Trivia: Whitman College graduate Adam West began getting his first acting breaks in 1959. That was the year that West, newly signed to a Warner Bros. contract, was cast in the small but pivotal role of Diane Brewster's impotent husband in The Young Philadelphians. After two years' worth of guest-star assignments in Warners' TV product (he was hung by his heels and humiliated by James Garner in a memorable Maverick episode), West accepted the role of Sergeant Steve Nelson on the weekly TVer Robert Taylor's Detectives. In 1962, the series was cancelled, compelling West to free-lance in such films as Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964, as the astronaut who doesn't make it back) and Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964). In 1965, he landed his biggest and best role to date: Millionaire Bruce Wayne, aka the "Caped Crusader", on the smash TV series Batman. Approaching the role with the seriousness and sobriety usually afforded MacBeth or Hamlet, West struck the happy medium between "camp" and conviction. Though in recent years West has apparently basked in the adulation he has received for his two-year stint as Batman, at the time the series was cancelled in 1968, he vowed to distance himself as far from the character as possible, accepting villainous TV and film roles and even fitfully pursuing a singing career. His movie projects ranged from sublime (Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, Hooper) to ridiculous (The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington); no matter what the role, however, West's performance was invariably compared to his Batman work. Finally adopting an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stance, West began making appearances at nostalgia conventions, supplied his vocal talents to the 1977 animated series The New Adventures of Batman, and publicly expressed disappointment that he was not offered a cameo role in the 1989 big-screen blockbuster Batman (he did however, provide a voice-over for the 1992 Fox TV series Batman: The New Adventures, not as Batman but as a washed-up superhero called the Gray Ghost). Adam West's most recent TV projects have included the weekly series The Last Precinct (1986) and Danger Theatre (1993); he also served as a spokesperson for the Nickelodeon cable network, a service specializing in nostalgia-inducing reruns.He continued to work steadily, often trading in on his own history as a caped crusader. He appeared in the comedy The New Age and Drop Dead Gorgeous. At the dawn of the 21st century he took a regular gig voicing the role of Mayor Adam West on the animated series The Family Guy., a gig that led to more animated work in projects such as Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. He spoofed his superhero history yet again in 2008's Super Capers and appeared as himself on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. West died in 2017, at age 88.

Trivia: Burt Ward is best remembered as Adam West's diminutive cohort, Robin, on the '60s television series Batman (1966-1968). He was born Bert Gervis. Following the demise of the series, Ward disappeared until the late '80s when he started showing up in such movies as Robo Chick (1989), Virgin High (1990), and Beach Babes From Beyond (1993). In 1995, Ward created a minor scandal when he published Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, a tell-all book describing the many alleged sexcapades of himself and West (who strongly denies Ward's claims). Ward owns a publishing company, Logical Figments as well as Boy Wonder Visual Effects, Inc., which provides visual effects and 3-D animation for movies and TV shows. In addition to his film and television work, Ward left his mark on the music industry bt recording two songs with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

Trivia: Classically handsome film leading man Neil Hamilton was trained in stock companies before making his 1918 film bow. He rose to stardom under the guidance of D. W. Griffith, who cast Hamilton in leading roles in The Great Romance (1919), The White Rose (1923), America (1924) and Isn't Life Wonderful? (1924). In an era when sturdy dependability was one of the prerequisites of male stardom, Hamilton was one of the silent screen's most popular personalities, as well suited to the role of faithful Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1925) as he was to the Foreign Legion derring-do of Beau Geste (1927). His pleasant voice and excellent diction enabled Hamilton to make the transition to sound with ease. Unfortunately, he always seemed a bit of a stick in his talkie portrayals, and it wasn't long before he found himself shunted off to "other man" assignments (Tarzan and His Mate) and villainous characterizations (The Saint Strikes Back). By the early 1940s, he had lost both fame and fortune -- and, as he'd ruefully observe later, most of his so-called industry friends. Only the love of his wife and his rock-solid religious convictions saw him through his darkest days. Hamilton made a comeback as a character actor, playing brusque, businesslike types in TV series like Perry Mason and Fireside Theatre. From 1966 through 1968, Neil Hamilton co-starred as poker-faced Commissioner Gordon on the TV series Batman.

