ADAM WEST

'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 TV series ''Batman'' (which also had a film adaptation). He is also known for his current role as the delusional Mayor Adam West on the show Family Guy.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Acting career

Early roles

Batman

Post-Batman career

Typecasting

Return to the Batman role

Recent years

Voice-over work

Quotes

Filmography

Television Work

Footnotes

Other sources

External links

Biography

Early life

Adam West was born in Walla Walla, Washington to Otto West Anderson and Audrey V. Speer;^[1] he has a younger brother, John. He attended Walla Walla High School his freshman and sophomore years, later attending Lakeside School (a prestigious high school in Seattle). He graduated with a BA in Literature and a minor in Psychology from Whitman College^[2] in Walla Walla.
At Whitman, he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, a member of the debate team, a singer in the school choir, a writer for the school newspaper, and a member of the Economics Club. He also swam, skied, ran track, and played water polo.² He also was a graduate student at Stanford University.^[3]
In 1950, West married 17 year old Billi Lou Yeager. He was drafted into the United States Army in the early 1950s and served two years. After the Army, West and his wife travelled through Europe before settling in Hawaii.

Acting career

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 the star of the show.^[4]
In 1959, West 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 made a brief appearance on the 1964 film ''Robinson Crusoe on Mars''.

Batman

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

Producer William Dozier cast West as Batman and his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, in ''Batman'', the hit television series. West has said he was also invited to play James Bond after Sean Connery decided to give up the role, and that he enjoys that he was almost a majority of the three big B's of the 1960s: Bond, Batman, and The Beatles. The popular, campy show ran from 1966 to 1968; a film version was released in 1966.

Post-Batman career

Typecasting

After his high profile role in Batman, West, Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig were badly typecast in their roles. 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 entirely doing personal appearances as Batman. He 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). Mister 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 also did guest shots on the popular tv shows Love American Style, Night Gallery, Alias Smith And Jones, Mannix, Emergency, Alice, Police Woman, Operation Petticoat, The American Girls, Vegas, Big Shamus Little Shamus, Laverne And Shirley, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat and Hart To Hart. He mentioned there were several prospects for him, such as him replacing Sean Connery as James Bond. His typecasting, however, always brought these to naught. Although in recent years, however, West has exploited his typecasting to receive a number of roles that are either self-parody or otherwise poke fun at his status as a pop-culture icon.

Return to the Batman role

During this period, West often played the voice of Batman, first in the short-lived animated series, ''The New Adventures of Batman'', and in other shows like '', ''. In 1979, West once again put on the Batsuit for the live-action TV special, ''Legends of the Superheroes''.
West continued to maintain an association with the character that made him famous. He had a cameo appearance in a 1992 episode of '' on FOX, but not as Batman. Instead, West ironically voiced the part of a washed-up actor who used to play a superhero in a TV series called "The Gray Ghost" and who, now typecast as the Gray Ghost, has difficulty finding work. West later had a recurring role as the voice of Mayor Grange in the WB animated series ''The Batman''.
Adam West once again provided the voice of Batman, in the CGI animated brickfilm, ''. In that movie, he starred alongside Mark Hamill who provided the voice of The Joker, who 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 and ''The Ben Stiller 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 end, the boy is shocked to learn that the Gazelle is real, though he must save the day by himself.
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.

Voice-over work

West has built a career doing voice-over work on a number of animated series (often as himself), including appearances on ''The Simpsons'', ''The Boondocks'', ''Histeria!'', ''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 voices many characters related to his famous Batman character, as mentioned above in the typecasting section.
Since 2000, West has 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.^[8] 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 '', '' and ''Scooby Doo! Unmasked''.

Quotes

★ ''On being typecast as Batman:'' "It was inescapable. I'd just about land something substantial, something I like or a good career move. Then some dinosaur would rear up and say, 'But the audience will think of him as Batman.' It was formidable. It was there like a brick wall."^[9]

★ "''Batman'' was an expensive show and it was losing money. I became extremely frustrated and unhappy and wanted out. There was nothing I could do to convince the producers or the studio to make improvements. I was just a hired hand. Eventually, I lost all interest because I felt the series was being neglected. They weren't spending the money they should have, and we weren't getting the scripts we deserved. I didn't want any part of this situation any more. I was tired of fighting for better shows. The program I wanted to do was no longer possible. But I hated to leave the character because Batman had been good to me."

★ ''On I've Got a Secret:'' "I had a very playful dentist...", prior to revealing his secret of once being marked with a bat picture on a tooth of his.

