History of the Batman Portrayals - Part 1

[CBR News]

With "The Dark Knight Rises" ending Christopher Nolan's Batman film trilogy, Alan Kistler examines the actors who have portrayed Batman in film, television, and radio.


Full article here.

[KurtW95]

Best Batman portrayels

1. Kevin Conroy
2. Adam West
3. Michael Keaton
4. Bruce Greenwood

Etc. etc.

[SephirothDZX]

Keaton's always been my favorite live-action Batman (Conroy is #1 overall though)

[Bad Wolf]

I liked Keaton best as well, with Conroy for voice acting.

[Tayne Japal]

Always loved Keaton's Batman and never really knew the name of the voice actor on the 90s cartoon until now. He was also great.

[Ed Love]

I enjoyed both of the serials as both seem to at least seem to take the concept seriously, play them straight, and at least make an attempt at recognizable recreations of the costumes. Of the live-action films, I find them to be the most re-watchable as their purpose is to be fun. Otherwise, it's the Bruce Timm cartoons and movie that are almost note for note perfect. They should get him to direct and oversee the next live-action movie since he seems to get the characters better than anyone else associated with the franchises.

The leaving of the bat stickers on the forehead in the first serial was not an attempt at humor or meant to be funny. See, that was something that various pulp and comic book heroes did all the time and the people seeing this in the theaters would recognize it as a staple. The Gray Seal left little gray stickers in safes that he cracked (as he usually didn't normally steal anything, that was the proof that he had been there), Zorro left his signature "Z", the Spider branded the criminals he killed so there'd be no mistake as to who perpetuated the deed. The Phantom's rings left marks, branding the crooks that he faced (as well as the symbol of his good mark that meant someone or a place was under his protection). The Clock left a business card stating "The Clock Has Struck". The GA Sandman originally left a verse of poetry. If you find it humorous, it's because of looking at this as an adult and almost 7 decades removed from the context.

Not to say there isn't humor in them. One of my favorite lines is when Batman is asked (because there's no Batmobile in the films), "Does Bruce Wayne know you're using his car?"

[sherlockbones]

how sheen fail in getting the role, when he was on their radar twice?!

Some of the actors previously considered for the role included Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Robert Downey Jr., Patrick Swayze, Kevin Kline, Daniel Day-Lewis, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez and even, apparently, Bill Murray.

[The Bat-Man]

The writer should have done better research.

Batman was interpreted not merely as a vigilante but as an agent of the U.S. government who actually had some legal authority in hunting down criminals he deemed dangerous.

In the first movie serial, Batman was secretly aiding the U.S. government in their investigation of Dr. Daka, while Batman and Robin were officially vigilantes pursued by the police, specifically by Captain Arnold. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APWXb7r-03I

Wilson's Batman was not a terrifying force who tried to convince people he was supernatural. He operated in broad daylight and was upfront about the fact that he was simply a man who was highly trained in fighting. He was gruff toward criminals but friendly enough to civilians and even prone to making the occasional joke. His humor was evident by his habit of stamping the foreheads of criminals he captured with a miniature bat-symbol.

Lewis Wilson's Batman was a terrifying force to criminals in the serial. The narration even refers to him as, "Batman, clad in the somber costume that has struck terror to the heart of many swaggering denizens of the underworld." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFQrClFijoA
He would kidnap criminals and take them to the Batcave and would integrate and frighten them, threatening that it's nearing his pet bats feeding time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VcdhSWaFmo
He operated at night most of the time as Batman. He had friendly interactions with civilians as Bruce Wayne, but not as Batman. Stamping the bat-symbol on the heads of criminals was used as his calling card, not as a funny joke.

In 1950, there was another attempt to give Batman his own radio series. This time the concept was reworked into "The Batman Mystery Club." Each episode would involve Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson sitting down with members of the Batman Mystery Club, a group of children who were well aware of the Dynamic Duo's secret identities. Bruce acted as narrator, describing past cases that he and Robin had been involved in, all of which involved investigating encounters with ghosts and seemingly haunted places, proving that these supernatural apparitions were really parlor tricks or clever deceptions by criminals. Basically, it was the premise of Scooby-Doo but with Batman sharing his secrets with a group of kids after each adventure.

