Lewis Wilson
| Lewis Wilson | |
|---|---|
Wilson with his son Michael in 1943.
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| Born |
Lewis Gilbert Wilson January 28, 1920 New York City, New York |
| Died | August 9, 2000 (aged 80) San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1943–54 |
Lewis Gilbert Wilson (January 28, 1920 – August 9, 2000) was an American actor from New York City who was most famous for being the first actor to play DC Comics character Batman on screen in the 1943 film serial Batman.
Wilson graduated from Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1939. His family had long roots with the school and his father and even grandfather were graduates.
Following the entry of the United States into World War II, in 1943 Columbia Pictures created the first Batman live action series, simply called Batman. Wilson was cast as the title character in the 15-episode serial against J. Carrol Naish who portrayed a Japanese spy called Dr Daka who headed a group of American traitors in a fight to take over America for Japanese control. It was Wilson's screen debut at the age of 23. A sequel to the serial was made in 1949, but Robert Lowery replaced Wilson as Batman.
After the war concluded, Wilson and his family moved to California and he and his wife joined the Pasadena Playhouse. His final film was the Jerry Hopper film Naked Alibi in 1954. He then retired from show-business and worked for General Foods for many years. In retirement, he lived in North Hollywood, California. Despite his death being reported in Newspapers in 1966 as occurring "some years ago", he died in San Francisco, California, aged 80, 34 years after the report and 1 year after colleague Kirk Alyn's death.
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