On the 27th of August in the year 1928, one of America’s most quirky and prolific actors was born in Walla Walla, Washington. Born William Adam West to farmers Otto West Anderson and Audrey Speer, Adam West, as he would become known to fans all over the world, majored in Literature and minored in Psychology at Whitman College.

After being drafted into the military and spending two years as a DJ for his fellow soldiers, West began his acting career in 1955 as a children’s television show sidekick on the Hawaiin series, the El Kino Popo Show. He moved to Hollywood, California, in 1959, where at thirty-one years of age he appeared in his first film, The Philadelphians, with Paul Newman.

After whetting his chops on the big screen, West went on to appear in a number of made-for-TV Westerns, including portraying Wild Bill Hickock in the NBC series, The Overland Trail.

It wasn’t until 1966, however, that Adam West took on the television role that he would come to be known and loved for, that of Bruce Wayne in the ABC television series, Batman. West shared the screen with Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Lee Merriwether as Catwoman. Over the years, a number of others filled in the caped crusader’s shoes when West wasn’t available, but during the 1970s, he often provided the voice for the Batman character in numerous animated superhero epics like The New Adventures of Batman, Super Friends and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

Though he’ll never be able to fully shake the Batman identity linked with his famous name, West has certainly done his darndest to avoid being typecast over the years, except when he’s playfully mocking himself and the superhero genre. Making appearances in numerous films and on a variety of sitcoms over the years, including Murphy Brown, The Drew Carey Show, Goosebumps and Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete and Pete, West can usually be found these days by careful listeners. In the last ten years he has provided voiceover work for dozens of popular cartoon series, such as The Simpsons, Batman: The Animated Series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and more recently, Seth McFarlane’s The Family Guy as Quahog mayor, Adam West.

One of the things that makes West stand out these days is his capacity for the quirky and silly. Unafraid to embrace his inner-goofball, his antics will definitely go down in my personal memory as some of the funniest TV I’ve ever seen.