Trivia: Though no one in his family had ever pursued a theatrical career (one of his more illustrious relatives was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain), Alan Napier was stagestruck from childhood. After graduating from Clifton College, the tall, booming-voiced Napier studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with such raw young talent as John Gielgud and Robert Morley. He continued working with the cream of Britain's acting crop during his ten years (1929-1939) on the West End stages. Napier came to New York in 1940 to co-star with Gladys George in Lady in Waiting. Though his film career had begun in England in the 1930s, Napier had very little success before the cameras until he arrived in Hollywood in 1941. He essayed dignified, sometimes waspish roles of all sizes in such films as Cat People (1942), The Uninvited (1943), and House of Horror (1946); among his off-the-beaten-track assignments were the bizarre High Priest in Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948) and a most elegant Captain Kidd in the 1950 Donald O'Connor vehicle Double Crossbones. In 1966, Alan Napier was cast as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler, Alfred, on the smash-hit TV series Batman, a role he played until the series' cancellation in 1968. Alan Napier's career extended into the 1980s, with TV roles in such miniseries as QB VII and such weeklies as The Paper Chase.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's premiere impressionists and comedians, Frank Gorshin is best remembered for his hypo-manic portrayal of the villainous, green-clad Riddler from the campy Batman television series of the 1960s. Gorshin made his film debut in the 1955 action-drama Hot Rod Girl. As a movie actor, Gorshin has spent the bulk of his career appearing in low-budget fare, but he has also worked in a few major features including Meteor Man (1993) and gave a well-received supporting performance in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1996). He has also been on television as a guest star on comedies, dramas, and variety shows. Lovers of the first Star Trek series will know Gorshin from the anti-prejudice episode, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." Following the demise of the Batman series, Gorshin continued his film career as a character actor.

Trivia: The stepdaughter of TV director Montgomery Pittman, Sherry Jackson made her first film in 1950, at age 8. Jackson played Susie Kettle in a few of Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle entries, and was co-starred in a handful of Warner Bros. films, most prominently as John Wayne's daughter in Trouble Along the Way. In 1953, she was hired to play Danny Thomas' daughter Terry on the long-running TV sitcom Make Room for Daddy. Having outgrown the role by 1959, she free-lanced throughout the 1960s, showing up in guest-star assignments in such TV series as The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. Sporadically active into the 1990s, Sherry Jackson was most recently seen in the 1992 production Daughters of the Dust.

Trivia: Heavy-built major star of the silent era, Bushman was once known as "the handsomest man in the world." He began acting with stock companies while still a boy, remaining a stage actor until he entered film in 1911, beginning with the Essanay company in Chicago. At one time a sculpter's model, Bushman had a beautiful physique which, combined with his handsome looks, soon propelled him to stardom in pre '20s silents; he rushed from one movie set to another, playing romantic leads in scores of films and becoming immensely popular with female viewers. His popularity took a nose-dive, however, after it was revealed that he had been secretly married to actress Beverly Bayne, his costar in many films including Romeo and Juliet (1916). He continued to perform in numerous films, leading up to his most famous role as the Roman Massala (Ramon Novarro's screen rival) in the silent Ben-Hur (1926). During the silent era he made more than a million dollars a year, but his fortune was entirely lost in the Crash of 1929. By the early '30s his film career was all but over, though he rebuilt himself financially by becoming a star of radio soap operas. After 1930 he appeared in films only sporadically, though some of his roles were still of interest. His last appearance was in a schlocky low-budget '60s production, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966, the year of his death).

Trivia: American actor/singer Walter Woolf King was the son of a wholesale whisky salesman. Upon moving with his family to Salt Lake City, young King began singing in Mormon churches; leaving school after the death of his father, the boy decided to make singing his full-time avocation and headed for vaudeville with his friend, pianist Charles LeMaire (later an Oscar-winning costume designer). Making his Broadway bow in The Passing Show of 1919, King became a popular light baritone in several musical comedies and operettas of the '20s. He was then billed as Walter Woolf, but later switched to Walter King, until settling on his full three-barrelled name in the late '30s. King's first film was Warner Bros.' Golden Dawn (1930), but this starring moment was blighted by negative publicity about King's voice, over which the actor sued Warners. After a return to the stage in Music in the Air, King came back to films, though seldom as a star. Modern audiences know King best from his second-lead appearance in Laurel and Hardy's Swiss Miss (1938) and from his two Marx Brothers films, A Night at the Opera(1935) (in which he played villainous opera star Lassparri) and Go West (1940) (in which he was a villain again, albeit non-singing). Working with success in radio in the '40s, King was less lucky in films; he was reduced to B-pictures at such studios as Monogram and PRC, permitted to play leads only because the younger male stars had gone to war. Tired of his lackluster film career, King became an actor's agent in the late '40s, accepting only small, sometimes unbilled movie character roles for himself; he did however host a moderately popular 1950 TV talent show, Lights, Camera, Action. In the '60s, King, now greyer and stockier, found himself in demand for good supporting parts as stuffy corporate types, as in the 1968 Rosalind Russell picture Rosie. In the months just prior to his death, Walter Woolf King was seen around Hollywood in the company of Della Lind, who four decades earlier had played his wife in Swiss Miss (1938).

Trivia: African American actress Judy Pace made a formidable screen debut as a blonde bar pickup in Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie (1966). Pace's cinematic high point was her portrayal of street-smart Iris in Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), for which she received many of the film's best reviews. She went on to play law student Pat Walters on the 1971 TV series The Young Lawyers. Her TV-movie credits include the role of Gale Sayers' wife Linda in Brian's Song (1969). Judy Pace was married to actor Don Mitchell.