In 1966, the Batman TV collection hit the airwaves, starring Adam West because the titular character. His iconic sidekick, the “Boy Marvel” Robin, was performed by younger actor Burt Ward, on the time simply 19 years outdated. The “Dynamic Duo” dominated the small display for 3 seasons, turning into cultural icons within the course of. At the moment, Ward is 76 years outdated, and although it has been over 55 years since he hung up his tights, he nonetheless appears to be like again fondly on his days as probably the most well-known sidekick of the DC Comics universe. Learn on to see him now, and to study the place his profession has taken him since his youth as a TV crime-fighter.
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Ward says that when he landed the function of Robin, he was the final to comprehend it. In actual fact, there was fairly a little bit of confusion on the contract signing, since nobody had known as to tell him he had gotten the half. “After six weeks [following the screen test] I acquired a name from an company. They mentioned, ‘Oh, come on in, we’ll have you ever signal contracts,'” he shared in an interview with Studio 10. “I look down [at the contract] and it wasn’t the title of the company—it was twentieth Century Fox. I mentioned, ‘Properly, wait a minute, I believed I used to be signing the company contract,'” the actor recalled. Because it turned out, each the expertise company and the manufacturing firm had assumed the opposite had reached out to Ward to share the excellent news of his hiring.
Nonetheless, the present’s executives say that casting Ward as Robin was an apparent alternative from the start. Govt producer William Dozier mentioned on the time, “The boy, Burt Ward, had by no means performed something earlier than and the second he walked into this workplace, I knew we had Robin. He had this ‘gee wiz, Mr. Dozier’ strategy proper off the bat that could not be duplicated.”
Ward says that the function got here naturally to him, and far of his portrayal of Robin was improvised on the spot. “Hitting my fist, that was simply one thing I did, not one thing they designed,” the actor reminisced. “Leaping over the door of the Batmobile as an alternative of opening the door, that was me. I simply thought it could be cool.”
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Ward recalled taking pictures the opening scene of the TV collection, during which the Batmobile tore out of the Batcave and zoomed down the center of a winding street. He remembered that he arrived on set to study that West had been changed with a stunt double, whereas he was anticipated to carry out his personal scene. “We come out of the Batcave, make a pointy flip and the signal goes down, and the automotive races off to Gotham Metropolis,” the actor mentioned. “As we made that sharp left flip, my door flew open and as I began to exit, I managed—completely fortunate—to catch the gear shift with my little finger! It stored me from falling out, and it pulled my finger out of joint.”
Nonetheless, the actor was advised he could not go to the emergency room till they “acquired the shot,” which he says took till midday of that day. It will be the primary of 4 consecutive days that he would spend within the hospital because of accidents from taking pictures the present. “I’ve by no means been in an emergency room in my life, and now all of this stuff are taking place to me—I am simply attempting to do that tv present!” he advised Studio 10.
Ward says that a part of the present’s success got here because of the on and off-screen chemistry he had with the solid, particularly Adam West. In actual fact, the 2 actors remained shut till West’s loss of life in 2017. “We had a really particular friendship,” Ward mentioned, affectionately describing the Batman actor as “so unpredictable—you’d by no means know what he was going to say subsequent.”
The pair reunited a number of occasions after the wrap of the present to reprise their roles as Batman and Robin, together with on The New Adventures of Batman, Tarzan and the Tremendous 7, Legends of the Superheroes, The Simpsons, and extra. “Individuals understood what Adam and I had been doing. We weren’t simply taking part in characters so that you just mildly sit there watching third celebration motion. We reached out into the viewers, and we might pull these folks in. We used to say that we would placed on our tights to placed on the world,” Ward mentioned.
At the moment, Ward retains in contact with a number of of his Batman co-stars. When the actor was honored with a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in 2020, former solid members Lee Meriwether, Sivi Aberg, Terry Moore, and Sharyn Wynters had been there to point out their help.
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Although Ward stored performing after Batman, he modified course within the mid-’90s and commenced specializing in philanthropy. After adopting an deserted Nice Dane together with his spouse, Tracy Posner Ward, the couple based a nonprofit charity exterior of Los Angeles known as Mild Giants Rescue and Adoptions, which rescues and re-homes large breed canines in misery. “We have spent like $4 million {dollars} saving animals’ lives,” Ward advised Studio 10, estimating that he and his spouse have rescued over 15,000 canines since founding their charity. “On Batman, we had been saving the residents of Gotham, we had been saving lives! That is no completely different, besides they’re canines.”
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