Adam West

The Chocolate Ad Guy

William West Anderson was never going to be a visual joke. In 1959 he arrived in Hollywood with a shorter stage name and a jaw square enough to win over casting agents. Before the tights and the colorful onomatopoeic sound effects, he worked on minor supporting roles without much glory.

But everything changed because of a can of cocoa powder. producer William Dozier saw him in a TV commercial for Nesquik, where he played a James Bond-style spy. That serious parody earned him the role of Bruce Wayne in the 1966 series Batman.

And the gamble paid off.

The series became a ratings phenomenon that forced ABC to air two episodes a week. West chose to play the hero with absolute (almost deadly) seriousness while the script around him was pure pop delirium. He understood that the only way the comedy could work was for the lead to be unaware that he was in a comedy.

Over the course of the 120 episodes the show ran, the actor became the most recognizable face on American television. But the gray cotton suit stuck to his skin in a way that would eventually stifle his later film career.

The Trap of the Gray Tights

When the series was canceled in 1968, the phone simply stopped ringing. Casting directors didn't see an actor capable of drama, only the guy who did the Batusi on the small screen. So West spent much of the 1970s taking mediocre roles in B-movies such as The Curse of the Moon Child.

It was a period of drought and survival. He had to appear at local fairs and rodeos dressed in the Batman costume to pay the bills and support his family. That typecasting was a burden that kept him away from California's major production circuits for years.

It was not a return to auteur cinema.

In 1977 he put on the cape again to voice the character in the animated series The New Adventures of Batman. He accepted that his destiny was tied to the Dark Knight (or to his kinder version) and chose to embrace the legacy rather than run from it. But true redemption would not come through action, but through parody of himself.

The Mayor of Quahog

In 2000, Seth MacFarlane called him for a supporting role in the animated series Family Guy. West agreed to play Mayor Adam West, an over-the-top, delirious version of his own public image. That decision brought him cult status with a generation of viewers who weren't even born when his original series premiered.

And the gamble paid off.

That final stage of his professional career was marked by voice acting and appearances at comic conventions, where he was treated like a legend. In 2016, he appeared in episode 200 of The Big Bang Theory, where he openly poked fun at his rivalry with other actors who had played the Caped Crusader.

In 2017, he recorded his final lines for the movie Batman vs. Two-Face before passing away in June from a sudden leukemia. The production was completed on a tight budget and went straight to home video.