Kevin Conroy

Kevin Conroy (November 30, 1955 – November 10, 2022) was an American actor. He is best known as the voice behind the DC Comics superhero Batman in various media, beginning with the acclaimed 1990s Batman: The Animated Series and its spin-off TV series and feature films of the DC Animated Universe. Due to the popularity of his performance as Batman, Conroy went on to voice the character for multiple films under the DC Universe Animated Original Movies brand and the equally-acclaimed video games Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight.

Career
In 1980, Conroy decided to try his hand in television and moved out to California. He landed a role in the daytime soap opera Another World. Conroy became associated with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, where he performed in productions of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. From 1980 to 1985, he acted in a variety of contemporary and classic theater pieces, including the Broadway productions of Edward Albee's adaptation of Lolita and Eastern Standard. He told The New York Times that, as a gay man living in New York in the time of the AIDS epidemic, he "went to so many funerals that I felt such a sense of obligation" to portray the character of a TV producer secretly living with AIDS in Eastern Standard.

Conroy returned to television in the 1985 TV movie Covenant and had a role on another daytime soap drama, Search for Tomorrow. Conroy played gay lawyer Bart Fallmont on Dynasty from 1985 to 1986. He was a series regular on Ohara in 1987, and as the company commander on Tour of Duty from 1987 to 1988, before starring in a series of television movies. Though initially cast as one of the show's main characters, his role on the show was reduced while it filmed in Hawaii and he ended up spending much of his time doing portraits of tourists on the Honolulu boardwalk. Conroy also guest starred on shows such as Cheers, Search for Tomorrow, Matlock and Murphy Brown.

As a voice actor, he is best known for his starring role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995). He continued to voice the character for various animated spin-off media, which collectively took place in what is known as the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). These include the TV shows The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001, in which he portrayed an elderly, retired Bruce Wayne), Justice League (2001–2004) and Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006), the theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), and the direct-to-video films Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003). He also voiced Batman for the character's guest appearances in the DCAU's Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock and The Zeta Project.

Apart from the DCAU, Conroy voiced Batman in the direct-to-video DC Universe Animated Original Movies: Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010), Justice League: Doom (2012), Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013), Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014), Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), Batman and Harley Quinn (2017) and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019). He later returned to voicing Batman on TV for the animated series Justice League Action (2016-2018). Beside the successful Arkham series, Conroy's video game credits as Batman include Batman Vengeance, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, Injustice, Injustice 2, Lego DC Super-Villains and MultiVersus.

Conroy is distinguished for being the first voice actor to speak in different tones between portraying Bruce Wayne and Batman, which Michael Keaton had previously done in Tim Burton's live-action Batman films and Christian Bale would later also do in the Dark Knight trilogy (though much less subtle than Keaton or Conroy's portrayals). In a tally of performances that include every episode and movie portrayal of Batman in live-action and animation, Conroy portrayed the character longer than any other actor. He also portrayed Bruce Wayne of Earth-99 in the Batwoman episode of the 2019 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths". This marked his first and only live-action performance of the Batman character.

Mark Hamill, Conroy's frequent voice actor co-star as the Joker, spoke highly of working with Conroy. Regarding his willingness to be involved in a Batman-related project, Hamill says, "When they offer me roles now, I say, 'Is Kevin doing it?' ... I don't even have to read the script, if Kevin's doing it I'll do it."

Conroy died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City from intestinal cancer on November 10, 2022, at the age of 66. People who paid tribute to him included Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Andrea Romano, Paul Dini, and James Gunn.

OVAs & Specials

 * Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) - Bruce Wayne/Batman