Kevin Conroy, the prolific voice actor whose earnest delivery on “Batman: The Animated Series” was for many Batman fans the definitive voice of the Caped Crusader, has died at 66. Conroy died Thursday after a battle with cancer, series producer Warner Bros. announced Friday. Conroy was the voice of Batman in the acclaimed animated series that ran from 1992 to 1996, often playing alongside Mark Hamill’s Joker. Conroy went on to be the almost exclusive animated voice of Batman, including approximately 15 films, 400 television episodes and 22 video games, including the “Batman: Arkham” and “Injustice” franchises. In Batman’s eight-decade history, no one has played the Dark Knight more. “For many generations, he was the definitive Batman,” Hamill said. “It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the right guy for the right place and the world was better for it.” “He will always be my Batman,” Hamill said. Conroy’s popularity with fans made him a sought-after personality on the convention circuit. In the often tumultuous world of DC Comics, Conroy was a staple and widely beloved. In a statement, Warner Bros. Animation stated that Conroy’s performance “will forever stand among the best performances of the Dark Knight in any medium”. “Kevin carried a light with him everywhere, whether in the recording booth giving it his all or feeding the first responders during 9/11 or making sure every fan waiting for him had a moment with their Batman,” said Paul Dini, producer. of the cartoon show. “A hero in every sense of the word.” Born in Westbury, New York and raised in Westport, Connecticut, Conroy began as a well-trained stage actor. Attended Juilliard and matched with Robin Williams. After graduating, he toured with John Houseman’s acting company, the Acting Company. He starred in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater and Eastern Standard on Broadway. At the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, California, he performed in “Hamlet.” The 1980s production of “Eastern Standard,” in which Conroy played a television producer secretly living with AIDS, held special meaning for him. Conroy, who was gay, said at the time that he regularly attended funerals for friends who had died of AIDS. He took out his angst every night on stage. In 1980, Conroy moved to Los Angeles, began acting on soap operas and landed appearances on television series including “Cheers,” “Tour of Duty” and “Murphy Brown.” In 1991, when casting director Andrea Romano was looking for her leading man for “Batman: The Animated Series,” she went through hundreds of auditions before Conroy landed. He was there on the recommendation of a friend — and immediately cast. Conroy began the role with no background in comics and as a voice acting novice. His Batman was husky, brooding and dark. His Bruce Wayne was light and dashing. His inspiration for the dissenting voices, he said, came from the 1930s film “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” about an English aristocrat who leads a double life. “It’s so much fun as an actor to sink your teeth into,” Conroy told The New York Times in 2016. “Calling it animation doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like mythology.” As Conroy’s portrayal evolved over the years, it was sometimes linked to his own life. Conroy described his father as an alcoholic and said his family fell apart while he was in high school. He channeled those feelings into the 1993 animated film “Mask of the Phantasm,” which revolved around Bruce Wayne’s lingering issues with his parents. “Andrea came in after the taping and hugged me,” Conroy told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Andrea said, ‘I don’t know where you went, but it was a beautiful performance.’ He knew I was planning something.” Conroy is survived by his husband, Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy and brother Tom Conroy. In “Finding Batman,” released earlier this year, Conroy wrote a comic about his unlikely journey with the character and as a gay man in Hollywood. “I have often marveled at how fitting it was to get this role,” he wrote. “As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a devout Catholic family, I had grown up adept at hiding parts of myself.” The voice that emerged from Conroy for Batman, he said, was one he didn’t recognize — one that “seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, longing.” “I felt Batman rise up from deep within me.”
