In 1947, at just two years old, you were featured in Strange as It Seems magazine as a professional ice skater for your participation in your father's traveling show. While you may not have personal memories of those early years, what stories did your family share with you about those first steps as a child prodigy?
Well, actually, I do remember a little bit. I remember the bright lights—you see, when you're in an arena and you're on the ice, and the lights are on you, everything is very bright. You can hear people, but you can't see them because they're in the dark. I was introduced, and two of the skaters came out and held each of my hands. We skated around—which was like, okay, you know, a little kid, two years old, he's on the skates, and they're holding his hands so he doesn't fall. But after skating around, they let me go, and then I skated by myself.
What was the public reaction?
People said, "That's impossible. There's no two-year-old in the world who can skate by themselves around this whole arena." The crowd roared—and this happened many times because it was a traveling show. So, I do remember that. I also remember my skates: I think the shoe was about four inches long, and the skate with the blade was about seven inches long—that's how small they were.
During your childhood, aside from ice skating, you were very passionate about sports. Which ones did you practice?
I just love all sports. In school, I played football, baseball, track, and wrestling—that's both in elementary school and high school. I also participated in mental sports; I was the number one chess player on our chess team. Later on, after leaving school, I got involved with martial arts and karate. I enjoyed that as well. So, I've always liked a combination of doing lots of physical action as well as mental action. You know, a lot of people just like to watch sports; I like to participate in sports.
Talking about mental action, you were also an exceptional student, earning top marks in math and science exams, and even becoming the world's fastest reader according to the American Medical Society. Can you tell us more about how you achieved these remarkable feats?
Well, when I was in school, I read like the average reader. The average person reads about 240 words per minute with about 40% comprehension. I started studying it, and I became fascinated by it. I had a teacher at our high school who was considered one of the top experts in the country, so I had the benefit of that. I studied and studied, even into college, and at my highest point, I was tested at 30,000 words per minute with 90% comprehension. To give you an idea, that is the speed of reading the entire play of Shakespeare's Macbeth in one minute. I read a big book called War and Peace, which is 1,440 pages, in 45 minutes. And I got an A essay final at UCLA — University of California, Los Angeles.
After being represented by a Hollywood agent, your first interview led to your most iconic role as Robin in the hit 1960s TV series Batman. Why do you think you were chosen for such a prominent role?
Well, I found out that 1,100 young actors were interviewed for that role. That is very, very unusual — that's got to be a record. After I got the role, I spoke to the producers, and they asked me, "Would you like to know why we picked you?" I said, "Sure." They said, "We picked you to play Robin because, in our minds — forgetting television for a minute — if there really was a Robin, we believe that you personally would be it. So all we want you to do is two things: we want you to be enthusiastic, and we want you to be yourself." Well, anybody can be themselves, right? And that's what I did. In three years and 120 30-minute episodes, no director ever told me how to say my lines; those were my own emotions, my own thoughts.
I understand you became a black belt in karate, and that Bruce Lee filmed his first fight scene facing off against you in an episode of the show. Is that true?
Oh, yes. His first filmed fight scene of his career was fighting me on Batman. His character was called Kato, and the TV show was The Green Hornet. It was the same producer who did both shows. The Green Hornet was coming on in the fall. We'd already been out for about six months, and he introduced his new show by having the actors come on Batman. We were number one and number two in the whole world at the time. That was the best way to launch a new series — to have the actors from a new show come on a show that was already a big hit. It was really cool.
Did you become friends in real life?
Yes, indeed. We found out that we lived in the same condominium complex of buildings, and we used to spar together—not pulling punches, but still pretty rough. We also would go to dinner: he and his wife, Linda, and, at that time, his son Brandon, who became quite an actor, was only six months old. We would go down in Los Angeles to Chinatown, where they're very famous. Bruce would order everything that wasn't even on the menu because he lived in Hong Kong for 10 years. He was a happy-go-lucky, funny guy. He had a really sharp personality and used to say to me, "As fast as I am and all the martial arts I do, it's still most important to use your brain." He trained eight hours a day, every day. It could be Christmas Day, and he would train. A great martial artist.
Did you get along with Adam West, the actor who played Batman, right away — or did it take time?
Adam and I met at our screen test, before either of us ever got the job. The director said, "Would you like to meet the actor who's going to play the other part? You might want to sit down next to each other and go over the lines." And I said, "Okay." I sat down next to him, and he and I started to talk. Within five minutes, the two of us were laughing so much. We never stopped laughing for 50 years. We were like instant friends. And he was a very funny man. Guido, he was the kind of man where everything he said made you think, "Is he putting me on? Is he kidding with me?" He could say things that made your eyes open—oh my gosh, embarrassing! But he was just the nicest man. And oh, what a great actor.
How did you both develop the chemistry needed for that inseparable dynamic duo?
