See Phoenix's Joker only 23 years early.

I was wondering why the portrayal of The Joker in this film seemed so familar to me, and then I remembered the character from this 1993 music video for "Smoke and Ashes" by the Canadian band, 13 Engines. I doubt Phoenix even saw this video let alone based his perfomance on it, but the similarity is striking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxefScgFQaY