Adam West, who portrayed Batman in the 1966 television show and movie has died after a short battle with leukemia, according to Variety. He was 88 years old.
William West Anderson was born in Washington in 1928, and was drafted into the US Army, where he worked for the American Forces Network. After being discharged, he settled in Hawaii, where he landed his first television roles, and later moved to Hollywood, California. There, he played in shows such as Sugarfoot, Lawman, Overland Trail, and others. He was particularly know as the spokesperson for Nestle’s Quik, playing a James Bond-style character called Captain Quik, which helped him land the role for which he would be best known.
West’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne’s Batman in the campy, 1966 television show and film helped establish his career as an actor. In his book, The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture, Glen Weldon notes that it was his voice that set West apart while auditioning for the role:
“As he delivers each line, his voice slithers through different registers and volumes. He inserts pauses that are not merely pregnant but two weeks overdue. Those pauses were of course a deliberate choice — he wanted the viewer to see Batman’s intellectual processes, the way he thought through a puzzle and excitedly seized upon the answer.”