Adam West (1928-2017)
Hello everyone, it's with sadness that I inform you that Adam West, the noted television and film actor known for portraying Batman in the 1960s titular campy show and movie adaptation, died on June 9th, 2017, at age 88, after a short battle with leukaemia. West is known as the third actor to play the caped crusader and a favourite of many comic book readers. When the dark, gritty feel was introduced in the 1980s and became an integral part of the comic series, not everyone admired his horseplay and the show's goofy tone. He had a huge sensation with the Bat fandom, and we will remember him within our memories.
West's acting in television began in the late 50s in a children's show, though he did not take the stage name of Adam West until he moved to Hollywood in 1959. West's film appearances before Batman include supporting roles in "The Young Philadelphians" opposite Paul Newman, "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" and "The Outlaws Is Coming" with The Three Stooges and numerous guest appearances and supporting roles on various classic television programs. It was then that producer William Dozier discovered the young actor after seeing him perform in a commercial for Nestle Quik and cast him as Bruce Wayne and his eponymous alter-ego in the campy television series, which aired on American television from 1966 to 1968. Aside from playing the titular character for television and film, West also featured in a public service announcement telling schoolchildren to heed Lyndon B. Johnson's call to buy stamps of U.S. savings to support the Vietnam War. Shortly after Batman, West and his few co-stars like Yvonne Craig and Burt Ward fell on hard times when they got severely typecast because of their high-profile roles. Not even his first post-Batman film, "The Girl Who Knew Too Much", tried to avoid his status with Batman, and despite all of his issues, West continued acting in more films. He even did more guest spots in television programs like "Fantasy Island", "Bewitched", "Bonanza", "Maverick", "The Love Boat", "Laverne and Shirley", etc. In later years, during his celebrity status, he appeared as himself in shows like "NewsRadio", "The Adventure of Pete and Pete", "Murphy Brown", "The Ben Stiller Show", "The Drew Carey Show", and "The Big Bang Theory" and also in the feature "Drop Dead Gorgeous".
Outside of his acting, West was a professional voice actor because of his distinctive voice and did voiceovers in a few films like "Chicken Little" and "Meet the Robinsons". Even on television, where he did guest voices on shows like "Rugrats", "The Simpsons", "The Critic", "Johnny Bravo", "Kim Possible", "Futurama", and "SpongeBob SquarePants". Before that, he often reprises the Batman character in Saturday morning cartoons produced by Filmation and Hanna Barbera and recently in two direct-to-DVD movies (with one forthcoming), including "Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders" and "Batman vs. Two-Face". West also voiced in an episode "Beware the Gray Ghost" of "Batman: The Animated Series". Instead of the dark-winged avenger (whose role has been taken by Kevin Conroy), he plays Simon Trent. Like him, his character is a former actor who has trouble finding work after portraying a superhero in the classic TV series The Gray Ghost. He later had a recurring role in "The Batman" animated series as Mayor Grange and guest-starred as Thomas Wayne in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold". In Seth MacFarlane's animated sitcom "Family Guy", he was the voice of the eccentric mayor of Quahog. He voices a parody of himself as portraying a cat-like superhero obsessed with felines, Catman, in Nickelodeon's "The Fairly OddParents".
Anyone old enough to remember Adam West will miss him as long as his memory lives on.
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