Kevin Conroy, iconic voice of animated Batman, 1955-2022

The Bat-Signal is at half-mast.

Kevin Conroy, the actor who iconically voiced Batman/Bruce Wayne for decades, died yesterday at the terribly young age of 66.

Starting with the debut of Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, I was a fan. Starting in 2014, we became friends…and I became an even bigger fan.

Like his Juilliard classmate Christopher Reeve, Kevin was a superhero not only for a living but also in real life. 

Before the Bill Finger credit change, I did all I could to bring about a Bill Finger credit change. That included pitching the Paley Center in New York a panel to celebrate Batman’s 75th anniversary. We booked four Batman notables and I inserted one Batman nobody—me, so I’d have a high-profile platform to spread word about Bill.

One of those notables was Kevin, who then became a fellow Finger advocate.

When the Bronx renamed a street for Bill in 2017, I invited Kevin to attend/speak. It was frigid, it was unpaid, it was far—but he came. 

When I asked Kevin if he would ask his colleague Mark Hamill (who voiced the Joker to Kevin’s Batman) if he would add his autograph to a thank-you gift for Derek Wolfford, who runs the Bill Finger Appreciation Group, Kevin (and then Mark) obliged—even though people like them are likely asked for favors like this far too often. Both agreed partly for Derek—and largely for Bill.

But these are not the heroic acts I’m referring to.

At the Paley event, the other Kevin on the panel (Smith) told the audience that Kevin Conroy had volunteered to do what he could after 9/11. Smith had not cleared this story in advance with Conroy, but Conroy was gracious. His role? Cooking for first responders in a makeshift kitchen near Ground Zero—for two weeks. And, appropriately for Batman, Kevin took the night shift.

I knew nothing of another aspect of Kevin’s heroism until this year when a story he wrote about his past was published in DC Comics anthology honoring Pride Month. (Kevin was the first openly gay actor to portray Batman.) 

Please read it. 

My last email exchange with Kevin was about that story, on June 8. I did not know he was sick. His last words to me: “stay safe and see you soon.”

"Bill Finger Way" street sign: "New York Times"! Mark Hamill!

The New York Times has mentioned Bill Finger only a small handful of times, namely here and here. The paper did not cover Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, the unprecedented 2015 correction to the Batman credit line, or Batman & Bill…so it was especially gratifying that ace NYT reporter George Gene Gustines did attend and write about the 12/8/17 unveiling of the "Bill Finger Way" street sign. 

The article and photos appeared online on 12/13/17...

...and in print on the front page of the Metropolitan section on Sunday 12/17/17.

Only two days before the official release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill himself tweeted about it. 

Perhaps he was tipped off by his colleague Kevin Conroy, who attended the street sign unveiling. (Hamill has voice-acted the animated Joker to Conroy's Batman on and off since 1992.) Or maybe he just follows these things since he has hung out with Bob Kane (and Jerry Siegel, and Jack Kirby...).

1987

Then Wonder Woman voice actor (and friend) Susan Eisenberg tweeted about Mark. 

Great Hera! May the Finger be with you.

3/31/18 addendum: More Mark.

Unveiling of "Bill Finger Way" street sign in New York

Bill Finger made history…multiple times. Including three times (to date) after his death.

• In 1939, he wrote the first Batman story (after designing the costume).
• He was the only comic book writer to write an episode of the 1966 TV show.
• In 2015, he was officially (and finally) named a co-creator of Batman. This is the first time in comics history that the credit line of an A-list character has been corrected.
• He became the focus of Hulu's first original documentary (Batman & Bill, 2017) which is also the first film based on a nonfiction picture book.

On 12/8/17, Bill Finger made history yet again. He is now the first superhero creator with a street named after him in New York City.

Bill Finger Way runs along the southern border of Poe Park in the Bronx. The street sign is at the corner of East 192nd Street and the Grand Concourse. (To get there using GPS, put in the address right across the street: 2580 Grand Concourse, Bronx.)

Here is the big moment:

The event began at 10 am and lasted about an hour. The speakers:

• New York Councilmember Ritchie Torres, whom some predict is a future mayor of New York
• me
• Athena Finger, Bill's lone known grandchild
• Steve Simmons, Bill's stepson (his mother was Bill's second wife, Lyn)
• Kevin Conroy, voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series and multiple series since
• Angel Hernandez, Director of Programs and External Relations, Bronx Historical Society 
• a student from PS 46

Here is my speech (courtesy of Steve Ostrower):

Here are all the speeches.

The press/coverage included the following:

• ABC
• CBS
• New York Times
• New York Daily News
• Vulture
• News 12 Brooklyn (TV segment)
• Den of Geek
• Midtown Comics

Attendees included the following:

• Benjamin Cruz, Bill's great-grandson
• Alethia Mariotta, Athena's half-sister
• Jens Robinson, son of Jerry Robinson, co-creator of Robin and the Joker
• Travis Langley
• Lenny Schwartz, playwright, Co-Creator
• Roberto Williams, playwright, Fathers of the Dark Knight
• Julian Voloj
• George Gene Gustines, New York Times 
• Abraham Riesman, Vulture
• Rocco Staino, School Library Journal
• Danny Fingeroth
• Paul Castiglia 
• Thomas Sciacca
• Art Cloos
• Lucy Aponte, Director of the Poe Park Visitor Center
• Delmo Walters, Jr.
• Scout and her mom Stephanie, who came the farthest: Utah
• my college buddies Mark Lehman and Steve Ostrower

At least two attendees reminded me that I was a bit pushy (my word, not theirs) when I was researching…but they said it with a smile and now have a greater understanding of my rationale. 

After the unveiling, a group (Athena, Benjamin, Alethia, Danny, Travis, and Art) took a tour of Poe's cottage.

Glimpses:

amNewYork 12/7/17

Councilmember Ritchie Torres

Athena Finger

Steve Simmons

Kevin Conroy

Looks like I'm grinning back at Bill.

Steve and Athena pulled the string to

unveil the sign.

The joy visible here is precious.

Bill's great-grandson Benjamin

Steve and fellow Finger advocate Travis Langley meeting

George Gene Gustines of the New York Times

Councilmember Torres received this letter from DC Comics

the night before the unveiling. No DC reps that I know of attended.

I was the last person from the unveiling to leave. 

I turned around to take one last photo of the site and

did not see till I checked the photos later that I 

inadvertently captured someone taking a photo of the 

hours-old sign.

Some photos are courtesy of Julian Voloj…who is in the process of making some Bill Finger history of his own…

I have been lobbying for a NYC memorial to Bill Finger even before my book was out. This process was not easy. But like so much else about this story, persistence finds a way.

My remarks:

My name is Marc Tyler Nobleman. I'm the author of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, the 2012 biography of writer Bill Finger, and I appear in this year's Batman movie. No, not Justice League. Not The Lego Batman Movie. Not the direct-to-video Batman vs. Two-Face. I'm in the Hulu documentary Batman & Bill. 

For years I said "Batman's biggest secret is not Bruce Wayne." Not anymore.

Bill Finger wrote the first Batman story in 1939 and hundreds more over the next 25 years—including his heartbreaking (and groundbreaking) origin. He even designed the costume. But his name never appeared in the credit line in his lifetime. Meanwhile cartoonist Bob Kane drew only a fraction of the stories and for only the first few years and did not write a single Batman story in his life, but from the start, he was the sole person credited. Holy fake news, Batman!

This street renaming is a love letter to four B's: Bill, Batman, the Big Apple, and, of course, the Bronx. Bill wasn't born in the Bronx, but Batman was. According to my research, it happened on Kelly Street. Then Bill built the Bat-world from all over the borough.

In 1940-41, Bill lived at 2754 Grand Concourse. In that period, he wrote the first stories with Robin, the Joker, and Catwoman and he named the Batmobile and Gotham City. In 1941-42, he lived at 50 East 196th Street, during which time he wrote the first appearances of the Scarecrow and the Penguin and introduced what he would later name the Batcave. Right here in Poe Park, he and Bob would sit on benches and brainstorm Batman adventures.

But when Bill passed away in 1974 at age 59, many if not most Batmanians had never heard his name. He had no mainstream obituary. No funeral. No gravestone. No kidding.

When I began my book in 2006, I was led to believe he also had no heir. His only child, his son Fred, died in 1992, leaving no offspring known to comics historians.

The biggest moment of my research was when I learned that was not true: Fred did have a child, a daughter, which meant Bill had a granddaughter. I found Athena Finger, then she found the courage to fight along with her sister Alethia for her family's birthright. In 2015, after 76 years of inaccuracy, DC Comics added Bill's name to Batman. Justice has no expiration date.

One of the most instrumental people in my research was Bill's longtime writing partner Charles Sinclair. Charles gave of his time many times to articulately tell me about Bill. Yesterday I learned that on November 15, at age 93, Charles passed away. Let's take a moment to honor Bill's old friend and my new friend Charles.

Thank you all for joining us to celebrate. Fingerheads have come from as far as Utah—anyone farther? Special thanks to Athena and Benjamin for flying in from Florida. We're all indebted to New York Councilmember Ritchie Torres and his staff, especially three R's—Ronn, Rafael, and Raymond—for spearheading this tribute to two of the Bronx's most distinguished sons: the Dark Knight and the mind behind him. Batman is more than one of the world's most successful superheroes. He's one of the most iconic fictional characters of any kind of all time. That makes Bill Finger one of the most influential creators of all time.

He died too soon to see that family and fans have reclaimed his legacy, so the unveiling of "Bill Finger Way" is bittersweet. Bill Finger made history. Team Finger corrected history. Now the Bronx takes lead in honoring that history by installing this sign, the first memorial to a superhero creator in New York, the Superhero Capital of the World. Next step: a statue!