Career actor Adam West,iconic Batman of the 1960s television series, died this last weekend. Batman premiered, to great youth acclaim, inJanuary 1966. West, who played the partwith a wry sense of the show's reality, quickly became a cultural icon andtouchstone. He died after a short boutwith Leukemia, surrounded by his wife Marcelle, his six children and theiroffspring. He grew up in Walla Walla, Washington, and attended college there, before serving in the armed forces in Hawaii. In college he became involved in the arts, and was an announcer for the Armed Forces Radio Network. He first came to Hollywood during the beefcake craze of the late 1950s-early 1960s and starred in movies and tv shows which allowed him to show off his physique. He was well known for his positive outlook,even after Batman type casted him and made it almost impossible for him to workfor several years. He rebounded, withsteady employment keeping him occupied, and was most recently well known asplaying the voice of the Mayor of Quahog (whose character name on the show wasAdam West) on Family Guy. His familyissued a statement up his death: "Our dad alwayssaw himself as The Bright Knight and aspired to make a positive impact on hisfans' lives. He was and always will be our hero." West said that he liked the scripts instantly forthe Batman show. He said if Batman wereplayed in a serious way, a subtext would be that he was a bit crazy. Playing the role in a comedic way, he said, providedthe proper balance, and allowed them to push the limits of fun and believability. Some of the actors who played Batman in laterfilm versions should have taken a lesson. West was raised on a wheat farm in easternWashington state, and when he struggled financially after the show, he and hisfamily moved to Idaho. As a boy, watching Batman for the first time inafter school reruns, the cape, the cowl, the batpole into the batcave, and hisrelationship with the Boy Wonder, Robin, always stimulated me to watchagain. I would not have minded being putto sleep and having BatWake used on me in the bat cave, surrounded by all thatsatin. The shows in which Batman andRobin were in jeopardy, with fights to follow, were always so much fun. Batman and Robin, and Burt Ward and Adam West, taught a lot about male friendship, about bonding, about fighting evil, about working together for the common good. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
