ghost. His daughter Phantasma (voiced by Russi Taylor) plays the organ.
• In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Phantom of the Opera is mentioned.
• In Gremlins 2, one of the Gremlins can be seen wearing a phantom-esqe mask, and later in the movie there is a parody of the unmasking scene, in which one of the other Gremlins, dressed in a frilly pink gown, walks up behind him when he's playing an organ and removes his mask.
• R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series includes The Phantom of the Auditorium, where junior high school students put on a production of The Phantom only to meet a mysterious student who plays the Phantom's role in the story.
• In Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, the episode "The Phantomato of the Opera" shows the Phantomato, a disfigured tomato, rescuing Tara Boumdeay from the Killers, and she pulls his mask off as he plays for her.
• In the Wishbone episode "Pantin at the Opera", the Phantom wears a full mask.
• In Tiny Toon Adventures, "Toon TV", the video for "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)", shows Buster Bunny as the Phantom and Babs Bunny as Christine as she takes off his mask.
• In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Wedding", a future Martin Prince lives in the cellar of Springfield Elementary, wearing a half-mask and playing the organ.
• The American Dad! episode "Phantom of the Telethon" contains numerous references to the story, including Roger's costume resembling the Phantom and him dressing Steve Smith as Christine.
• The Phantom appeared in the Big Bad Beetleborgs episode "Phantom of Hillhurst", portrayed by Ken Merckx. This version is shown to have supernatural powers, was friends with Christine Daaé (until she moved away), and was also an old friend of Flabber. After the Paris Opera House had burned down, the Phantom stays at Hillhurst until it is rebuilt. While working on his latest musical, the Phantom recognizes Jo's singing voice to be similar to a younger Christine's singing voice and claims her to be one. The Phantom manages to kidnap and mind-control Jo to help create his musical. When Flabber fails to stop the Phantom, he calls in Drew and Roland for help. What stopped the Phantom was Flabber managing to reunite the Phantom with Christine. Both Phantom and Christine left for France as the Phantom removes the spell from Jo.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Something Smells", SpongeBob plays dramatic music on an organ while wearing a cape, only to turn around and reveal his mask to be Groucho glasses.
• In the 'Tom & Jerry Kids minisode "Droopy of the Opera", McWolf dresses as the phantom, and tries to sabotage Drooperotti's performance and later steals the Diva for himself but is ultimately stopped by Droopy and his son.
• In the polish comedy movie Planet Single 2 Anne's mother is having sex with some man, that man wears an cape and Erik's mask but is in his underwear.
• In the Chowder episode "Panini for President", the character Gorgonzola wears a costume similar to the Phantom including a white half-mask.
• In the Monster High franchise, the Phantom of the Opera teaches a music class. His daughter Operetta is also in attendance at the school.
• In the video game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, villain, Don Octavio, is an opera singer turned mob boss who wears a white fitted mask. Later during his boss fight, Sly Cooper attempts to drop a chandelier on him, further referencing the play.
• In the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb, Phineas Flynn plays the Phantom in the episode "Roller Coaster: The Musical!" In one scene, he wears a half-faced mask, with a cape and wardrobe similar to the 2004 film adaptation.
• In a third season episode of Glee, Kurt Hummel initially intends to sing "The Music of the Night" for his NYADA audition. He begins his audition with the song singing Erik's part, with Rachel Berry portraying Christine (who the song is sung to; she does not sing).
• Erik (credited as the "Phantom of the Opera") appears in Hotel Transylvania 2, voiced by Jon Lovitz. He appears as Hotel Transylvania's residential musician. The Phantom is first seen playing melancholy music at Mavis and Johnny's wedding and even played music during the dinner with Mavis and Johnny's family while listening in on their conversation. The Phantom of the Opera later plays music during Dennis' fifth birthday party during the performance of the person performing Kakie. During Dracula's heated argument between Mavis and Jonathan, they get fed up with the Phantom playing during this time and shout at him to shut up.
• The Phantom appears in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order as an Assassin class Servant.
• Erik is a central figure in Kim Newman's pulp pastiche anthology Angels of Music, in which he is re-imagined as the head of a private detective organisation called the "Opera Ghost Agency", employing as its agents the female protagonists of popular contemporary media, including Trilby O'Ferrell, Christine, Irene Adler and others, in homage to the television series Charlie's Angels. In addition to his skills as a musician, composer and architect, he is portrayed as a practitioner of savate and uses a secret elixir to remain vital into old age.
• In Terry Pratchett's novel, Maskerade, Erik's character is split into two parts. His artistically beautiful side is the janitor Walter Plinge, the original ghost in the book. All he does is give hints on how the performances could be improved. He comes out of his shell to become the Director of Music and later goes on to invent musicals. Erik's selfish and murderous side is covered by Mr. Salzella, who murders and steals from the Opera as the ghost to hide the fact that he is embezzling much of its funds. He dies due to believing stage combat is real.
• In season 3, episode 12 ("Spooktacular/Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot") of "The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show", an obvious parody of Erik (voiced by Jeff Bennett who wasn't credited for the role) appears and goes by the name of "The Phantom of the Show." He claims that 80 years ago, he, too, was a show-runner, until a beautiful chorus girl distracted him during a dance number, and a chandelier crashed down on top of him, leaving him, in his own words, "hideously deformed," despite him not even have a single scar when he removes his half mask. Later in the episode he gets up on stage and sings a brief song about loneliness before being distracted by Mrs. Arugula Hughes, Peabody and Sherman's Notary, and yet another chandelier falls on top of him. Even later in the episode, it is revealed that "The Phantom of the Show" was actually just Peabody and Sherman's landlord Mr. Hobson the whole time before a chandelier appears out of thin air and crushes him yet another time.
• In the opening of The Umbrella Academy, vanya plays “Phantom of the Ópera” on the violin