This series was never approved for broadcast, though a single episode, "The Monster of Dumphrey's Hall," was recorded. Strangely, Bruce never donned his costume in the episode and it was unclear if "Batman" was a secret costumed identity he would assume or simply a strange nickname he had.

Each episode of The Batman Mystery Club would involve Batman and Robin (not in their secret identities as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson) with members of the Batman Mystery Club as Batman narrated, telling ghost stories from his cases of seemingly haunted places to train the members to not fear such things. In the flashback that we the radio listeners would hear, we know Batman was in his Bruce Wayne identity during the case at Sir Alfred's, however, Robin never refers to Batman as Bruce to the Mystery Club members, so presumably the Mystery Club members are not aware of his secret identity and don't know that Batman was actually in his Bruce Wayne identity during the case at Sir Alfred's, and Batman never refers to Robin as Dick to the Mystery Club members. So Batman is presumably wearing his Batman costume in the presence of the Mystery Club members.
Here is "The Monster of Dumphrey's Hall" episode of The Batman Mystery Club: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw748m-EpIw

For a while, 22-year-old Kiefer Sutherland was considered for the role of Dick Grayson, who would witness the Joker murder his acrobatic parents while the villain was being chased by Batman through a parade. He would then show up in costume as Robin only at the end of the film. Sutherland turned down the role and this subplot was removed from the shooting script.

Tim Burton planned to cast 13-year-old actor Ricky Addison Reed as Robin in the 1989 Batman film. But Tim Burton ultimately felt there wasn't enough room to properly give Robin his due, so Robin was cut out completely.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0715651/

Keaton's Bruce Wayne was, indeed, not a playboy or a Gotham celebrity. On the contrary, he was evidently so private that he was not even recognized by local journalists attending a party in his own home. Whereas the comics have often portrayed the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne as local history and an event that shook Gotham City, the journalist characters in the film are completely unaware of this fact until after they research Bruce's past.

Keaton's Bruce Wayne's philanthropist side is shown with his charity ball at Wayne Manor, his playboy side is shown with his dates with Vicki Vale and his flirtations with Selina Kyle at Shreck's. Bruce Wayne obviously was a known local celebrity of sorts, since Gotham's wealthy socialites and elected officials were at Wayne Manor attending a benefit fundraiser party thrown by Bruce Wayne. Vicki and Alexander Knox had obviously both heard of Bruce Wayne, but they'd never seen him before. The film makes it clear that Vicki Vale was not a local photojournalist. She was visiting Gotham because she was intrigued by Alexander Knox's giant bat stories. Knox wasn't part of Gotham's wealthy elite, obviously, as he wasn't on the guest list to Wayne Manor. Bruce Wayne was not recognized in the comics before, also. When he visits the WayneCorp building and the receptionist didn't even know who he was in Batman #541 (1997) "The Spectre of Vengeance, Part 2: Mask of Guilt" written by Doug Moench.

This Bruce, unlike the comics, also did not perpetually pretend to be a wealthy businessman ignorant of Gotham's crime world.

This Bruce was shown to be a wealthy businessman in Batman Returns, as his business meeting with Max Shreck showed. Bruce in the comics hadn't pretended to be ignorant of Gotham's crime world. He showed an interest in crime investigations as Bruce and even accompanied Gordon on crime scene cases in the early comics. In Detective Comics #35 (1940) "The Case Of The Ruby Idol" written by Bill Finger for example.

In Detective Comics #474 (1977) "The Deadshot Ricochet" written by Steve Englehart, Silver St. Cloud noted that Bruce Wayne was known for an interest in Gotham's crime world.

[The Bat-Man]

Years later, during an interview with "Access Hollywood," Keaton remarked that "The Dark Knight" was the kind of story and direction he had wanted for a third movie featuring his version of Batman. "[Christopher Nolan] is the one who got it -- he got it and he took it to a whole other level -- ['The Dark Knight'] is always where I thought that character and the story could go, because it was all there and he just did it brilliantly."

