Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!

Damn.  I really had not wanted to return to regular service with this blog having to post another obituary, but there it is.  Actor Adam West — originally born William West Anderson — died just this morning at the age of 88, after a brief but intense bout with leukemia.  West was much more a television rather than a movie actor.  His few films included an appearance with Paul Newman in 1959's The Young Philadelphians.  Between doing a wide range of television roles, he found time to star in the camp science fiction adventure Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and the equally camp western comedy The Outlaws Is Coming (1965), which was the last ever movie role for The Three Stooges.  The next year after that, he landed the role that proved both a blessing and a curse as the star of the new ABC television series Batman, as the lead superhero Bruce Wayne/Batman.  For five years, he donned the cape and cowl and battled a Rogues' Gallery of supercriminals in a series known equally for its camp cheesiness as well as for its having become a legendary cult icon.  For years afterward, West could never escape being typecast as the super-earnest, unbelievably straight-laced Batman, and his career suffered for it.  One of the very few post-Batman film roles he managed to net was in the cheesy B-science fiction "thriller" Zombie Nightmare (1986), notable mostly for being the launchpad for the career of co-star Tia Carerre, and later as one of the "experiments" on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

However, the blessing for Mr. West was that he was never forgotten by the millions of loyal fans of the series and millions who discovered him in the 70s and 80s in television rerun-land.  And he was able to enjoy something of a career renaissance in his later years, often taking roles parodying either his famous television series or his image from it, when he learned to laugh at himself.  He also found the adulation of his longtime fandom a great comfort, allowing him to see that he had made a lasting and very positive impact in the lives of a lot of people.

Anybody reading this page who was a child of the 60s or 70s grew up with Batman.  As much as Capt. Kirk, he was the hero for the ages for those young generations and as such will always be remembered with great fondness.  It's easy to laugh at the image of him from the Batman feature movie of 1966 when he spent several painful minutes running around carrying a bomb with a long slow-burning fuse steadily diminishing, unable to dispose of it for one reason or another, and exclaiming in exasperation "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"  Well, Mr. West was laughing right along with us, and smiling at that scene in fond remembrance, and basking in the glow of the still burning admiration of his many, many fans.