William West Anderson, professionally known as Adam West, was an American actor.
56 Facts About Adam West
2.
Adam West portrayed Batman in the 1960s ABC series of the same name and its 1966 theatrical feature film, reprising the role in various media until 2017.
3.
Adam West played opposite Chuck Connors in Geronimo and The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming.
4.
Adam West appeared in the science fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars and performed voice work on The Fairly OddParents, The Simpsons, and Family Guy, playing fictionalized versions of himself in all three.
5.
Adam West was born William West Anderson on September 19,1928, in Walla Walla, Washington.
6.
Adam West's father, Otto Anderson was a farmer descending from Scania in southern Sweden; and his mother, Audrey Volenne was an opera singer and concert pianist who left her Hollywood dreams to care for her family.
7.
Adam West moved to Seattle with his mother when he was 15, following his parents' divorce.
8.
Adam West attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years and later enrolled in Lakeside School in Seattle.
9.
Adam West attended Whitman College but studied at the University of Puget Sound during the fall semester of 1949.
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Adam West graduated with a bachelor's degree in literature and a minor in psychology from Whitman College, where he was a member of the Gamma Zeta Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
11.
Adam West appeared in the film The Young Philadelphians which starred Paul Newman.
12.
Adam West had guest-star roles in a number of television Westerns.
13.
Adam West appeared playing different characters in two episodes of Maverick opposite James Garner: "Two Tickets to Ten Strike" and "A Fellow's Brother" in 1958.
14.
Adam West played Christopher Rolf in the episode "Stopover" of ABC's The Rifleman, which aired on April 25,1961.
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Adam West made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1961 and 1962.
16.
Adam West made a brief appearance in the 1963 film Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen, and starred as Colonel Dan McCready, the ill-fated mission commander of Mars Gravity Probe 1 in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars.
17.
In 1964, Adam West played Dr Clayton Harris, a handsome, young physician in two episodes of the sitcom Petticoat Junction.
18.
Adam West was in competition with Lyle Waggoner for the Batman role.
19.
In 1966, Adam West released a novelty song Miranda as his Batman character.
20.
Also in character, West appeared in a public service announcement in which he encouraged schoolchildren to heed then-President Lyndon B Johnson's call for them to buy US savings stamps, a children's version of US savings bonds, to support the Vietnam War.
21.
In 1970, Adam West was considered for the role of James Bond by producer Albert Broccoli for the film Diamonds Are Forever.
22.
Adam West's first post-Caped Crusader role was in the film The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
23.
Adam West's lead performance against type as cynical tough guy Johnny Cain did not erode his Batman image; the movie was a box office disappointment.
24.
Adam West subsequently appeared in the theatrical films The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, The Specialist, Hooper, The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, One Dark Night and Young Lady Chatterley II.
25.
Adam West appeared in such television films as The Eyes of Charles Sand, Poor Devil, Nevada Smith, For the Love of It and I Take These Men.
26.
Adam West was in an episode of Bonanza that supposedly never aired until reruns were shown and he made several guest appearances as himself on Family Feud.
27.
In 1979, Adam West donned the Batsuit for the live-action TV special Legends of the Superheroes.
28.
Adam West was considered to play Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father, in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film.
29.
Adam West was a voice actor in various Batman-related animated series and films in addition to other projects connected to the TV series.
30.
Adam West guest starred in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Beware the Gray Ghost" as Simon Trent, a washed-up actor who used to play a superhero in a TV series called The Gray Ghost and who now has difficulty finding work.
31.
Adam West reprised his role of Batman in the Animaniacs episode "Boo Wonder" Season 5, Episode 3 of Animaniacs.
32.
Adam West was the voice of Batman in the 2005 CGI-animated short film Batman: New Times.
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Adam West co-starred with Mark Hamill, who vocally portrayed The Joker and had originally played the role on Batman: The Animated Series.
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In 1994, Adam West played a non-comedic role as the father of Peter Weller's character in the Michael Tolkin film The New Age.
35.
Adam West played a washed-up superhero in the Goosebumps television series episode "Attack of the Mutant".
36.
Adam West acted in the video cut scenes of the "Chaos Mystery" storyline subgame.
37.
In 2005, Adam West appeared in the CBS show The King of Queens.
38.
Adam West appears prominently in the 2006 video for California band STEFY's song "Chelsea" as "Judge Adam West", presiding over the courtroom scene.
39.
In 2009, Adam West played himself in the episode "Apollo, Apollo" of 30 Rock.
40.
Adam West received the 2,468th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 5,2012.
41.
Adam West's star is located at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Guinness Museum in Hollywood, California.
42.
Adam West was interviewed in 2013 on the PBS series called Pioneers of Television in the season-three episode called "Superheroes".
43.
Adam West is among the interview subjects in Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, a three-hour documentary narrated by Liev Schreiber that premiered on PBS in October 2013.
44.
In February 2016, Adam West guest-starred as himself on the 200th episode of The Big Bang Theory.
45.
In January 2017, Adam West appeared on the British comedy panel show "Through the Keyhole" in which viewers and panellists looked around Adam West's Los Angeles home by video.
46.
Adam West appeared in many 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.
47.
Adam West's later appearance in The Fairly OddParents was a parody of himself, hired to play the role of the Crimson Chin in the movie of the same name.
48.
In later seasons, Adam West was replaced by Jeff Bennett since his death in 2017.
49.
In 1997, Adam West appeared in a national television advertising campaign for Ziebart.
50.
From 2000, Adam West made regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, on which he played the fictional character of the same name, who was the lunatic mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island.
51.
Adam West's role brought West a new wave of popularity post-Batman, and lead writer Seth MacFarlane claims to have gone out of his way to avoid typecasting West by deliberately not making any references to Batman.
52.
In November 2014, Adam West voiced himself, the 1960s version of Batman, and the Gray Ghost in the video game Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
53.
In 2016, Adam West was the voice of TV's Batman for the Batman '66 pinball game produced by Stern Pinball Incorporated.
54.
Adam West did voice-over work for superhero-themed commercials for the investment firm LendingTree and television commercials for Hebrew National hot dogs.
55.
On June 9,2017, Adam West died from leukemia in Los Angeles at the age of 88.
56.
Adam West recorded the 11th episode of Powerless, which never aired due to the show's cancellation.