We played opposite types of characters. He was big and tall and very suave, and I was small and fast. He spoke very slowly, and I spoke very quickly. The greatest comedy duos here in America have always been a great contrast—they are very different from each other. Like Laurel and Hardy: one was kind of big and fat, and one was skinny. When that happens, it's just a perfect match. We just got along incredibly well.
Why did you do your own stunts on the show, considering it led to you being hospitalized on more than one occasion?
It actually wasn't my choice. I had to. I'll give you a quick story. On Batman, on the first day of filming, my first shot: we were up in Bronson Canyon, and they said, "You go inside the cave, get in the Batmobile, and you're going to drive out to the camera. Then you're going to make a sharp turn and head off towards Gotham City. That's what the shot is." So I got into this dark cavern—you can't see very well. But I finally found the Batmobile and got in. I looked over and thought it was Adam West, but it wasn't. I said, "Oh, who are you?" He replied, "My name is Hubie." I said, "Oh, well, why are you dressed as Batman?" He responded, "I'm a stuntman, and this is a very dangerous stunt. They don't want to take a chance of Adam West getting hurt, so they hired me."
Where was your stuntman then?
I asked him that. He told me, "Oh, yeah, you have a stuntman." I said, "Well, that's good. But where is he?" He replied, "Oh, he's having coffee with Adam West." And I hear them say, "Okay, roll it up, roll it up." I said, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. There's a terrible mistake." And they come, "Burt, what's the mistake?" I replied, "Well, this man is telling me this is very dangerous, and he says I have a stuntman too. Why isn't he here instead of me?" They said, "Oh, we can't use him because he doesn't look like you." I go, "Why would you hire him if he doesn't look like me?" They said, "We couldn't find anybody else. So you gotta do it."
I imagine you had no other choice than to do it...
So, there I was, but there was no seatbelt, no handle on the door, no dashboard. There was only a window made of flexible plastic. So, I'm holding on to that, and it comes out at 55 miles an hour, goes straight at the camera, he turns the car, spins around, and unexpectedly my door flew open. It was not supposed to fly open. We knocked over the big camera and some huge hot lights fell down. It didn't hit anybody, but it would have killed you if it landed on you. And when this happened, I was thrown towards the door, but my little finger wrapped around the gear shift knob. I accidentally caught it, and it kept me from going out of the car, but it pulled my finger out of joint. Incredibly painful.
Were you rushed to the hospital?
They came running up to me, saying, "Burt, are you okay?" I said, "I'm okay, but my hand is killing me." And through my glove, my finger had swollen twice as big. They said, "We've got to get you to the hospital right away." I asked, "Okay, but where's the car?" They said, "Oh, we can't go now. We still have to get the shot. We have 30 people here — it's costing ten thousand dollars every 10 minutes. We can't leave." It was 7:30 in the morning. I left for the hospital at noon. It was five, six hours with my finger like that, and I had to do the shot three more times. Then, the next day, there was an explosion, and a two-by-four hit me on the nose, breaking it. Four days in a row at the emergency hospital — same doctor.
He must have thought you were crazy for exposing yourself to such harm...
The doctor said, "You know, maybe you should be doing a different kind of business. This is a little dangerous." I said, "Yeah, but I want to be an actor. I didn't know I was going to come to the hospital every day." I was in pain — second-degree burns, broken noses, and gas inhalation. Oh my gosh, it was dangerous. And throughout the whole series, whenever the guys came with the explosions, I was always like, "Oh, I want to stay away from that."
The memorable role of Catwoman was portrayed by three different actresses in both the TV series and the 1966 movie: Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and Eartha Kitt. Which one did you prefer working with, or which one did you connect with the most?
Every single one of them was an excellent actress, and each had their own portrayal — their version — of Catwoman. I thought all three were great, and they were all so nice to work with. I worked with all the actors who came on Batman that played the villains. These were some of the biggest Hollywood stars, and they were professional and nice, and for me, I was like a kid in a candy store — everything was sweet and wonderful. I had a really good time.
What's your favorite episode looking back?
120. You know, to me, each one was a favorite episode when I came out of it without having to go to the hospital. I consider each one of those the best episodes." (laughs)
And which one was the most difficult to film? Let me guess: the first one...
It was the pilot, definitely. It took three weeks to make it. We were supposed to make two half-hours a week, but it took three weeks on the first one because they spent extra time on all the effects. Everything worked, like giant birthday cakes and trains coming at me. I mean, it was scary, but it was very well done. There were great directors. And when Batman came out, it was number one and number two because we were on twice a week — so, number one and number two in the entire world.
What were the reasons for the cancellation of the series in 1968?
Batman cost so much to make that every week the studio was losing about $300,000. This was in the '60s, so you've got to multiply the money by about 10 times that. That's like losing $3 million a week on a TV show today. There was a person who was an assistant director that got involved. An assistant director is not what a creative director is — an assistant director gets the actors together and gets everybody to come in on time and all that stuff. He went to the producers and said, "I will make sure that you don't lose any more money if you let me direct it." And they said yes to that. He did things that took away the charm, cut corners to save money and save time, and I think that hurt our ratings.