RIP Adam West
The Hollywood Reporter- Adam West, the ardent actor who managed to keep his tongue in cheek while wearing the iconic cowl of the Caped Crusader on the classic 1960s series Batman, has died. He was 88.
West, who was at the pinnacle of pop culture after Batman debuted in January 1966, only to see his career fall victim to typecasting after the ABC show flamed out, died Friday night in Los Angeles after a short battle with leukemia, a family spokesperson said.
West died peacefully surrounded by his family and is survived by his wife Marcelle, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Believe it or not, Adam West was a giant staple of my childhood. That may seem strange, being that I’m eighteen years old, and West’s most popular role ended thirty years before I was born, but it didn’t. At least not to me. Batman was in syndication on TV Land in the early 2000s, and it was by far my favorite show as a toddler/young kid. Every night that it was on, me, my dad, and a rotating cast of other family members would tune in to that same Bat-Channel, pop a blank VHS tape into the VCR, and watch the adventures of the caped crusader. When it was over, that VHS tape was written on and put into the collection. I was, and still am, a HUGE rewatcher. We’ve talked about it on the Rundown how I see new Star Wars movies twice the first night they come out, and various times after that. Well I believe it all started with Batman.
The things you remember when you’re that young can get blurry, and they really are for me, because I had to be 2-3, maybe 4 years old, but I vividly remember specific episodes of the show that I loved. The Egghead episode I accidentally taped over, The Mr Freeze episode where his eyebrows freaked me out, the King Tut episodes where I thought Batman was toast, EVERY episode with Cesar Romero as the Joker (but particularly the baseball one), and of course, the motion picture. My sister jokes that out of every movie she’s ever seen, the 1966 Batman flick is the one she’s seen the most. This is because I would watch it every single day with my figures handy, recreating the iconic scenes such as Batman utilizing his very convenient Bat-Shark Repellent (I used my mom’s hairspray for this, she wasn’t happy). The now comical bomb scene wasn’t funny in the slightest to me, that simply showed me Batman had tremendous bravery, and no matter how many times I’d seen the movie, my heart would beat a little faster every time, hoping my hero could get it away from the civilians safely.
Advertisement
When most kids got over the Batman phase, I never did (just like I never got over pro wrestling and Star Wars). It evolved into me watching the other movies, animated series’, reading comic books, and when I was 10, I watched my favorite movie of all time, The Dark Knight. What followed was an explosion of the superhero movie genre. We’ve reached a point now where if you go into a movie theater, the odds are great a superhero movie will be showing. I truly believe that’s all thanks to the original superhero, and my original superhero, Adam West. My condolences to the West family. Thank you for helping me become who I am today, Adam.
Of what use is a dream if not a blueprint for courageous action.
-Adam West