[ad_1]
This morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, I was told by my fellow journalist and pop guru that Kevin Conroy had passed away.
I quickly Googled it, and found no evidence of it. I was thankful that he was wrong.
But about five minutes later, news reports of the player’s death began to hit.
It first appeared on his former co-stars, and official news stories.
For those who don’t know, Conroy is best known for playing Bruce Wayne and Batman, first in “Batman: The Animated Series” and then in many movies, TV series, video games and more over the past 30 years.
While he was mostly a voice actor in this role, he also played the character in live action once, in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event that took place in the DC Universe TV series a few years ago.
Growing up as a Batman fan in the 90s, Conroy was “My” Batman, as was anyone 40 or younger.
Even when other people took the role, they were often compared to Conroy.
On the list of top character shows, Conroy is almost always number one.
A Julliard-trained actor who roomed with Robin Williams while in school, Conroy didn’t set out to be “just” a voice actor, but that’s where he made his mark on the world.
In addition to his many roles in Batman and related media, he also appeared in many other voice roles.
In his acting career, he has acted in everything from television soaps to big-budget movies and has also acted in theatre.
Earlier this year, Conroy wrote a story for DC Comics called “Finding Batman”, a story that describes his life and experiences as a gay man.
Before that story, which was included in DC Comics’ 2022 Pride anthology, he was “out,” but many fans didn’t realize that before. His inclusion in the anthology raised a lot of awareness, and was well received by his fans.
Conroy has the distinction of being the first voice actor to use two different voices to portray Bruce Wayne and Batman. Having grown up with him, and Michael Keaton (who was the first actor in a live-action show to use multiple voices for characters), it was the way it was supposed to be in my world.
Conroy’s portrayal of this character had a profound impact on my life. He was the first voice actor I knew, I saw his name in the credits as a little boy, then I found other projects he worked on.
Later in life as the internet became more popular, finding his other projects became easier.
Listening to him chew on the scene with Mark Hamill, who played the Joker in many of the same projects Conroy played Batman in, was something special.
Conroy, 66, died about three weeks before his birthday after a long illness. The nature of the illness was not disclosed on November 11, the day he died.
Conroy’s last social media post was on Halloween, wishing fans a happy Halloween.
Dave Herndon is a multimedia reporter with the MediaNews team, covering the Dearborn area of The Press and Guide. He started with the company in 2009, and has worked on many of their books, covering everything from high school sports to government, and everything in between. He has been a journalist since 2001, and has worked on radio and television. In his spare time, he has written comic books and is working on various anthologies of both fiction and non-fiction.
[ad_2]
Source link