“I have become convinced that everything that is classy doesn’t go away.”
― Adam West
“Anything that triggers good memories can’t be all bad.”
― Adam West
“Over the years, I’ve learned that if you can just hang in there and, regardless of what’s presented to you, take it as a challenge and try to bring in something fresh, then it works.”
― Adam West
“I just go my own way. If my agent calls and presents me with something, and I find it refreshing or illuminating, yeah, I’ll do it.”
― Adam West
“Life is full of ironies and absurdities.”
― Adam West
“Batman had a certain speech pattern that I established because he was always Sherlock Holmes-ian. He was Basil Rathbone. In other words, he was always musing about something.”
― Adam West
“If you hang around long enough, they think you’re good. It’s either my tenacity or stupidity – I’m not sure which.”
― Adam West
“I used to spend hours just sitting in an old wreck of a car with a stickshift; I’d just sit there and shift.”
― Adam West
“I have no patience with dinosaurs.”
― Adam West
“I did a character called Captain Q for Nestle’s Quik. Those commercials were kind of funny.”
― Adam West
“The Batmobile wasn’t a stickshift, and it was a challenge to drive, believe me.”
― Adam West
“When you wear a mask and create a character, nothing will pigeonhole you faster.”
― Adam West
“The wonderful thing with some of the things I’ve done – most of them, really – is to be trusted. To be able to do your thing, to work on it, hone it into my gem of creativity!”
― Adam West
“If you’re a plumber, you plumb. I’m an actor. I act.”
― Adam West
“In the late ’60s, there were the the three B’s: The Beatles, Batman, and Bond.”
― Adam West
“When I was getting started, I was so busy just fighting my way through, and I was under contract at Warner Brothers. I did 40 hours of color television with the late Robert Taylor as a young cop.”
― Adam West
“Isn’t it fun to be nuts? Isn’t it fun to be crazy?”
― Adam West
“When you go to the Sistine Chapel with Sophia Loren, it can be quite some time before your thoughts turn to the ceiling.”
― Adam West
“I love to do voiceover because, for me, if you know what you’re doing, it’s simple. No makeup, no costuming, none of the baloney. None of the egos – you don’t have to deal with all that crap. I love voiceovers.”
― Adam West
“To play the leading man in a ‘Three Stooges’ movie, you’ve got to think funny. Thank God I think funny.”
― Adam West
“I think I’ve said I’m the luckiest actor in the world. I mean that.”
― Adam West
“Burgess Meredith taught me a lot about wine.”
― Adam West
“When I got to Hollywood, there wasn’t even a Boulevard. I’m that old. It was just a little dirt trail. I’m kidding.”
― Adam West
“I am a simple man, though my wife says I am complicated. I’ll trust her on that one.”
― Adam West
“You have no idea the people I meet when I do these Comic-Cons. When I go sign autographs and say hello to people, I see everything!”
― Adam West
“One of the most gratifying, rewarding things is when people come up, and they tell you how the show influenced their lives in a very positive way. When I do these things like Comic Con, I get people who are lawyers, judges, plumbers, carpenters, and entire families, and it’s mostly for ‘Batman.’ But now, amazingly, it’s also for ‘Family Guy.’”
― Adam West
“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to make fun of yourself and to do it in a way that sort of preserves your dignity but, at the same time, lets you play the theater of the absurd.”
― Adam West
“I have the curse of thinking funny!”
― Adam West
“There were definitely times when I regretted ever being Batman.”
― Adam West
“People love Batman, and I would be stupid, I would be a fool if I didn’t love Batman.”
― Adam West
“’Batman’ was a colorful and wild ride.”
― Adam West
“I like to make people laugh and have fun.”
― Adam West
“In a very real sense, I represent pop culture in an iconic way. It’s been very good to me, so anything I can do to help the fans to tumble along – it’s good.”
― Adam West
“I love to go home and do the chores and read.”
― Adam West
“I’m like Madonna: I keep reinventing myself.”
― Adam West
“You’ve got a guy in a cape and tights running around fighting crime 24-7; this is not normal. But it worked because the kids loved it and the adults laughed with it.”
― Adam West
“I’ve hung on for a long time in this business and had some success, and I think it’s keeping an open mind and being curious and having a sense of humor about oneself that’s important.”
― Adam West
“There was a time when ‘Batman’ really kept me from getting some pretty good roles, and I was asked to do what I figured were important features. However, Batman was there, and very few people would take a chance on me walking onto the screen. And they’d be taking people away from the story.”
― Adam West
“I come to Comic-Con in San Diego because this is where those fans are – those to whom I owe the longevity of my career.”
― Adam West
“I’ve always tried to fit what I do professionally into my family, rather than the other way around.”
― Adam West
“How many actors have a shot at being a part of something that became a part of pop culture? It’s been very rewarding. I’m not getting the 20 million bucks for the new movies, but at least I’m getting warmth and recognition from people wherever I go.”
― Adam West
“My grandfather and my father had wheat ranches, so we had quite a few trucks around and a lot of mules. Talk about horsepower – we had mule power.”
― Adam West
“Look at ‘Batman’ – that was theater of the absurd, as is ‘Family Guy.’”
