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Kevin Conroy

 
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Kevin Conroy
Born Kevin Conroy
November 30, 1955 (1955-11-30) (age 53)
Westbury, New York, U.S.A.
Occupation Actor

Kevin Conroy (born November 30, 1955) is an American actor of stage, screen and voice, best known for his voice role as Batman in numerous animated television series, feature films, and video games that comprised the DC Animated Universe.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Born in Westbury, New York, Conroy moved to Westport, Connecticut when he was about 11 years old. He moved to New York in 1973 when he earned a full scholarship to attend Juilliard's famous drama division, where he studied under actor John Houseman (and shared a room with Robin Williams and future Superman actor Christopher Reeve While no one knows where the rumor started, Conroy never roomed with Reeve.[1]). In 1978, after graduating from Juilliard, he toured with The Acting Company, Houseman's acting group, and, in 1979, he went on the national tour of Ira Levin's Deathtrap.[2]

Career

In 1980, he decided to try his hand in television, and moved out to California. He landed a role in the daytime soap opera Another World. He became associated with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, where he performed in productions of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. From 1980 to 1985, he acted in a variety of contemporary and classic theatre pieces, including the Broadway productions of Eastern Standard and Edward Albee's adaptation of Lolita. In 1984, he played the title role in Hamlet in the New York Shakespeare Festival. He returned to television in the 1985 TV movie Covenant, and had a role on another daytime soap drama, Search For Tomorrow. He was a series regular on Ohara in 1987, and on Tour of Duty from 1987 to 1988, before starring in a series of television movies. He has also guest starred on shows such as Cheers, Dynasty, Search For Tomorrow, and Matlock.[3]

He almost landed the part of Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings, but lost out to Tim Daly (who coincidentally, as a voice actor, later portrayed Superman in The WB's Superman: The Animated Series). Kevin was confirmed to be performing on the fourth season of The Venture Bros. as Captain Sunshine, a caricature of Batman and Superman[3]

Batman

Vocally, Kevin Conroy is best known to audiences for his role as Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne in the Emmy Award-winning television show Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), which started the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). Conroy continued to voice-play Batman in the subsequent DCAU series The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999), Batman Beyond (1999-2001), Justice League (2001-2004), and Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006). His tenure in the role also includes the DCAU films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003). He also voice-played Batman for the character's guest appearances in Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock and The Zeta Project.

Conroy is well remembered by fans for being the first person in animation to use two distinct voices to portray Bruce Wayne and Batman, which was Conroy's idea. [4] In a tally of performances that include every episode, movie, and guest appearance made as Batman, Conroy has portrayed the famous superhero longer than any other actor who has in either live-action or animation.

Additionally, he also voice-played Batman in the video games The Adventures of Batman and Robin (1994), Batman Vengeance (2001), Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (2003) and Batman Arkham Asylum (2009), as well as the 2001 revamp of Batman Adventure - The Ride, located at the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park in Queensland, Australia. Kevin also voice-played Batman alongside his DCAU co-star Mark Hamill as The Joker and Jason Hillhouse as Dick Grayson in a feature of a storyboard scene included in the 2005 Special Edition DVD release of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. This scene depicted the origin of Robin, which wasn't filmed because the film makers ultimately felt it was out of place with the rest of the film. In the season four premiere of The Batman, an animated series unrelated to the DCAU, Conroy voice-played Robin's father, John Grayson.

Like the rest of the main cast from Justice League, Kevin was not involved in the 2008 animated feature Justice League: The New Frontier, which is not set in the DCAU, although producer Bruce Timm has said it's likely Conroy will return as Batman in future productions.[5] Later that year, Conroy did return as Batman for the animated film Batman: Gotham Knight,[6] which takes place between the live-action films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.[3] In 2009, Conroy played Batman in a voice-over role for the hit video game Batman: Arkham Asylum which also starred his animated series co-stars Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin as the Joker and Harley Quinn, a tie-in to the 70th anniversary of the Batman franchise, and the animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.[7]

Personal life

Conroy's hobbies include traveling, running, cycling, and painting. In his spare time, he also does work with foster kids. He has two brothers and one sister, as well as a chocolate Labrador named Bear.

In recent years, he has pursued a writing career.

He took part in the California AIDSRide from San Francisco to Los Angeles.[citation needed]

After the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Conroy helped out in the relief efforts by volunteering to do cooking duties for officers and firefighters.[8] On the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD's commentary, he told the story about it, and how another cook found out he was Batman. He asked if he could tell everyone, and Conroy agreed, though he thought no one would even know who he was. At the other cook's urging, Conroy yelled in the voice of Batman, "I am vengeance! I am the night! I... am... Batman!" (a line he had famously delivered in the episode "Nothing to Fear" from Batman: The Animated Series) eliciting cheers from the first responders eating at the relief center. They began telling him what their favorite episodes were, and how they had watched the show with their kids. He said it was the first time he had seen any of them smile or laugh since the attacks a week earlier.

Filmography

Stage plays

Stage Play Character played Location performed Year
Accounts  ? Hudson Guild  ?
Come Back Little Sheba  ? Roundabout Theatre  ?
Deathtrap  ? (on Broadway) 1979
Eastern Standard  ? Golden Theatre (Broadway) 1989
The Greeks  ? Hartford Stage  ?
Hamlet Hamlet New York Shapespeare Festival 1984
Hamlet Hamlet Old Globe Theatre, San Diego  ?
King Lear  ? San Diego Shakespeare Festival  ?
The Last Yankee Lenny Hamilton Signature Theatre 12/30/97 - 2/8/98
Lolita  ? (on Broadway)  ?
A Midsummer Night's Dream Lysander New York Shakespeare Festival 1984
A Midsummer Night's Dream Lysander Old Globe Theater, San Diego 1982
Mother Courage  ?  ?  ?
Much Ado About Nothing  ? San Diego Shakespeare Festival  ?

References

  1. ^ http://panelsonpages.com/?p=15025
  2. ^ Murphy, Joel (2009-10-01). "One on One with Kevin Conroy". HoboTrashcan. http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2009/10/01/one-on-one-with-kevin-conroy/. 
  3. ^ a b c "Prelude to a Kill...". Publick Nuisance. http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/. 
  4. ^ Murphy, Joel (2009-10-01). "One on One with Kevin Conroy". HoboTrashcan. http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2009/10/01/one-on-one-with-kevin-conroy/. 
  5. ^ "WonderCon '07: DC Universe: Superheroes Go DVD Panel". Newsarama. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=103726. 
  6. ^ Harvey, James (2008-02-29). "Kevin Conroy to play Batman in Batman: Gotham Knight". World's Finest Online. http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=82. 
  7. ^ IGN: Game Scoop! Podcast, Episode 118
  8. ^ Batman: Gotham Knight audio commentary.

External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kevin Conroy
Preceded by
Adam West		 Voice of Batman
1992-2006		 Succeeded by
Rino Romano
Preceded by
Jeremy Sisto		 Voice of Batman
2008		 Succeeded by
Diedrich Bader
v • d • e
Actors who have played Batman
Live-action
Animation, radio and video games
Actors who have portrayed a young Bruce Wayne
Other actors
Japanese dubs
Franchise media · Films cast members · Television series cast members · Characters in the film series

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