William West Anderson, better known by his stage name Adam West, is an American actor.
After six decades in television, he is perhaps best known for the title role in the 1960s
ABC series Batman and its theatrical feature film. More recently, he is known for portraying
eccentric or psychotically delusional characters, as well as his voice work on animated series
such as The Fairly OddParents and Family Guy, in both of which he voices fictional versions
of himself.
Early life West was born in Walla Walla, Washington,
to Otto West Anderson and Audrey V. Speer. His paternal grandparents were Swedish. He
attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years, and later enrolled
in Lakeside School in Seattle. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature
and a minor in Psychology from Whitman College in Walla Walla where he was a member of the
Beta Theta Pi fraternity and participated on the speech and debate team. Drafted in
the US Army, he served as an announcer on American Forces Network television.
Early roles Later, while living in Hawaii, West picked
a role as the sidekick on a children's show called El Kini Popo Show, which featured a
chimp. West later took over as star of the show.
In 1959, West moved to Hollywood and took the stage name Adam West. In his autobiography
Back to the Batcave he explains that he chose 'Adam' simply because he liked the way it
looked and sounded with 'West', his middle name. His close friends and family still call
him "Bill". He appeared in the film The Young Philadelphians
including Paul Newman, and guest-starred in a number of television Westerns. On three
Warner Brothers westerns aired on ABC, Sugarfoot, Colt .45, and Lawman, West played the role
of Doc Holliday, the frontier dentist and gunfighter. He portrayed Wild Bill Hickok
in the episode "Westbound Stage" of the 1960 NBC western series Overland Trail, with William
Bendix and Doug McClure. He guest starred on Edmond O'Brien's syndicated
crime drama Johnny Midnight and soon snagged a supporting role as police sergeant Steve
Nelson in the crime drama, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor. He made a few guest
appearances on Perry Mason in the early 1960s and appeared once on Walter Brennan's sitcom,
The Real McCoys. On January 10, 1961, West appeared as a young
ambitious deputy who foolishly confronts a gunfighter named Clay Jackson, portrayed by
Jock Mahoney, in the episode "The Man from Kansas" of the NBC western series Laramie.
Jackson is a "Robin Hood" masked gunslinger and bandit whose presence in Laramie brings
Jess Harper and Slim Sherman into conflict over Jackson's veracity. From the start, Slim
had considered Jackson a cutthroat and is proved correct as the plot unfolds.
West made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1961 and 1962. His first role was as small-town
journalist Dan Southern in "The Case of the Barefaced Witness." His other role was as
folk singer Pete Norland in "The Case of the Bogus Books."
West starred in an episode of the original ABC Outer Limits television series titled
"The Invisible Enemy". He made a brief appearance in the film Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie
Gleason and Steve McQueen and starred as Major Dan McCready, the ill-fated mission commander
of 'Mars Gravity Probe 1' in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. In 1965, he was cast
in the comedy western The Outlaws Is Coming, the last feature film starring The Three Stooges.
He played the character Christopher Rolf in the episode "Stopover", of ABC's The Rifleman
, which aired on April 25, 1961.
Batman
Producer William Dozier cast West as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman, in the television
series Batman, in part after seeing West perform as the James Bond-like spy Captain Q in a
Nestlé Quik television ad. West was in competition with Lyle Waggoner for the Batman role.
The popular campy show ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968; a film version was released in 1966.
In 1970, West was offered the role of James Bond by Cubby Broccoli for the film Diamonds
Are Forever. West did not accept, later stating in his autobiography that he believed the
role should always be played by a British actor. The potential casting as Bond became
moot when Broccoli convinced Sean Connery to return to the role.
Post-Batman career After his high-profile role, West, along with
Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig, was severely typecast. West's first post-Caped Crusader role was
in the film The Girl Who Knew Too Much. His lead performance against type as cynical tough
guy Johnny Cain did not erode his Batman image; the movie was a box office disappointment.
