Burt Ward

At 78 years old, Burt Ward has this physical status:

Burt Ward (born Bert John Gervis Jr., July 6, 1945) is an American actor and activist.

He is best known for his role as Robin, the sidekick of Batman (played by Adam West in the television series Batman (1966-198), its theatrical feature film, The New Adventures of Batman (1977), the two-episode pilot Legends of the Caped Crusaders (1979), and Batman vs.

Two-Face (2017) and Supergirl (2017).

Early life

Ward was born Bert John Gervis Jr. on July 6, 1945, in Los Angeles, California. Bert Sr., his father, was the director of a traveling ice show titled "Rhapsody On Ice." Ward was featured in the magazine Strange as It Seems as a professional ice skater at age two. He grew up and loved comic books like Superman and Superboy, as well as the Adventures of Superman. In his youth, he inherited the word "sparky," perhaps because his skates ignited during his routines or his active nature. He excelled in high school sports, such as football, track, and wrestling; as a member of the chess club and a Taekwondo practitioner, he excelled. Since graduating, he enrolled in college while still working part-time for his father's real estate firm.

Personal life

Bonney Lindsey, daughter of conductor Mort Lindsey, was Ward's first wife. Ward and Lindsey married on July 19, 1965, and then divorced in 1967. In 1966, they had just one child. He was briefly married to actor Kathy Kersh, who appeared as a guest villainess on Batman television show, and to model Mariana Torchia from 1985 to 1989. Ward has been married to Tracy Posner since 1990. Their daughter was born on February 16, 1991.

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Career

At the age of 19, Ward auditioned for the role of Robin. West and Ward were up against Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell for the roles of Batman and Robin, respectively. Selected for the role of Robin, Ward thought people would find Gervis (the "G" is soft, as in "gentleman") hard to pronounce and adopted his mother's maiden name, Ward. He also changed the spelling of Bert to "Burt" to add "punch".

Unlike the series' lead, Adam West, Ward was required to perform some dangerous stunt work. He was told this was because his costume revealed more of his face, making it impractical for all of his stunt scenes to be performed by a stunt double. Later, he also discovered that he was being paid the minimum wage allowed by the Screen Actors Guild, and his stunt double was paid per stunt, so having Ward perform his own stunts was a cost-saving strategy. Ward says that he was sent to the emergency room dozens of times during his time as Robin.

At the height of the series' popularity, Ward recorded several musical tracks during sessions produced by Tom Wilson and arranged by Frank Zappa. The first two, "Boy Wonder, I Love You" (which Zappa wrote) and "Orange Colored Sky", were released as a single on November 14, 1966. Two other tracks from these sessions, "Teenage Bill of Rights" and "Autumn Love", remain unreleased.

During the first months of shooting, Ward was paid $350 per week. The series only lasted three seasons, for a total of 120 episodes; according to Ward in an interview, this was because of the high cost of production. It was still high in the ratings, but ABC was losing money. Later, NBC offered to pick it up for a fourth season, but the offer was withdrawn after learning that the sets had been destroyed. Adam West and Burt Ward reprised their TV roles of Batman and Robin in the 20th Century Fox film Batman: The Movie released on July 30, 1966.

In 1969, a year after Batman's cancellation, West's mother died, bringing the two men closer together. They were reunited many times at conventions and TV reunion specials. In turn, Ward also made three guest appearances with West on separate cartoons: one was a 2002 episode of The Simpsons, later in 2010 on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, and in 2013 for one of the final episodes of Futurama. Ward remained friends with West until the latter's death on June 9, 2017, at age 88.

Ward is the last surviving main cast member of Batman.

After the end of Batman, Ward, like Adam West, found himself hard-pressed to find other acting jobs. He did act in more than 40 made-for-television films such as Virgin High.

In 1985, DC Comics named Ward as one of the honorees in the company's 50th-anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Batman series.

In June 1995, Ward wrote a tell-all autobiography called Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights, which described his time playing Robin.

Ward appeared in numerous reunions with co-star Adam West. The most memorable included reprising their roles as the Dynamic Duo on a short-lived animated series called The New Adventures of Batman, as well as The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour and Tarzan and the Super 7. In addition, they reappeared as the Dynamic Duo for Legends of the Superheroes. West and Ward finally reunited in the 2003 television movie, Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt.

During a Pro Wrestling Unplugged angle with wrestler Johnny Kashmere, Ward "knighted" Kashmere as the "New Batman". Ward has appeared on the show several times, walking out to the theme music from the 1960s Batman.

In 2001, Ward established the now-closed Boy Wonder Visual Effects, Inc.

In 2012, Bluewater comics was planning to issue a four-issue comic miniseries in homage to Burt Ward playing Robin, called Burt Ward, Boy Wonder, but it was apparently canceled. It starred Burt Ward and his crimefighting rescue dogs Gentle and Giant fighting crime. Part of the first issue was released on Free Comic Book Day 2012.

Beginning in late 2017, Ward is seen promoting the Batman television series and other classic television series on the MeTV television network.

In 2016 and 2017 respectively, West and Ward reunited a final time, to reprise the Dynamic Duo in the animated movies Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs. Two-Face, the latter being released after West's death.

On January 9, 2020, Ward received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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