The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, and like all animals in Oz, he can speak.
Although he often doubts himself, the Cowardly Lion nonetheless often demonstrates bravery in the face of danger. Since lions are supposed to be "The King of Beasts", the Cowardly Lion worries his own fear makes him inadequate, failing to understand that courage is not a lack of fear, but acting in the face of fear. His fear is alleviated only in the aftermath of the Wizard's gift, when he is under the influence of a liquid substance the Wizard orders him to drink. He argues that the courage from the Wizard is only temporary, though he continues to do brave deeds.
Contents
Books
The Cowardly Lion makes his first appearance in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City where he ambushes her, Toto, Scarecrow, and Tin Woodman. When he tries to bite Toto, Dorothy slaps him. She calls the Lion a coward and the Lion admits that he is. The Cowardly Lion joins her so that he can ask the Wizard for courage, ashamed that he is not brave enough to play his cultural role of the King of the Beasts. Despite outward evidence that he is unreasonably fearful, the Cowardly Lion displays great bravery along the way. During the journey, he leaps across a chasm on the road of yellow brick multiple times, each time with a companion on his back and then leaps back to get the next one. When they come into another, wider chasm, the Cowardly Lion holds off two Kalidahs while the Tin Woodman cuts a tall tree to cross it. In spite of his fears, he still goes off to hunt for his food and he even offers to kill a deer for Dorothy to eat, but the idea makes her uncomfortable.
The Wizard gives the Lion a dish of unknown liquid, telling him it is "courage" to drink. In the remainder of the book, he becomes aggressive and ready to fight. He accompanies Dorothy on her journey to see Glinda, and allows his friends to stand on his back in order to escape the Dainty China Country.
The Lion's favored companion is the Hungry Tiger. This may well be the "Biggest of the Tigers" he and his friends encounter in the Forest of Wild Beasts in the Quadling Country In this forest, all of the lions and many of the other animals have been eaten by a Giant Spider. The Lion finds the Giant Spider asleep and decapitates it. The Tiger and the other animals bow to him and ask him to be their king, and he promises to do so upon his return from accompanying Dorothy to Glinda. Glinda orders the Winged Monkeys to carry him back to the Forest once Dorothy has returned home.
In the rest of Baum's Oz series, the Lion never again played a major role. In later books, the Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. He is Princess Ozma's chief guardian on state occasions and he and the Hungry Tiger pull Ozma's chariot. In subsequent Oz books by Baum, the Lion was shown to have continued being courageous and loyal, although still considering himself a coward and regularly frightened, even by Aunt Em. He befriended the Hungry Tiger in Ozma of Oz, if this was not the earlier Tiger, which The Patchwork Girl of Oz implies that it is by calling both Lion and Tiger "largest of their kind", and the two have become Ozma's personal guards. In Glinda of Oz he is on Ozma's board of advisers.
Alternate stories
The Lion appears in Gregory Maguire's revisionist series The Wicked Years, starting with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995). He is one of many human-like Animals possessing the ability to talk, and was taken from his mother as a cub for use in an experiment on the nature of Animals. Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, saves the Lion Cub; they encounter each other near the novel's end, as the Lion joins Dorothy in the hunt for the Witch. After a minor role in the second novel Son of a Witch (2005), The Lion becomes the central character in the third novel, A Lion Among Men (2008), where he is given the name Brrr. He appears in the final novel, Out of Oz (2011), where he ascends to Throne Minister of Oz.
In Danielle Paige's Dorothy Must Die (2014), the Lion has become a giant, brutal warrior who walks on his hind legs, draining the fear from others to increase his own strength. In the sequel The Wicked Will Rise (2015), protagonist Amy Gumm is able to take the Lion's courage by cutting off his tail, realizing it has been sewn onto his hindquarters, but Amy spares the Lion despite being tempted to kill him. The Lion is subsequently bound and forced to fight for Dorothy despite his fear, forcing Amy to kill him despite her past actions.
Film portrayals
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz
In the 1914 film His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, the Lion was played by Fred Woodward.
