Adam West—TV’s Batman on the campy, hilarious 1960s TV series—has passed away at age 88. After spoofing the superhero genre, Adam West pioneered a new style of acting: ironically skewering himself, his career, and his image. He was always in on the joke. Here’s a look at the fourth-wall-breaking career of Adam West.
El Kini Popo
While he’d later pair with Burt Ward to play the “Dynamic Duo” of Batman and Robin, West’s first commercial television work was also as part of a duo. He hosted a local children’s TV show in Hawaii called El Kini Popo Show. His co-host was a chimp.
Doc Holliday
West bopped around network television in the ’50s and ’60s, playing a variety of small roles. Notably, he played Wild West gunfighter (and dentist) Doc Holliday on three different TV westerns: Lawman, Colt. 45, and Sugarfoot. But it was a Nestle Quik commercial that would give him his big break. West played a suave, Bond-like character named Captain Q in the chocolate milk mix ad. Batman producer William Dozier saw it, and tracked down West, thinking he was perfect for his show.
Batman
But West still had to audition to be the Caped Crusader. Dozier screen-tested the final two Batman and final two Robin candidates together. West and Ward appeared in one test, while future Carol Burnett Show co-star Lyle Waggoner was the other Batman, and an actor named Peter Deyell was the other Robin. (West and Ward won, of course.)
James Bond
Playing Captain Q wasn’t the only time West almost played James Bond. In 1970, after Sean Connery had temporarily walked away from the role, Bond movie producer Cubby Broccoli offered West the chance to play 007 in Diamonds are Forever. West declined the chance, saying that the role should go to a British actor. (Connery ultimately returned.)
Batman…Again?
Another part that West missed out on: Batman. An explanation: West has admitted that he felt a little hurt that he wasn’t even considered to play Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film. It had a much darker tone than the 1960 Batman, and West, 61 at the time, was a bit old for the part, but still, he just wanted to be asked.
After Batman
Playing Batman in such a definitive, idiosyncratic way in the ’60s was evidently both a blessing and a curse for West. He was so greatly typecast that after Batman ended in 1968, West couldn’t find acting work for a year, and lived off personal appearance fees. But West did find work, and it was usually in parts that required him to make fun of himself or the fact that he once played Batman. In a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series, West voiced Simon Trent, an out-of-work actor because of typecasting endured after starring in a superhero TV show called The Gray Ghost. In the carton show Batman: The Brave and the Bold, West voiced a Batman robot prototype named Protobot. And on an episode of the kid’s anthology show Goosebumps, West portrayed an aging, increasingly irrelevant superhero named the Galloping Gazelle. On the cartoon The Fairly OddParents, he played Adam West, although a delusional Adam West who is convinced he is actually the superhero Catman.
Adam West
West is probably best known to younger audiences for playing himself—or rather a completely deranged version of himself—on Fox’s Family Guy. West voiced “Adam West,” the mayor of the show’s setting of Quahog, Rhode Island. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane previously worked as a writer on a ’90s cartoon called Johnny Bravo, and met West when he guest-starred on the show as an exaggerated version of himself. Filmmakers did, however, consider West to play Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne/Batman’s murdered father, in a flashback.