Two years ago today, Adam West passed away at the age of 88. For Gen X, we are too young to remember or were not even born yet when the BATMAN series starring West aired on ABC from 1966 to 1968.

Our generation grew up watching Batman reruns after school on one of our local channels. For many of us, Adam West was our first TV hero. We also watched The New Adventures of Batman on Saturday mornings on CBS in the mid-seventies. This short-lived cartoon featured the voices of West and Burt Ward. They also teamed up for two live-action specials on NBC called Legends of the Superheroes in 1979.

When the feature film Batman came out in 1989, we may have liked Michael Keaton’s performance of the Caped Crusader, but West was still our Batman. Some of us met him and got an autograph at some car show, or Sci-Fi convention in the seventies and eighties.

When the Batman show aired in the nineties on FX and The Family Channel, young Gen X parents introduced the show to their kids. In this current decade, some of us who had kids later in life, and or who have grandchildren introduced the show to our little ones via ME-TV and the IFC Channel or on DVD.

He became a true Pop Culture Icon as we became adults in the nineties. He worked steadily in the last three decades in films and TV, frequently doing voice-overs, most notably as the Mayor on Family Guy.

Since that 1989 film came out there have been four other actors besides Keaton who have put the cowl and cape on. There were also two other actors who played Batman in serials back in the forties. The West version of Batman, the way he looked, his mannerisms, his voice, is still the Iconic image of the Caped Crusader.

William West Anderson (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017), known to the world as Adam West left this world two years ago today. He is stilled missed and will never be forgotten.