The Wizard of Oz (1925)
In the 1925 silent film The Wizard of Oz, directed by and starring Larry Semon, the Lion was played in disguise by Curtis McHenry.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
In the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the Lion was a humanoid biped and played by Bert Lahr, a popular vaudeville and Broadway star, with many of Lahr's trademark mannerisms deliberately worked into the film. In this version, the liquid courage given to him by the Wizard is replaced with a medal marked "Courage". Bert Lahr's biography, written by his son John Lahr, is entitled Notes on a Cowardly Lion.
In the film, the Lion walks on his hind legs instead of all four, except when he is first seen bounding out of the forest to attack Dorothy's friends. After roaring fiercely at them on all fours, he does stand up on his hind legs.
Lahr also portrayed the Lion's Kansas counterpart, Zeke, one of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's farmworkers. Screenwriter Noel Langley created this character for the film. Zeke helps Hickory, Tin Man's alter ego, lower a bed into its place on a wagon at the farm. He then moves the hogs into the pig pen and pours feed into their trough. When Dorothy falls off the railing that encircles the pen, Zeke jumps in and rescues her. With Dorothy safe, Zeke sits down beside the pen, breathing heavily and seemingly about to faint. The others realize that he had been afraid of the pigs, and playfully mock him. Zeke wears his hat throughout the entire film because he does not struggle to open the cellar when the tornado approaches the farm. Hunk, Scarecrow's alter-ego, closes and locks the cellar with him when Dorothy arrives at the farmhouse. Zeke and Professor Marvel, the Wizard's alter-ego, are the only men wearing hats when Dorothy awakens from being unconscious.
The original Courage Medal prop from the 1939 film, a cross-shaped medal made of poly-chromed metal and measuring 7.5 × 7.5" (19.1 × 19.1 cm), features a lion in profile above a crown and a knight's helmet and the word "Courage" in raised blue scroll lettering. In the late 1950s, Mal Caplan, the head of the costume department at MGM was in a life-threatening automobile accident, and spent months in the hospital before returning to work. For sometime he was unable to sit upright and had to work from a chaise longue. In recognition of his courage, his colleagues and the management at MGM presented him with the Lion's Courage Medal. He was also given the Tin Man's "heart", but he gave that to "someone who needed it", a man in the same hospital who was having open heart surgery. The current whereabouts of the heart clock are unknown. The Courage Medal remained in the Caplan family until it was consigned to a Sotheby's Entertainment Memorabilia auction in May 1997. The medal was purchased by a New Jersey collector, and in November 2010 was featured on episode 7 of the TV show Hollywood Treasure.
The Wiz
The Lion is a featured character role in The Wiz, an all-Black Broadway musical adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with songs by Charlie Smalls, a book by William F. Brown, and direction by Geoffrey Holder. Ted Ross first portrayed the Lion named Fleetwood Coupe de Ville when The Wiz debuted on Broadway in 1975, and he won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal.
Ross reprised his role as the Lion in Motown Productions and Universal Pictures' 1978 film version of The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumet. David Alan Grier portrayed the Lion in 2015's The Wiz Live!, an NBC television special adapted from the musical by director Kenny Leon and teleplay writer Harvey Fierstein.
Return to Oz
In the 1985 spiritual sequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Lion is briefly seen at the end of the film. Unlike the 1939 film, this version is a puppet and walks on all fours. He is also shown growling rather than speaking.
The Oz Kids
In the 1996 animated cartoon series The Oz Kids, the Lion (voiced by unknown) rules the kingdom to the south of Emerald City, Quadling Country and has two cubs, Bela and Boris. His son Boris is afraid of things, like his father.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
The Lion appeared in the animated film Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, which is based on Dorothy of Oz, voiced by Jim Belushi.
Oz: The Great and Powerful
The Lion makes a brief cameo in the 2013 film Oz: The Great and Powerful, as a CGI character. He briefly tries to attack Oz (played by James Franco) and his monkey companion Finley (voiced by Zach Braff), but Oz uses his magic to create a velvet fog that intimidates the Lion, causing him to immediately retreat.
Wicked and Wicked: For Good
In Wicked (2024), adapted from the first half of the stage musical and its originating novel, the Lion appears as a cub used in a demonstration on how to subdue talking Animals by keeping them in cages. Elphaba, the eventual Wicked Witch of the West, stages a rescue, and the experience radicalizes her in favor of the Animals and their rights.