For a time, West made a living doing personal appearances as Batman. In 1972, when Ward
and Craig reprised their Batman roles for a TV public-service announcement about equal
pay for women, West was absent. Instead, Dick Gautier filled in as Batman. One of his more
memorable Batman appearances post-series was when he made an appearance in the Memphis,
Tennessee based United States Wrestling Association to engage in a war of words with Jerry "The
King" Lawler while wearing the cowl and a track suit and even name-dropping Spider-Man,
though he is a Marvel Comics hero. West subsequently appeared in the theatrical
films The Marriage of a Young Stockbrocker, The Curse of the Moon Child, The Specialist,
Hardcore, Hooper, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood and One Dark Night. West also appeared in
such television films as The Eyes of Charles Sand, Poor Devil, Nevada Smith, For the Love
of It and I Take These Men. He did guest shots on the TV shows Love, American
Style, The Big Valley, Night Gallery, Alias Smith and Jones, Mannix, Emergency!, Alice,
Police Woman, Operation Petticoat, The American Girls, Vega$, Big Shamus Little Shamus, Laverne
& Shirley, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Zorro, The King of
Queens, and George Lopez. West was also in an episode of Bonanza that supposedly never
aired until reruns were shown. West also made several guest appearances as himself on Family
Feud. In 1986, West starred in the TV comedy cop show titled The Last Precinct.
Return to Batman West often reprised his role as Batman/Bruce
Wayne, first in the short-lived animated series, The New Adventures of Batman, and in other
shows such as The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour, Tarzan and the Super 7, Super Friends:
The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. In 1979,
West once again donned the Batsuit for the live-action TV special Legends of the Superheroes.
In 1985, DC Comics named West as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary
publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Batman series.
West was considered to play Thomas Wayne in Tim Burton's Batman. Originally, he wanted
to play Batman. West made an appearance in a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series
on Fox, but not as Batman. Instead, he portrayed Simon Trent, a washed-up actor who used to
play a superhero in a TV series called The Gray Ghost and who now has difficulty finding
work. West later had a recurring role as the voice of Mayor Grange in the WB animated series
The Batman. The actor vocally reprised his role as Batman
for the CGI animated short film Batman: New Times. He co-starred with Mark Hamill, who
vocally portrayed The Joker and had originally played the role on Batman: The Animated Series.
West also voiced Tom Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father, in an episode of the cartoon series
Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In the same series, he played Batman's prototype robot,
aptly named "Protobot", or "Proto" for short. 1990s–2000s
During the 1990s, West's status as a pop culture icon led to appearances as himself in the
film Drop Dead Gorgeous and in several television series, including NewsRadio, Murphy Brown,
The Adventures of Pete and Pete, The Ben Stiller Show and The Drew Carey Show. In 1991, he
starred in the pilot episode of Lookwell, in which he portrayed a has-been TV action
hero who falsely believes he can solve mysteries in real life. The pilot, written by Conan
O'Brien and Robert Smigel in their pre-Late Night period, aired on NBC that summer but
was not picked up as a series. It was later broadcast on the Trio channel, under the "Brilliant
But Cancelled" bloc. In 1994, West played a non comedic role as the father of Peter
Weller's character in the Michael Tolkin film, The New Age.
Notably, he played a washed up superhero in the Goosebumps television series episode "Attack
of the Mutant". The boy hero is a comic book geek whose favorite superhero, Galloping Gazelle,
is portrayed as fading and on the verge of retirement. Towards the end, the boy is shocked
to learn that the Gazelle is real, though he must save the day by himself.
In 1994, West, with Jeff Rovin, wrote his autobiography, Back to the Batcave published
by Berkeley Books. He also appeared as a guest in the animated talk show Space Ghost Coast
to Coast in an episode titled "Batmantis," where he displayed his book. In 1996, Virgin
Interactive released the gambling simulation game Golden Nugget on PlayStation. Adam West
acted in the video cut scenes of the "Chaos Mystery" storyline subgame. In 2001, he played
the super-villain Breathtaker on the short-lived TV series Black Scorpion.
