Kevin Conroy

In 1992, Batman the Animated series began airing on television with a new man donning the ebony coloured cowl and his name was Kevin Conroy. Conroy was initially a New York theatre actor, having studied at Julliard with Robin Williams (who was also friends with Superman actor Christopher Reeve) and the voice of Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons, Kelsey Grammar. He also played Broadway roles as well as Greek plays and Shakespeare plays. Kevin was told about the role about Batman through his agent. When he was told this, Kevin had no idea that there was any animated media that featured Batman as he was only familiar with the iconic Adam West Batman show in the 1960s (Kevin having been born in 1955, would’ve seen this as a pre-teen).

When he auditioned, he used his theatrical skills to bring his interpretation of the character to life after the show’s director described the character as a dark noir character. He voiced Batman for many years in many animated projects.

Little did anyone know until towards the untimely end of Kevin Conroy’s life was that he was homosexual and essentially the first gay actor to play Batman! Like many homosexuals in the 20^th century, life was tough and while he was too young to join the Stonewall riots, Kevin Conroy was always in the search for support as a gay man. He lost a few roles because of his sexuality and was even called various hurtful anti-gay slurs that not only broke his heart in two but made him feel like he was in his own Crime Alley (the alley where Batman was orphaned as a young child) and losing friends during the AIDS Epidemic certainly did not help. It was his will to continue living closeted until later in his life when the world was becoming more liberal to those in his circle was what motivated him to keep going and eventually voice Batman. When Kevin Conroy died of cancer in November 2022, not only did the world mourn another Batman just five years after Adam West, they also mourned the first gay Batman