― Adam West
“I think our Batman had to be fun, light-hearted, funny, tongue-in-cheek… and I think that made kind of an homage to those earlier comic books, where Batman always had a quip or something.”
― Adam West
“I like Christian Bale. I’ve heard he’s a big fan of mine, but I certainly reciprocate. I think he’s really very good.”
― Adam West
“To be an icon… I guess that’s a privilege.”
― Adam West
“The new ‘Dark Knight’ movies, they’re wonderful in their own way.”
― Adam West
“Favorite Bat-gadget was probably the Batboat, because it was fun to get out on the ocean and run that thing around at high speed.”
― Adam West
“I’ve been able to reinvent myself and to keep an audience going at whatever age. This is terrific. I mean, how many actors get that chance?”
― Adam West
“Oh, it’s fun to be an icon!”
― Adam West
“The word that scares the hell out of me is ‘frail.’ I don’t want to be frail.”
― Adam West
“Not to be able to move around or do things without thinking – that’s tough. I may end up that way, but if I do, I hope to hell my intellect will take over, and I’ll find some kind of joy and a way to contribute.”
― Adam West
“Typecasting is really rampant in Hollywood, and because I played a costumed character and did it successfully, it was a real stigma.”
― Adam West
“All I know is that my fans have been really wonderful and affectionate.”
― Adam West
“I’m very lucky. I do voiceovers, ‘Family Guy,’ on and on, and quite frankly, I’m one of the luckiest actors in the world. I was able to create a character who became iconic.”
― Adam West
“Playing Batman is an actor’s challenge. First, it’s different; then, you have to reach a multi-level audience. The kids take it straight, but for adults, we have to project it further.”
― Adam West
“When I got the part, I tried to remember Batman as I knew him when I was a kid – with emotional recall.”
― Adam West
“I’m interested in film – any aspect – acting, directing, writing.”
― Adam West
“I was a maverick. I went to five different colleges looking for I don’t know quite what.”
― Adam West
“Anything with ‘Family Guy’ is great.”
― Adam West
“I’m a fan of anything that’s good, especially when it’s conscientiously good.”
― Adam West
“Maybe we could find some way to send barges of trash to the sun and incinerate it all. Hey, it’s an idea. It’s an idea!”
― Adam West
“I grew up on a ranch in Walla Walla, Washington. Except for one lawyer, I don’t remember anyone in my family being anything else but ranchers.”
― Adam West
“I’ve been almost everywhere. But I’ve never been to the steppes of Latvia. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
― Adam West
“My art, like my acting, is a profound expression of poetic license.”
― Adam West
“My paintings capture the humor, zaniness, and depth of the Batman villains as well as the Freudian motivations of Batman as an all-too-human, venerable, and funny vigilante superhero.”
― Adam West
“Some nights, I wear my cape, and I go out on the pier. It is foggy… I look for… Riddler.”
― Adam West
“It’s part of my character not to take myself too seriously. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to survive.”
― Adam West
“You can’t play Batman in a serious, square-jawed, straight-ahead way without giving the audience the sense that there’s something behind that mask waiting to get out, that he’s a little crazed; he’s strange.”
― Adam West
“Any incarnation of ‘Batman’ I am delighted to do.”
― Adam West
“I’ve always been able to work. I think it’s an actor’s obligation to keep working if you can.”
― Adam West
“I don’t paint butter dishes, doilies, or hummingbirds in my garden. It’s more raw, I suppose. But it always creates a reaction.”
― Adam West
“I’ve played dinner theaters. I’m a working stiff.”
― Adam West
“I get called ‘Mayor West’ a lot in airports. I’ve been very fortunate to have a fan base that keeps growing, and the work gets such a warm response and humor from people.”
― Adam West
“I would hate to be a bitter, aging actor.”
― Adam West
“When ‘Family Guy’ came along, it was like a gift, and it expanded my fan base.”
― Adam West
“I was victimized by the old Hollywood typecasting thing. I had to really fight to get out of it, so I was uncomfortable with it.”
― Adam West
“I’ve always shied away from ‘Where are they now?’ shows, because I’ve been lucky enough to keep working, and people know where I am.”
― Adam West
“If you paint a picture and I paint a picture, we each want to do it our own way. And we’ll stand or fall on whatever we did.”
― Adam West
“I’m not a vindictive kind of guy.”
― Adam West
“I think it’s an actor’s job, if you can, to keep working and to keep using that muscle. First of all, you’ve got to pay the bills, but it also helps you develop.”
― Adam West
“I don’t want to be Batman. Let Val Kilmer do it. I just want to be Uncle Batman. I have this whole ‘warm relationship’ plot in my mind. In the final scenes, the new Batmobile breaks down, the new Batman’s stranded on the side of the road. We grab our old Batmobile, pick him up and drive away.”
― Adam West
“I am a private person. I don’t need a lot of company. And I find it really, really difficult to talk about myself.”
― Adam West
“Crummy pictures, live appearances, circuses, avant garde theater, dinner theater. I’ve done it all. I’ve been shot out of cannons. I know what the people want. I’m out there with the people.”
― Adam West
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