Adam West - Batman for all time

1928 - 2017

Although modern demographics skew Batman's alter-ego identity recognition toward Christian Bale (of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight films) or Ben Affleck (Batman V Superman), but across the globe and through the last fifty years one person more than any other had been identified with Batman, and that's Adam West.

Though the Batman show only lasted three seasons, it racked up 120 episodes which have been in syndication ever since. Whether as an antidote to the seriousness of the current screen renditions of Batman, or as a test-tube specimen of mid-1960s mod and hip culture (not to mention peeks at the pantheon of movie and TV celebrities which paraded through the series as co-stars), the Batman TV show appears to be immortal, in television terms, and that longevity is mostly due to West's frank and sincere presentation of the 'freak in tights' (West's term), a character he has said requires an actor to put on the cowl to understand (a costuming chore which West, age 37 when he began, has said made him feel as if he were performing in the heat of 180º degrees).

To at least a generation of young Bat-lovers, the cheeky ABC series was their true introduction to the DC Comics crime-fighter created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and first popularized at the dawn of World War II.
– Washington Post Obit by Michael Cavna, June 10, 2017

...West died in 2017, aged 88. [Burt] Ward misses him greatly. "I loved Adam. A lot of co-stars don’t get along, but we were best friends. We partied together and played tennis. In three years of Batman not one director told me or him how to say a line. We had a chemistry." – UK The Times "Burt Ward: Batman was much more fun in the 1960s" March 13, 2022

Adam West Pro-Wrestling Batman Appearance – Screenrant July 2021

West hilariously - and potentially through some level of inebriation - accuses Lawler of colluding with The Penguin and Mr. Freeze to make Tennessee's winter unusually frigid that year, a true crime against humanity if there ever was one. Lawler joining into the conversation only ratchets up the surreal nature of the event, with "The King" coming out in full Superman attire, followed by Batman referring to Superman as his friend "Sup," and even bizarrely invoking Marvel superhero Spider-Man, calling him "Spidey-Baby."

Born William West Anderson, "Adam West" (his stage name) has a long list of movie and TV credits besides Batman. He was born in Walla Walla, Washington State. West died, he was 88, June 9, 2017 in Los Angeles from leukemia.