The Black Mask is a villain from the Batman series. He was originally the ruthless, greedy, and egotistical son of a very wealthy couple, that died in a fire, which he caused intentionally. He got their money and their company, but went bankrupt. His company was saved by Bruce Wayne, and Sionis hates him for taking everything he had, resulting in him becoming one of Gotham City's most ruthless crime lords. His mask is carved out of the black coffin of his father. Despite being sent to Arkham Asylum, his mild insanity is overshadowed by his greed that he was often reconsidered to be relocated to a regular prison instead of an institution due to knowingly and competently committing his crimes.
Roman Sionis was born to a rich and influential family in Gotham City, his father being a very successful industrialist. His parents were narcissistic egotists who only cared about maintaining their social standing and image; when a doctor dropped Roman on his head after his birth, they were more concerned about covering it up from their high society friends than their son's well being. During his childhood, Sionis was attacked by a rabid raccoon at the family's country estate, but his parents forbade him from telling anyone about the incident. They frequently dragged him around to parties and would force him to become friends with the children of other wealthy families in Gotham City, including the young Bruce Wayne. In reality, his parents hated social climbing nouveau riche types like the Waynes, but they continued affiliating themselves with them to preserve their public image. Sionis was deeply affected by his parent's hypocrisy, and he grew to despise them and the "masks" that they wore in public. After his high school graduation, Sionis was given a high ranking position in his father's company, the prosperous Janus Cosmetics, where he fell in love with a working class model named Circe. However, he was outraged when his parents disapproved and demanded that he break off his relationship with her. This proved to be the last straw for Sionis, who proceeded to burn down the family mansion, killing his parents.
With his father dead, Sionis inherited Janus Cosmetics, but lacked the skills needed to successfully run the company, ruining it by funding a failed line of face-paint makeup. In an act of desperation, he poured his money into an experimental waterproof makeup, which he quickly released to the public without proper testing; the makeup turned out to be a deadly toxin that left hundreds of women disfigured. Following the incident, Circe, to whom he was now engaged, broke up with him in front of the entire staff. Afterward, Bruce Wayne, now head of Wayne Enterprises, bought out Janus Cosmetics, relinquishing control from Sionis and appointing his own Board of Directors. Sionis was driven mad from losing everything he had; unable to admit to his own mistakes that ruined his life, he turned his hatred on Bruce Wayne. Donning a mask carved from his father's ebony coffin, he began murdering Wayne employees, planning to eventually assassinate Bruce himself to fulfill his revenge. In the ensuing battle with Batman, Sionis' mask became permanently burnt into his face as a living death mask, ironically granting his wish of removing all traces of his former identity. In the following years, he would become one of Gotham City's most ruthless and sadistic crime lords, commanding the False Face Society, an army of masked henchmen. With each loss to Batman, his empire shrank and his sadism grew. Among his many crimes were the destruction of a community center on Gotham's East End, the painstaking murder of Catwoman's brother-in-law, and driving her sister Maggie insane.
And he is reprised by John DiMaggio in the English dub and Masanori Takeda in the Japanese dub.