Adam West

All you want to know about Adam West

For other uses, see Adam West (disambiguation).
Adam West

West at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards, 1989.
Born William West Anderson
September 19, 1928 (1928-09-19) (age 80)
Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.A.
Years active 1950's - Present
Spouse(s) Billie Lou Yeager (1950-1956)
Frisbie Dawson (1957-1962)
Marcelle Tagand Lear (1971-Present)
Official website

Adam West (born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928) is an American actor who is best known for playing the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne on the 1960s TV series Batman, which was also adapted to a film of the same name.

Contents

Biography

Adam West was born in Walla Walla, Washington to Otto West Anderson and Audrey V. Speer.[1] He has a younger brother named John. 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[2] in Walla Walla.

Acting career

West started acting on television in the 1950s, appearing in small roles as straight men to mostly comedic characters.

Early roles

In Hawaii, West landed a role as the sidekick on a children's show called The Kini Popo Show, which featured a chimp. West later took over as star of the show.[3]

In 1959, the actor moved to Hollywood and took the stage name "Adam West." He co-starred in the film The Young Philadelphians with Paul Newman, and guest-starred in a number of television Westerns. He soon snagged a supporting role as Sgt. Steve Nelson in the cop show The Detectives. He also starred in an episode of the original television series The Outer Limits titled "The Invisible Enemy." He made a brief appearance in the film Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen and in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. In 1965, he starred in the comedy western The Outlaws is Coming, the last feature film starring The Three Stooges.

Batman

Main articles: Batman (TV series) and Batman (1966 film)

Producer William Dozier cast West as Batman and his alter ego, Bruce Wayne (in part, after seeing West perform as the James Bond-like spy Captain Q in a Nestlé Quik television ad), in Batman, the hit television series. West beat out Lyle Waggoner for the Batman role.

The popular, campy show ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968; a film version was released in 1966.

West was at one point offered the role of James Bond by Cubby Broccoli in 1970 for the film Diamonds Are Forever. West declined, later stating in his autobiography that he believed the role should always be played by someone British, referencing Australian George Lazenby's unpopular time in the role.

Post-Batman career

Typecasting

After his high-profile role, West, along with Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig (who played crimefighting sidekicks Robin and Batgirl) was badly typecast. West's first post-Caped Crusader role was in the 1969 release The Girl Who Knew Too Much. He played against type as a tough, hard-boiled assassin. The movie was a failure and has almost become a lost film.

For a time, West was forced to make a living doing personal appearances as Batman. In 1972 however, 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.

West subsequently appeared in the theatrical films The Marriage of a Young Stockbrocker (1971), The Curse of the Moon Child (1972), Partizani/Hell River (1974), The Specialist (1975), Hardcore (1977), Hooper (as himself; 1978), The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980) and One Dark Night (1983). (Incidentally, "the Dark Knight" is the nickname of Batman, the character with whom West has become so inextricably associated.) West also appeared in such television films as The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972), Poor Devil (1973), Nevada Smith (1975), For the Love of It (1980) and I Take These Men (1983).

He did guest shots on the popular TV shows Love, American Style, The Big Valley, Night Gallery, Alias Smith and Jones, Mannix, Emergency!, Alice, Police Woman, Operation Petticoat, The American Girls, Vegas, Big Shamus Little Shamus, Laverne & Shirley, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart and King of Queens.

His typecasting kept him from landing more substantial roles. In recent years, West has exploited his fate to poke fun at his status as a pop-culture icon.

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 like Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. In 1979, West once again put on the Batsuit for the live-action TV special Legends of the Superheroes.[3]

West made a cameo appearance in a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series on FOX, but not as Batman. Instead, he voiced the part of 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 once again provided the voice of Batman for the CGI animated brickfilm Batman: New Times. He co-starred with Mark Hamill, who provided the voice of The Joker and had originally played the role on Batman: The Animated Series.

Recent years

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[4] and The Drew Carey Show[5]. 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 crimes in real life. The pilot, written by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel, aired on NBC that summer but was not picked up as a series.[6] It was later broadcast on the Trio channel, under the "Brilliant But Cancelled" imprint.[7]

Noticeably, 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 (West's character), 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 (ISBN 0-425-14370-8). 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 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 (playing himself), 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 portrayed a defense attorney for Benny on the show George Lopez, and starred as "The Boss" in the movie comedy Sexina: Popstar PI.[8]


Following the release of a Batman game, a host of the show X-Play visited Adam West on the show.

Voice-over work

West's appearance on Family Guy.

West built a career doing voice-over work on a number of animated series (often as himself), including appearances on The Simpsons, The Critic, The Boondocks, Histeria!, "Adventures of Pete and Pete", Kim Possible, and Johnny Bravo. He also appeared in five 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. 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. West also voiced many characters related to his famous Batman character, as mentioned above in the typecasting section.

Since 2000, West had made semi-regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, on which he plays Mayor Adam West, a parody of West himself, the lunatic mayor of fictional Quahog, Rhode Island.[9] He also voiced over as a man in an office with Ted Turner on Robot Chicken's spoof of Captain Planet. His latest voice-over performance was playing the role of Uncle Art in the Disney film Meet the Robinsons.

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.


Filmography

Short Subjects:

Television work

Footnotes

  1. ^ Genealogy.com: Ancestry of Adam West
  2. ^ Interview, Whitman Magazine, December 2006
  3. ^ a b Adam West at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ^ Adam West biography at Hollywood.com.
  5. ^ Hotel Drew episode summary at TV.com.
  6. ^ Conan O'Brien bio at TVGuide.com.
  7. ^ Wilonsky, Robert. "End of the Road", the Miami New Times, published December 12, 2002, accessed May 30, 2007.
  8. ^ "Adam West and Davy Jones meet Sexina". Retrieved on 2008-11-16.
  9. ^ See main article at Adam West (Family Guy)

Other sources

  • West, Adam (1994). Back to the Batcave. Berkeley. ISBN 0-425-14370-8. 
  • Press kit notes for The Girl Who Knew Too Much

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Preceded by
Robert Lowery		 Actors to portray Batman
1966–1972		 Succeeded by
Richard Gautier
Preceded by
Richard Gautier		 Actors to portray Batman
1979–1989		 Succeeded by
Michael Keaton
v • d • e
Batman franchise media
Actors
Live-action television
Live-action serials and Feature Films
Batman (1943) · Batman and Robin (1949) · Batman (1966) · Batman (1989) · Batman Returns (1992) · Batman Forever (1995) · Batman & Robin (1997) · Batman Begins (2005) · The Dark Knight (2008)
Animated television
Batman/Superman Hour (1968–1969) · New Adventures of Batman (1977–81) · Batman: The Animated Series (1992–95) / New Batman Adventures (1997–99) · Batman Beyond (1999–2001) · The Batman (2004–08) · The Brave and the Bold (2008)
Animated feature films
Related animated TV series
Super Friends (1973–86) · Justice League (2001–04) · Justice League Unlimited (2004–06)
Persondata
NAME West, Adam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES William West Anderson (birth name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Usian actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Walla Walla, Washington, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_West"

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