In 2003, West and Burt Ward starred in the TV-movie Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures
of Adam and Burt, alongside Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, and Lee Meriwether. Jack Brewer
portrayed West in flashbacks to the production of Batman. In 2005, West appeared in the CBS
show The King of Queens. In the episode, Spence first asks Lou Ferrigno to go to a sci-fi
convention. But when Spence meets West, he leaves Ferrigno and asks West to come with
him. West appears prominently in the 2006 video for California band STEFY's song "Chelsea"
as "Judge Adam West", presiding over the courtroom scene.
In 2007, Adam West played an attorney for Benny on the show George Lopez, and starred
as "The Boss" in the movie comedy Sexina: Popstar PI. Following the release of a Batman
game, a host of the show X-Play visited Adam West on the show. In 2009, West played himself
in the episode "Apollo, Apollo" of 30 Rock. Voice-over work
Having a distinctive voice, West built a career doing voice-over work on a number of animated
series, including appearances on The Simpsons, Futurama, Rugrats, The Critic, Histeria!,
Kim Possible, Johnny Bravo and even in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series called
Beware the Gray Ghost, where he voiced the Gray Ghost. He also appeared in many episodes
of Nickelodeon's cartoon, The Fairly OddParents, as a cat-obsessed version of himself who is
famous for playing a superhero called Catman, and who actually believes he is Catman. Catman
is a parody of his earlier character as Batman. A later appearance of Adam West in The Fairly
OddParents world was a parody of himself, hired to play the role of the Crimson Chin
in the movie of the same name. Yet another appearance on the show had him as himself
in a Fairy-sponsored video about how to cope with losing one's fairy godparents.
Since 2000, West has made regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, on which
he plays Mayor Adam West, the lunatic mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island. His role has given
him a new wave of popularity since Batman, and lead writer Seth MacFarlane claims to
have gone out of his way to avoid typecasting West by deliberately not making any references
to Batman. Some of his latest voice-over performances were playing the role of Uncle Art in the
Disney film Meet the Robinsons, and voicing the young Mermaid Man in the cartoon show
SpongeBob SquarePants. West also played the voice of General Carrington
in the video game XIII, and has voiced other video games like Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents
Under Pressure, Chicken Little: Ace in Action, Scooby Doo! Unmasked and Goosebumps: Attack
of the Mutant. For the online game Champions Online, his voice is used in one of the website's
videos. West has also done voice-over work for superhero-themed
commercials for the investment firm The LendingTree and TV commercials for Hebrew National hot
dogs. 2010s–present
In 2010, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to
him. West received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 5, 2012. His star is
located at 6764 Hollywood Blvd in front of the Guinness Museum in Hollywood, California.
West has appeared in a number of videos for Funnyordie.com.
Adam West was interviewed in 2013 on the PBS series called Pioneers of Television in the
season three episode called "Superheroes". West is among the interview subjects in Superheroes:
A Never-Ending Battle, a three-hour documentary narrated by Liev Schreiber that premiered
on PBS in October 2013. He has also done voice-over work for Futurama
Near the end of 2014, Adam West will also be voicing himself in LEGO Batman 3. Also
in LEGO Batman 3 he will be voicing himself as the 1960s Batman too.
Filmography Films
Television
References
Other sources West, Adam. Back to the Batcave. Berkeley.
ISBN 978-0-425-14370-4. Press kit notes for The Girl Who Knew Too
Much External links
Official website Adam West at the Internet Movie Database
Adam West as Batman Adam West interview in Dangerous Ink Magazine
Adam West gets back in the Batmobile Adam West on Twitter
"Jean Boone – Interview with Cast of Batman, The Movie" from the Texas Archive of the Moving
Image Adam West interview video at the Archive of
American Television