It wasn't Nolan's The Dark Knight film specifically that Keaton was referring to wanting his third Batman film to have been like. Michael Keaton has revealed that he wanted the third film to be kind of like a prequel with flashbacks of Batman's origin, "how I wanted to do the third one is what they did in ["Batman Begins"]. I read an article about how they were going about it and I said, 'That's exactly what I thought should be done.' What I wanted to do, is what I'm told and I don't know if this is true yet so don't hold me to this until I see it, but I'm told it's more a prequel. And that was what I thought would've been a hip way to go the third time. This guy is so endlessly fascinating potentially, why not go and see how he got there."
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/157...k-knight.jhtml
http://www.bigfanboy.com/pages/inter...on/keaton.html
Here's the full Access Hollywood quotes. Interviewer: "What are your thoughts on what Christopher Nolan has done with the Batman character?"
Micheal Keaton: "The only that I've seen since I did the second one, I did two. Since the second one, I've only seen like a little bit of them. What are there? Six?"
Interviewer: "Something like that."
Micheal Keaton: "So I saw, yeah, so I saw a couple a little, and I to this day haven't seen the entire Christopher Nolan, but I've seen most of it. That's the one I see the most of and it's unbelievable. He's unbelievably great, and he's the one who got it. He's the one who really got what, frankly, to be honest with you, I said, 'This is where I'd like to go with the third one.' He got it in spades. He got it and he took it to a whole other level. That was always where, that general direction, is always where I thought that character and that story could go, because it was always there, you know, and he just did it brilliantly. And that Heath Ledger performance is unbelievable, unbelievable. And I still haven't even seen, frankly, the beginning, the whole thing, haven't sat down and watched the whole thing. I've seen it in pieces, but man, it's extraordinary."
http://watch.accesshollywood.com/vid.../1314484251001
Michael Keaton said, "I knew we were in trouble in talks for the third one when certain people started the conversation with 'Why does it have to be so dark?' 'Why does he have to be so depressed?' 'Shouldn't there be more color in this thing?' I knew I was headed for trouble and that it wasn't a road I was going to go down. The reason they weren't interesting was the reason I didn't want to do them anymore. I read the script [for "Batman Forever"]. I wasn't into it. I didn't like the third script... I just said 'I really don't like this, and I don't want to do it.' I don't pay much attention to what other people think. I didn't do the third one because the script was silly and light."
http://io9.com/5801793/how-michael-k...-batman-movies
http://www.contactmusic.com/news-art...-forever-again

[Enda8011]

Dozier had 36-year-old Adam West audition for the role of Bruce Wayne. West beat out Lyle Waggoner for the role and was excited to play the heroic vigilante

-----------------------------------

Actuall, in the show and film, he did not act as a vigilante.



One problem with your review. Traditional comic book heroes have generally operated as deputized agents of the law, not vigilantes.

“During the conference [in the 1966 Adam West film] Commissioner Gordon states that Batman and Robin are fully deputised agents of the law. Frank Miller commented on this aspect of the sixties TV show in Legends of the Dark Knight: The History of Batman (2005), saying:

The worst thing they did on the old TV show was give Batman a badge. You don’t deputize Batman.

If Miller had done his research he’d have known that it wasn’t the makers of the TV show that gave Batman his badge; it was Batman’s co-creator Bill Finger. Batman was deputised in the comics by Commissioner Gordon, way back in ‘The People vs. the Batman’ (Batman #7, November 1941). Throughout the remainder of the Pre-Crisis era he was operating legally in collaboration with the GCPD”. [In some tales, he even had a special badge.]

————http://www.batman-online.com/forum/i...p?topic=1701.0

http://www.infiniteearths.org/dcu/ob...tmanChars4.htm

I know that Batman used, in DETECTIVE #105 and #115 (both stories are from Don Cameron), a badge — a platinum bat with diamonds. When did this badge first app. and in how many stories was it shown?

n-man –
The platinum badge first appeared in DETECTIVE # 70 (December, 1942) and BATMAN # 19 (October-November, 1943) but the sequence in which it was actually presented to Batman didn’t appear until ‘TEC # 95 (November, 1945). In that one, Commissioner Gordon gave the badge to Batman during a police academy graduation ceremony. Along with ‘TEC # 105 and 115, those are all the appearances of the badge that I know of but probably not all that exist.

