BURT WARD

'Burt Ward' (born 'Bert John Gervis, Jr.' on July 6, 1945) is an American television actor. He is best known for his work as Robin, the "Boy Wonder", in the 1960s television series, "Batman." The show, which aired on ABC from 1966 to 1968, starred Ward and Adam West as the title character, also known as "The Caped Crusader."

Contents

Early life

Robin begins

Post-Batman career

Autobiography

Animal work

Family

Trivia

References

External links

Early life

Ward was born in Los Angeles, California. At the age of two, he was listed in the prolific magazine, ''Strange as it Seems'', as the world's youngest professional ice skater. Growing up, he was an avid reader of Superman, Superboy, and enjoyed the action-adventure show Adventures of Superman. He excelled in high school athletic activities such as football, track, wrestling, and was a member of the chess club. In addition to this, he earned a black belt in karate. After graduation, he enrolled in college, while working part-time for his father's real estate company.

Robin begins

At the age of 19, he decided to audition for the part of Robin, without having ever read a Batman comic book. Upon meeting with executive producer William Dozier for the role, Dozier was impressed, saying "Robin just walked into my office." Ward and Adam West were up against Lyle Waggoner and Pete Duel for the roles of Batman and Robin. During this time, the show was being planned as a campy style action-adventure show, and their screen tests consisted of staged fight scenes and, at one point, Ward chopping a set of boards with his hand. Eventually, he was selected for the role of Robin at the age of twenty, stepping onto the screen in 1966 with the debut of "Batman." Unfortunately, unlike his partner, Ward was required to act during dangerous stunt work, because his costume revealed more of his face than a stuntman could compensate for.
During the first months of shooting, Ward was paid $350 per week. By the series' end, he was earning up to $600 a week. According to him, in an interview, he stated that the series only lasted three seasons for a total of 120 episodes, due to the high cost of production. The show was still high in the ratings, but ABC Network was losing thousands of dollars on filming (this can be seen in the decline of the sets and constant re-use of stock footage). Weeks later, NBC offered to pick it up for a fourth season, but the offer was withdrawn upon realization that the sets had been bulldozed.

Post-Batman career

After the end of "Batman," Ward found himself hard-pressed to find other acting jobs. Ward only re-emerged on the movie scene to act in more than 30 made for television films such as ''Virgin High.''
Although wanted by the producer, Ward did not get the Dustin Hoffman part in ''The Graduate'', because he chose to renew his contract with the show, and the studio (20th Century Fox) didn't want to dilute his popularity and identification as Robin.
He did, however, appear in numerous reunions with co-star Adam West. The most memorable reunions included Ward and West reprising their roles as Batman and Robin on a short-lived animated television series called ''The New Adventures of Batman'' and the 2003 television movie, ''.
During a Pro Wrestling Unplugged angle with wrestler Johnny Kashmere, Ward "knighted" Kashmere as the "New Batman", so far as to appear on the show multiple times and walk out using the theme music from the Batman series in the '60's.

Autobiography

Ward also wrote a "tell-all" autobiography called '' (ISBN 0-9647048-0-3), which described his life at the time that he was playing Robin. In 2001, Ward began Boy Wonder Visual Effects, Inc. Boy Wonder Visual Effects has provided visual effects for 25 studio features, for 10 independent films, and for several television series.

Animal work

In 1994, Ward and his wife, Tracy Posner Ward, founded a Charitable organization called Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoptions, Inc. ^[1], which rescues giant breed dogs and some smaller breed dogs. Their work with the organization has been featured in such outlets as People, ASPCA Animal Watch,^[2], ''Hard Copy'', ''Inside Edition'', and ''Entertainment Tonight''.^[3]

Family

Ward has two daughters: Lisa Ann Ward, his daughter from a previous marriage, who had a baby in 1991, and Melody Lane Ward, born on February 16, 1991 with his current wife.

Trivia

★ Burt Ward (a.k.a. Bert John Gervis, Jr.) decided upon his professional surname by using his mother's maiden name. He substituted the "e" with the "u" in his first name to add more of a "punch." Ward's reasoning behind the name change was that he was afraid that people would have a hard time pronouncing "Gervis" (which is pronounced with a soft-"G"). Adam West recounts a slightly different reasoning in his autobiography, ''Back to the Batcave'', that Bert was changed to Burt to make the name more "rugged," a la Burt Lancaster, and an additional reason for Ward being the fact that Dick Grayson/Robin was Bruce Wayne's/Batman's ward in a play on words.

★ At the height of ''Batman's'' popularity, Ward recorded a series of tracks under the production of Frank Zappa. The first two, "Boy Wonder, I Love You" (which Zappa wrote) and "Orange Colored Sky," were released as a single on November 14, 1966. Two other tracks from these sessions, "Teenage Bill of Rights" and "Autumn Love", remained unreleased. ^[4]

References

1. [1]
2. Canine Crusader
3. Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoption: We're on TV!
4. The Zappa Patio: Unreleased Records by Burt Ward

External links

★ Official Website

★

★ Burt Ward at TV.com

★ Gentle Giants site

★ July 10, 2006 audio interview of Burt Ward by Stephanie Miller on ''The Stephanie Miller Show'' about his dog adoption services.