ADAM WEST

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(19 September 1928 - 9 June 2017)

Adam West

Although he clocked up nearly 200 credits on film and television, actor Adam West was never a big star or even a leading man, except for Batman, the 1966 TV series and its spin-off movie which made his name for evermore. On leaving the US Army, West toured the States setting up military TV stations. Then he joined a kids’ TV programme, The Kini Popo Show in Hawaii. Following television work from 1954 and after the Boris Karloff film Voodoo Island, West got his Hollywood  break in 1959 in The Young Philadelphians, with Paul Newman. Several TV westerns ensued until his next big film, Geronimo  (1962), with Chuck Connors. More TV included The Detectives  (currently replaying on Talking Pictures TV), Laramie, Bonanza,  Maverick, Gunsmoke etc. West was never in many major movies, with perhaps Hooper and The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker being the exceptions. However, he still worked continuously on TV, latterly doing voiceover work on various animated Batman series and as Mayor Adam West in Family Guy, another certainty for being remembered by posterity. He was offered the role of James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever, but declined it as he thought it needed a British actor. Adam West married three times, had four children and two stepchildren.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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