Adam West

This is the page about the voice actor. For other uses, see Adam (disambiguation).

Template:Person William West Anderson (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017; aged 88), better known as Adam West, was an American film, television, character, voice, comedian, and stage actor whose career spanned six decades. He played a young Mermaid Man in the episode "Back to the Past."

Biography

Adam West was born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928, in Walla Walla, Washington. His father, Otto Anderson (1903–1984) was a farmer; and his mother, Audrey Volenne (née Speer; 1906–1969) was an opera singer and concert pianist who left her Hollywood dreams to care for her family. Following her example, West told his father as a young man that he intended to go to Hollywood after completing school. He moved to Seattle with his mother when he was 15, following his parents' divorce.

West attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years and later enrolled in Lakeside School in Seattle. He attended Whitman College but studied at University of Puget Sound during the fall semester of 1949. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in literature and a minor in psychology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, where he was a member of the Gamma Zeta Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He also participated on the speech and debate team. Drafted into the United States Army, he served as an announcer on American Forces Network television. After his discharge, he worked as a milkman before moving to Hawaii to pursue a career in television.

West's acting career began in films in 1959. He played opposite Chuck Connors in Geronimo (1962) and The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). He has also appeared in the science-fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964), opposite Paul Mantee, and achieved success for the title role in the 1960s ABC series Batman and its theatrical feature film. He has done voice work on The Simpsons, Family Guy, and The Fairly OddParents! - all of which he voiced fictional versions of himself - and also Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.

Following a brief battle with leukemia, West passed away at the age of 88.