Holy Batman - It's Adam West!

Batman was one of the most expensive television series during its run (1966 to 1968). The show can still be seen around the world

Adam West is best known for his role as Batman in the kitschy 60s television series. Although Batman lasted only from 1966 to 1968, it defined West’s career.

The show celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and can still be seen in syndication around the world.

West started life in Walla Walla on September 19, 1928 as William West Anderson. His father was a farmer, his mother an opera singer and concert pianist. West described his father as strong, kind and decent, his mother as beautiful, talented and headstrong. “Every VIP who happened to wander through our hometown found his or her way to our doorstep, victims of my mother’s considerable charm.” He and his younger brother listened from the stairway as the likes of Nelson Eddy, James Stewart, Alan Ladd and Lilly Pons laughed and sang at his mother’s soirees.

His parents moved to California when West was an infant, but the family headed home when his mother’s bid for fame didn’t pan out. In the end, neither did the marriage.

After his parents’ divorce, West grew up splitting his time between a farm 20 miles outside of Walla Walla and Seattle, where his mother and her neurosurgeon husband lived. He graduated from Seattle’s Lakeside School: “After several false starts that landed me in trouble, (such as ‘borrowing’ the school bus for dates), I found my footing and got a real head start on life,” said West about his time at Lakeside. He became a good athlete and was voted class president.

West graduated with a degree in literature from Walla Walla’s Whitman College. He married his first wife while still in college, then started a graduate degree at Stanford where he dabbled in radio and reporting. This immediately led to a job producing radio shows and that was it—he became hooked on performing. But he was fired for being too “innovative.” So he signed up for the Army and helped start a military television station. “Being involved in the new technology (of television) made me feel like Dr. Huer in the Buck Rogers strip,” said West. His knack for deadpan comedy became apparent during this time.

After his stint in the Army, he worked as a milkman and received a medal for “milkmanship above and beyond the call of duty” for continuing his rounds during a hurricane!

But West was determined to find his way back into performing and jumped at the chance when a college buddy, who had become a local TV star in Hawaii, wrote to say, “come on out and you can be a star, too.” While Hawaii proved fatal to his marriage, West did become the star of a local television show with a chimpanzee sidekick named Peaches. He also met his second wife in Hawaii. The couple had two kids and eventually parted on good terms, but not before their big move to Hollywood.

In Hawaii, West purchased a plane and learned to fly for extra money as an island tour guide. One of his clients turned out to be a movie producer who introduced West to his future agent. Within weeks, West had his first screen test in Hollywood.

The move required a name change, and he became Adam West in 1959 (although close friends and family still call him Bill). Warner Brothers signed him to a contract soon after he arrived in town. For seven years he lined up film credits and worked constantly in about every TV show the studio had. West was known for what he calls “guest spots and second-banana roles.”

His big break came in 1966 when he stepped into an office at 20th Century Fox and a producer asked him if he’d ever read a Batman comic.

Immediately, West recalled his time back on the farm. “I found a cache of comic books in an old bunkhouse, and Batman had made a big impression on my ten-year-old mind,” he recalled. “He was so many exciting characters rolled into one: Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, even a bit of Dracula…each time I read one of the comics, I was so inspired I threw myself on the floor to do push-ups.”

When he was offered the part of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, West had to choose between the big-budget TV show and a leading role in a modestly budgeted foreign film. He knew his choice had the potential to brand him for the rest of his career.

“The conventional wisdom in Hollywood was that donning a costume was the equivalent of slipping into a career straightjacket,” said West about contemplating his choice. He had his doubts, but once West began reading the script, he realized how funny it was. The irreverent, innovative lines caught his attention and he decided to sign up on the spot.

West was 37 when he first played Batman/Bruce Wayne on TV. Over the years, he often returned to Batman for various projects. And now, at the age of 88, West relives the role once again in an animated feature film, Return of the Caped Crusaders, that opened last month (with another already in the works). West joined Burt Ward (Robin in the original series) and Julie Newmar (the original Catwoman) for the new project. The film revisits the playful, kooky nature of the 60s series rather than viewing Batman as the dark, brooding figure seen in a succession of Hollywood blockbusters of more recent years.

In last month’s Vanity Fair article on West and Newmar, West described a conflicted relationship with his Batman legacy. “It was enormously trying and enormously rewarding. I was an ambitious young actor. I was studying with Lee Strasberg in the Actors Studio…to put on that (Batman) costume and get that kind of immediate response and notice was rewarding… When it ended, I did a couple of fairly good movies, but then I could see what was happening. Every time the audience would see me come into a scene, you could hear an intake of breath and it would be like, There’s Batman.”

The transition away from Batman proved very difficult for West; roles were hard to come by. He was able to carve out a living in the business doing regional theater, personal appearances as Batman, car shows, “a string of dumb movies”…just about anything to support his family. “What I wanted to do—and I think the smartest thing to do—is to keep working.”

His salvation these last 50 years is that West takes his work seriously, but not himself. With his distinctive voice, he has made a living voicing animated characters. “West’s willingness to make fun of himself led to the role for which, other than Batman, he is best known, Mayor Adam West on Family Guy – a role that has given him a new wave of popularity,” writes Vanity Fair’s Liebenson. Earlier this year, he was a guest star playing himself on CBS’s megahit show, The Big Bang Theory.

In the introduction of his book, Back to the Batcave, Adam West wrote: “…I have helped Batman become a legend, a world-class pop culture icon as recognizable as Bond or the Beatles. It has brought me joy and heartache and frustration with many stops in between.”

Upon reflection, he admits to being miserable at times when he didn’t get roles because of Batman. “But I learned a long time ago that because people love Batman, I should too. I have such a fondness for it. I'm grateful I had a chance to create a classic character.”

West splits his time between Palm Springs and Ketchum, Idaho with his third wife, Marcelle. They’ve been together since the early 70s and have six children between them.

Even at age 88, West still does a mean batusi – the dance craze he made popular through his signature role.