Good acting by secondary characters in the show

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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dell
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Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by dell »

I just finished watching Hot Off the Griddle (again). I really like the penthouse scene as it is one of the more interesting Bat-fights in the series. Batman rushes/jumps in and demands that Robin be released. The henchmen throw/slide Robin at Batman. The action then flows around the room and even Catwoman gets in on the action by hitting Robin with a bag of money. I think that was the only time she did anything during an actual Bat-fight.

Jack Kelly plays a slimy Jack O'Shea purrfectly. I especially like his reaction when he is about to get on the rocket in the driver's seat and Catwoman shoves him out of the way. He truly looks surprised. I have never figured out if that was good acting on his part or did Julie decide to ad lib and insist on the driver's seat.

So are there any other good performances that you like by someone other than the regulars or a villain?
dell
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High C
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by High C »

Great idea for a thread. I have two, also from the second season.

James Millhollin as the sleazy lawyer, Mr. Slye, who springs Chandell from jail. On paper, it seemed more like an Edward Andrews-type role (he always played sleazeballs, it seemed) while Millhollin played a lot of nervous, prissy bureaucrats and supervisors. But I thought he did well with it and it would've made a fun recurring character to answer the question of how the supervillains always were back on the streets so quickly after getting locked up by the Duo two or three weeks before.

Marie Windsor as hard-nosed reporter Nellie Majors, who believes Batman is in cahoots with Mr. Freeze a few arcs later. Windsor, a veteran of many film noirs and B-movies earlier in her career, does a great job of busting Batman's chops and she was so relentless that when I first saw the arc as a kid, I was surprised she wasn't in cahoots with Freeze herself. I was expecting that to eventually be the reveal.
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epaddon
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by epaddon »

Julie Gregg as Finella. Best acting job by a henchmoll because she is totally convincing as something she really isn't (a MM type). It's a performance easier to appreciate once you see the substantive guest parts she went on to do (how she didn't get an Emmy for her "Kojak" appearance I'll never know).
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Jim Akin
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Jim Akin »

Tol Avery does a good job fussing and fuming in both of his appearances, as bank president Prescott Belmont in the Joker/Maharajah two-parter and the deputy mayor (and Tut lookalike) in the Lisa Carson episodes.
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

I tend to appreciate the guest actors who--in the middle of all of the fantastic storylines-played believable, regular characters with generally normal behavior, such as..

Harry Holcombe - Mr. Andrews in "The Purr-Fect Crime".
Shelby Grant - Princess Sandra in "Instant Freeze".
Jerry Dunphy as the newscaster in "Batman is Riled" (easy job, since Dunphy was a real TV newscaster at KABC in Los Angeles).
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Commodore Schmidlapp
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Commodore Schmidlapp »

I think this is one area where the Batman '66 really shines. I have lots of favorites, but off the top of my head:

Barbara Heller, Zelda the Great - As the owner of the jewelry store, she was weak at the knees when meeting Batman and Robin. But once the scheme failed, she quickly thought they were a couple of bumbling idiots.

James Jeter(?), The Great Train Robbery - He was the train guard, and delivered the lines with a nice comedic effect.
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Dr. Shimel
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Dr. Shimel »

Francis X. Bushman in the Riddler silent movie caper. He came across as an irritable old buzzard--even before the Temper Tonic took hold. :lol:
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epaddon
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by epaddon »

BATWINGED HORNET wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 8:47 am I tend to appreciate the guest actors who--in the middle of all of the fantastic storylines-played believable, regular characters with generally normal behavior, such as..

Harry Holcombe - Mr. Andrews in "The Purr-Fect Crime".
That is one VERY critical difference between this S1 CW script and all the S2 CW scripts SRR did that goes beyond the fact in "Purr-fect Crime" Julie isn't playing the lovesick CW. In his S2 scripts, SRR would intrude his annoying sense of humor and give us dumb parody names or inside-joke names for civilian characters. Had "Purr-fect Crime" been a S2 script, Mark Andrews wouldn't have been Mark Andrews it would have been something dumb and ridiculous so yes, it is refreshing we had a "normal" character and name in this plot element.
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Progress Pigment
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Progress Pigment »

So many good ones in the first season! Egyptian leading man Alex D'Arcy was great in a small part as the shop keeper in the very beginning of Fine Feathered Finks.

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Mr. Glee
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Mr. Glee »

I'll second James Millhollin and Marie Windsor; I wish both Slye and Majors could have been recurring characters. Another personal favorite: Christopher Cary as Angus Ferguson...every time I watch "The Impractical Joker" I'm disappointed that he doesn't make a return appearance in Part 2. A scene in which he apologizes to the Dynamic Duo for calling them "muttonheads" and thanks them for returning the Jeweled Key of Kincardine would have been a natural for the ending.
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Dr. Shimel
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Re: Good acting by secondary characters in the show

Post by Dr. Shimel »

Mr. Glee wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 3:24 pm I'll second James Millhollin and Marie Windsor; I wish both Slye and Majors could have been recurring characters. Another personal favorite: Christopher Cary as Angus Ferguson...every time I watch "The Impractical Joker" I'm disappointed that he doesn't make a return appearance in Part 2. A scene in which he apologizes to the Dynamic Duo for calling them "muttonheads" and thanks them for returning the Jeweled Key of Kincardine would have been a natural for the ending.
Hopefully faster than "Jack McRobinson" :lol:
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