Batman was officially recognized by Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD in BATMAN # 7 (October-November, 1941) and the Bat-Signal came along in DETECTIVE # 60 (February, 1942).

(The pulp heroes, such as the Spider and the Shadow, and radio’s the Green Hornet have generally worked as outlaws.)
.






#2 by PB210 on May 5th, 2012

Bat-Myth # 5: Batman and Robin Are Vigilantes.

Not under the U.S. Constitution. Ordinarily, private citizens, even those who take it upon themselves to uphold the law, such as vigilantes, are not subject to the Constitutional constraints imposed on official members of law enforcement. This means that vigilantes, acting on their own initiative, do not violate the Constitutional provisions safeguarding citizens’ rights.

But that does not hold when it comes to private individuals who act as “agents of the government”. This description attaches when a private individual acts under the direction, advice, or coërcion of a government agency. Such persons are held to the same Constitutional requirements as official members of law enforcement. (That’s why, if it’s a violation of your Constitutional rights for a policeman to search your suitcase, he cannot get around it by asking some willing passer-by to do it for him.)

Not knowing what goes in modern Batman stories, I cannot state that to-day’s Caped Crusader is, by definition, an agent of the government (although I suspect he is), but the pre-Crisis Batman sure was.

In “The People Versus the Batman”, from Batman # 7 (Oct.-Nov., 1941), Commissioner Gordon appoints Batman an honorary member of the Gotham City Police Department. At this instant, his status as a vigilante ends and his status as an agent of the government begins; it can’t get any clearer than that.

But that was a Golden-Age tale, and I don’t recall any similar scene taking place in a story late enough to be considered to fall in the Silver Age. So does that change anything? Nope. The definition of “agent of the government” doesn’t require that the person be “a duly deputised officer of the law”. All that is required is that the individual work under the direction or advice of a government agency, even a municipal one, such as a local police department.

Every time Commissioner Gordon called the Batman on the Hot-Line, or consulted with the Dynamic Duo in his office, or provided them with information, he provided “direction or advice”. That’s not to mention all the times Batman and Robin have worked with the help of the F.B.I., the Treasury Department, or the Secret Service. Such actions by official law-enforcement agencies constitute an implicit sanctioning of the Masked Manhunter’s crime-fighting efforts. The fact of the matter is the first time Gordon lighted off the Bat-Signal, Batman and Robin became agents of the government.

Such scenes appeared hundreds of times in the first thirty years of the Caped Crusader’s history. While Batman and Robin may have broken the law and violated criminals’ Constitutional rights, they weren’t vigilantes.

That’s it, gang. Thanks for dropping by. Fair winds and following seas until next time.

http://www.captaincomics.us/index.ph...=588&Itemid=35

[Chad]

Glad to see Lewis Wilson getting some recognition, though it's his performance as Bruce Wayne that really stands out in the first serial. There are some nice Batman moments with the actor - his exchange with Daka as he attempts to reverse the damage the fiend has done to Linda Page's father is great. As he approaches Daka's equipment, Batman doesn't notice Daka's grin. Spotting a pair of gloves hanging from a wall, Batman hesitates before operating Daka's machine and puts them on. "I imagine these are here for a reason". Daka's grin evaporates and he replies "Yes...they just saved your life". Batman smirks. Sadly however, the costume is far too buffoonish for me to be able to appreciate his performance as Batman. The ears flop to the side, the cape repeatedly hampers his movements, the mask requires him to tilt his head back at an awkward angle just to see (though I may be thinking more of Robert Lowery's version on that point), and his Batman doesn't so much leap into action as he falls into it - there's a blooper that made it into the film where Batman falls onto a group of criminals and a pack of cigarettes can be spotted falling out of his cape. In another scene, he falls from a rooftop, lands on a platform where a couple of window washers are doing their job, and seemingly knocks one off the scaffold.

BUT, Wilson's Bruce Wayne is definitive. The only actor to really portray him as a bored, indifferent playboy who yawns throughout conversations with others, offers only the barest help to others while acting as though he's giving them the world, and can be seen really plays up the fact that his two identities are world's apart from one another.