Adam West - Batman for all time

1928 - 2017

Although modern demographics may 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), 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 180 degrees).

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.