Celebrity Biographies
Adam West
“Crunch!”, “Crash!”. Who does not remember the comic onomatopoeia of the most popular superhero series of the 60s? Long before Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck played Batman, Adam West was making it big on TV as Batman. The actor, who was typecast, died on June 9, 2017 at the age of 88 as a result of leukemia, at his residence in Los Angeles. “He aspired to have a positive impact on the lives of his fans. He was and always will be our hero, ”explain his children in a statement.
Born in Seattle on September 19, 1928, William West Anderson was passionate about comics in his youth. He studied Literature and Psychology before serving two years in the Army. Although he began his acting career with a promising, short-lived role opposite Paul Newman in The City Before Me , he was relegated to second-rate roles on hit 1960s shows like Bonanza and bewitched .
After shooting an ad for soluble cocoa that had a certain impact, the ABC executives took notice of him, and ended up hiring him to star in the Batman series in 1966. His bright setting –far removed from the subsequent saga of The Dark Knight–, his costumes colourful, and his sense of humor permeated the popular culture of the time. The villains especially triumphed, especially Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and César Romero , in the role of Joker. It gave rise to a film production, Batman. the movie .
Despite the enormous impact of this audiovisual fiction, it only had three seasons, as the high cost of production left a narrow profit margin. Attempts were made to take advantage of Adam West ‘s pull in film, as a detective in The Girl Who Knew Too Much , but at that time it was almost impossible for a television star to replicate his success on celluloid, so the film went unnoticed. He was relegated to a celebrity guest on series like Seaside Vacations , although he also lavished himself as a voice actor for cartoons. In 1979 he returned to be Batman in a two-part series titled Legends of the Superheroes , where other famous characters from the DC publishing house appeared, such as Green Lantern and Flash.
In 2016 he appeared as himself in chapter 200 of The Big Bang Theory , where Batman’s 50th anniversary was commemorated. In the series Family Guy he voiced the crazy mayor, who was named after him, Adam West . In 1994 he published his autobiography, “Back to the Batcave”, where he confessed his grief that Tim Burton had replaced him for the movies with Michael Keaton . Divorced from Billie Lou Yeager, he had two children with Ngahra Frisbie. Subsequently another four with Marcelle Lear, who has accompanied him until her death.