A bit of baby boomers’ childhood has been lost.
Adam West, best known as TV’s Batman, died Friday at 88, reportedly from leukemia.
While not the first actor to play the Caped Crusader (there were two movie serials in the 1940s), he ignited Bat-mania across the country as the star of the hit ABC show “Batman” in 1966.
West’s Caped Crusader, alongside his youthful ward, Robin (Burt Ward), battled the likes of the Joker, the Riddler and Catwoman, with an array of incredible gadgets in his seemingly inexhaustible utility belt, including Bat-shark repellent.
Unlike the tortured crime-fighter made popular by Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck, West’s Batman was the “Bright Knight.” He obeyed traffic lights and believed in good nutrition and civic duty. While the show was camp, West played it straight, grounding his hero for his young fans.
Julie Newmar, who was perhaps West’s most popular adversary as the femme fatale Catwoman, called West in a statement, “Stellar, exemplar, a king to the end. He was bright, witty and fun to work with. I will miss him in the physical world and savor him always in the world of imagination and creativity. He meant so much to people.”
Born William West Anderson in 1928, the actor appeared in the 1959 film “The Young Philadelphians” with Paul Newman and guest-starred on such TV shows as “Sugarfoot, “Laramie” and “Perry Mason” before landing the role that would define the rest of his life.
Bat-mania burned bright, with a release of a theatrical film of the same name in 1966, and it burned fast.
By 1968, it was over. The show was canceled after its third season and West struggled for work.
Today, actors flock to superhero franchises. For West, the star of the first superhero hit, his was practically a career killer. Post-“Batman,” he guested in such TV shows as “Police Woman,” “Emergency,” “Bewitched” and “Fantasy Island.” His films included “The Specialist,” “Hooper” and “The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood.”
He made a generation of new fans by voicing a dim, dippy version of himself as the mayor of Quahog on Fox’s animated “Family Guy” beginning in 2000.
Despite the hard times he endured, West remained forever grateful to his fans, many who grew up with him.
“I’m the luckiest actor in the world, folks, to have you still hanging around,” he told fans at a comic book convention in 2014.
West lived long enough to see his interpretation become popular again.
He reunited last year with co-stars Ward and Newmar for the animated film “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” that captured the humor and spirit of the original.
DC publishes a “Batman ’66” comic book based on the TV show and bearing his likeness. In an odd bit of timing, West’s hero is teaming with “Wonder Woman ’77” — based on the Lynda Carter show.
West’s death comes as “Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot, dominates the world’s box office.
None of that success would have been possible without West, who picked up the cowl and cape more than 50 years ago and saw a chance to inspire, entertain and thrill, “same bat-time, same bat-channel.”
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
