Burgess Meredith(1907-1997)

His character, the Penguin, was so popular as a villain on the television series Batman (1966), the producers always had a Penguin script ready in case Meredith wanted to appear as a guest star.

I did Batman (1966) for two reasons, one of which was the salary. The other was that, after the first few episodes, "Batman" became the in-thing to do. Everybody . . . would either play a villain or appear as himself in that cameo showcase where a celebrity would poke his head through the window of a building that Batman and Robin were climbing. Actually, we didn't get as much money from the show as you might think, although we were paid decent money for the feature film version. The main impetus to continue appearing on "Batman"--beyond the desire to get some TV work--was that it was fashionable.