Filmography

Features:

★ ''Voodoo Island'' (1957)

★ ''Ghost of the China Sea'' (1958)

★ ''The Young Philadelphians'' (1959)

★ ''The FBI Story'' (1959)

★ ''Geronimo'' (1962)

★ ''Tammy and the Doctor'' (1963)

★ ''Soldier in the Rain'' (1963)

★ ''Robinson Crusoe on Mars'' (1964)

★ ''The Outlaws Is Coming'' (1965)

★ ''Mara of the Wilderness'' (1965)

★ ''The Relentless Four'' (1965)

★ ''Batman'' (1966)

★ ''The Girl Who Knew Too Much'' (1969)

★ ''Hollywood Blue'' (1970) (documentary)

★ ''The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker'' (1971)

★ ''Curse of the Moon Child'' (1972)

★ ''Partizani'' (1974)

★ ''The Specialist'' (1975)

★ ''Hardcore'' (1977)

★ ''Hooper'' (1978)

★ ''The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood'' (1980)

★ ''One Dark Night'' (1983)

★ ''Hell Riders'' (1984)

★ ''Young Lady Chatterley II'' (1985)

★ ''Zombie Nightmare'' (1986)

★ ''Night of the Kickfighters'' (1988)

★ ''Doin' Time on Planet Earth'' (1988)

★ ''Yellow Pages'' (1988)

★ ''Return Fire'' (1988)

★ ''Omega Cop'' (1990)

★ ''Mad About You'' (1990)

★ ''Maxim Xul'' (1991)

★ ''The Best Movie Ever Made'' (1994)

★ ''The New Age'' (1994)

★ ''Not This Part of the World'' (1994)

★ ''Run for Cover'' (1995)

★ ''The Clinic'' (1995)

★ ''The Size of Watermelons'' (1996)

★ ''Joyride'' (1996)

★ ''An American Vampire Story'' (1997)

★ ''Drop Dead Gorgeous'' (1999)

★ ''Seance'' (2001)

★ ''From Heaven to Hell'' (2002)

★ ''BAADASSSSS!'' (2003)

★ ''Tales from Beyond'' (2004)

★ '' (2005) (direct-to-DVD) (voice)

★ ''Aloha, Scooby-Doo!'' (2005) (direct-to-DVD) (voice)

★ ''Buckaroo: The Movie'' (2005)

★ ''Chicken Little'' (2005) (voice)

★ ''Angels with Angles'' (2005)

★ ''Sexina: Popstar P.I.'' (2006)

★ ''Meet the Robinsons'' (2007) (voice)

★ ''Ratko: The Dictator's Son'' (2007) (voice)
Short Subjects:

★ ''Ride for Your Life'' (1995)

★ ''Redux Riding Hood'' (1997) (voice)

★ '' (2005) (voice)

Television Work

★ ''The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor'' (cast member from 1961-1962)

★ ''Batman'' (1966-1968)

★ ''Alexander the Great'' (1968) (unsold pilot)

★ ''The Eyes of Charles Sand'' (1972)

★ ''Poor Devil'' (1973)

★ ''Shazam!'' (cast member from 1974-1975) (voice)

★ ''Nevada Smith'' (1975)

★ ''The New Adventures of Batman'' (1977-1978) (voice)

★ ''Tarzan and the Super 7'' (1978-1980) (voice)

★ ''Legends of the Superheroes'' (1979)

★ ''For the Love of It'' (1980)

★ ''Warp Speed'' (1981)

★ ''Time Warp'' (1981)

★ ''I Take These Men'' (1983)

★ ''Ace Diamond Private Eye'' (1983) (unsold pilot)

★ '' (1984-1985) (voice)

★ '' (1985-1986) (voice)

★ ''The Last Precinct'' (1986) (canceled after 7 episodes)

★ ''Lookwell'' (1991) (unsold pilot)

★ ''1775'' (1992) (unsold pilot)

★ ''Danger Theatre'' (1993) (canceled after 7 episodes)

★ ''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' (1993-1996)

★ ''The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs'' (1998-1999) (voice)

★ ''The Fairly Odd Parents'' recurring cast member (voice)

★ ''Family Guy'' (recurring cast member from 2000 - present) (voice)

★ '' (2003)

★ ''Monster Island'' (2004)

Footnotes

1. http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/adamw/index.html
2. Interview, ''Whitman Magazine'', December 2006
3. Adam West: Biography
4.
5. Adam West biography at Hollywood.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. See main article at Adam West (Family Guy)
9. Adam West entry at born-today.com.

Other sources

★ Back to the Batcave, West, Adam, , , Berkeley, 1994, ISBN 0-425-14370-8

★ Press kit notes for ''The Girl Who Knew Too Much''

External links

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★ '60s "Batman" Adam West, 76, gives thumbs up to "Batman Begins"