The Cowardly Lion returns in Wicked: For Good (2025), motion-captured by Omari Bernard and voiced by Colman Domingo. Now an adult, he appears when Elphaba attempts to convince the other Animals to confront the Wizard rather than flee. He harbors resentment for Elphaba abducting him from the only home he knew, despite Elphaba protesting he would have gone mute otherwise, and dissuades the Animals by revealing her to have given the flying monkeys their wings. Later on, after joining Dorothy's group in the hunt for Elphaba, the Tin Man blames the Witch for the Lion's cowardice, claiming he wouldn't be that way if she let him fight his own battles.
Later works and parodies
In the 1961 animated TV series, Tales of the Wizard of Oz and its sequel, the 1964 NBC animated television special Return to Oz, the Lion, here named Dandy Lion was voiced by Paul Kligman.
In a 1979 episode of The World's Greatest Super Friends, Wonder Woman temporarily became the Lion after a tornado took her, Superman, and Aquaman to Oz. While passing Mister Mxyzptlk’s dangerous landscape, she had lower legs of an African lion. She did not get returned to normal until she reached the Wizard (Mister Mxyzptlk himself) with Superman and Aquaman.
In a 1981 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Scooby is dressed as the Lion after a tornado took him, Shaggy, and Scrappy to "Ahz", a direct spoof of Oz with a different spelling by its enunciation.
The Lion appears in the 1990 The Wizard of Oz cartoon, voiced by Charlie Adler. The Lion has his brave and cowardly persona intact, and even gets to wear the Ruby Slippers for a short while in one episode.
Nathan Lane performs as this character in the 1995 television stage performance The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. The Kansas farmworker Zeke does not appear in this production. He sings the longer version of "If I Only Had the Nerve" including the bridge verses sung by the Scarecrow (Jackson Browne), Tin Man (Roger Daltrey), and Dorothy (Jewel). In his version of If I Were King of the Forest, he has an addition into the lyrics "Not queen, not duke, not prince...or the Artist Formerly known as Prince".
The Lion appears as an enemy in the 1997 video game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, along with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man.
"Home", a 2002 song from American rock band Breaking Benjamin, references a "cowardly lion" in its lyrics.
Strawberry Shortcake's 2003 cartoon has Berry Brick Road, where Strawberry Shortcake, taking Dorothy Gale's role, goes to Oz to get home. The Lion returns as her third companion, fourth counting Pupcake, his design now changed to resemble Orange Blossom with braided hair and in a lion costume.
Speculated origins
In the original Oz books, the Lion's origins were never explicitly stated. However, many works since then have either hinted at or revealed elements of backstory for the Lion. Partly due to the large amount of written material about Oz, many of these stories are contradictory to each other or to the "Famous Forty" Oz books, and many fans do not accept them as canonical. The canonical books give no indication the Lion did not originate in Oz, essentially as a normal, if unique, lion.
A skittish and fearful lion cub is seen at Shiz University in Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The cub had been the result of cruel experiments by Dr. Dillamond's replacement teacher, in the musical, it was an agent of the Wizard, and was saved by Elphaba and some other students. This is heavily hinted to be a younger form of the Lion. The Tin Woodman confirms this in the Broadway musical adaptation Wicked, in the song "March of the Witch Hunters": "And the lion also has a grievance to repay! If she'd let him fight his own battles when he was young, he wouldn't be a coward today!"
Maguire's third book in the Wicked Years, A Lion Among Men, is told primarily from the Lion's viewpoint, and its plot is centered around Brrr's account of his own origins, or lack thereof, he is unsure, as his narration begins, of the whereabouts of his parents, pride, etc.
The book Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage and its accompanying animated feature, Lion of Oz, show the Lion as having grown up in a circus in America. His caretaker, Oscar Diggs, was the man who would become the Wizard of Oz; this man took the Lion on a balloon ride one night, which resulted in the two becoming stranded in Oz.
The film Oz the Great and Powerful shows Oscar Diggs driving away an attacking lion with a smoke bomb, suggesting that this lion is Dorothy's future companion.
In the 2017 TV series Emerald City, the Lion is a former guard in the Wizard's army who is cursed into the form of a beast for his actions against the former Royal Family of Oz.
Political interpretations
Some historians, such as Henry M. Littlefield in American Quarterly, have suggested that Baum modeled the Cowardly Lion after politician William Jennings Bryan, or politicians in general.