Robin

From Caped Crusader to Canine Crusader

Little did aspiring actor Burt Ward know that learning martial arts in addition to his mental and athletic prowess would change his life forever. As a teen-age, Burt had all the makings of a true boy wonder. As an all around athlete, strong in martial arts, wrestling, track, tennis and golf, combined with a sharp intellect, playing "first board" in chess for Beverly Hills High School, achieving the top 3% in the U.S. in math and science tests at UCLA, and becoming the world's fastest reader - Burt tested before the American Medical Society in Beverly Hills, California and was clocked at 30,000 words per minute with 90% comprehension (the average reader reads 240 words per minute with 40% comprehension). Burt was featured in an article entitled, "Will the Real Boy Wonder Please Stand Up" and subsequently appeared on the national television educational show "Read Right." With the help of his father, a prominent real estate broker in Beverly Hills, CA, Burt became one of the youngest real estate agents in California, and met producer, Saul David, who arranged for him to sign with a Hollywood agent. His first interview was set up at 20th Century Fox Studios, and a few weeks later, Burt was called back for a screen test with Adam West. Holder of a brown belt in karate at the time, Burt showed off his athletic ability for the producers by demonstrating some falls and tumbles, and even broke a one-inch pine board with his hand. Later, Burt attained his black belt from his instructor, All Korean champion, Young Ik Suh. Burt was friends with Bruce Lee. A special piece of movie trivia is that Bruce Lee's first filmed fight scene of his career was fighting Burt Ward. In October 2015, Burt was inducted into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Executive Producer William Dozier commented about Ward's tall size in comparison to Adam West, and the new Boy Wonder prospect replied, "I promise you, sir, I won't grow anymore." Dozier laughed and told Burt that he would hold him to that. 2 It wasn't until six weeks after the screen test that Burt learned that he had won the coveted role of Robin, the Boy Wonder in the new "Batman" TV series for ABC-TV. He was everything they wanted. All he had to do was just be himself. Batman Was an Overnight Sensation!

Biff, Bam, Boom! The Ratings Soared! Burt and Adam West made hundreds of personal appearances together and were featured in dozens of magazine articles, including the cover of Life magazine. Years later, when accepting Harvard's "Man of the Year" award, Burt brought one of his original Robin costumes, even then valued at six figures. Some students came up to him dressed as security guards and told him they would keep the costume safe. Then, in the middle of Burt's speech, one student stood up and asked, "When is a costume not a costume? When it's stolen." The lights dimmed and the students grabbed the costume and made off. After snapping photos with one another in the cape, they later called Ward and gave the costume back. The ringleader of the gang? Harvard Lampoon editor, Conan O'Brien.

From "Caped Crusader" to "Canine Crusader" In 1994, Burt and his wife, Tracy Posner Ward, philanthropist and daughter of former corporate raider and billionaire, Victor Posner, rescued a Great Dane in distress. From this experience, they learned about dozens of other Great Danes also needing homes. When they called weeks later to see what had happened to the others, they was horrified to hear that they had all been destroyed. Both Burt and Tracy have a huge love for animals. They made a decision, and created a rescue for Great Danes and other giant dog breeds. Located 50 miles east of Los Angeles, Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoptions is a nonprofit charity created by Burt and Tracy. Gentle Giants has rescued and adopted more than 15,500 giant breed and small breed dogs during their 22 years of operation. All of their dogs are socialized and behaviorally trained, and live communally together in their home. Gentle Giants is now the largest giant breed dog rescue in the world and rescues and finds homes for 45 different dog breeds, ranging from 2 lbs. to 300 lbs.

Traditionally, giant breed dogs usually have short lifespans, living 6-8 years or 7-9 years, depending upon the breed. Spending millions of dollars of their own money and more than a decade of research and testing, and combining their special care and feeding program with their own all natural Gentle Giants dog food, Burt and Tracy have successfully doubled the average lifespan of their rescued giant breed dogs, and significantly lengthened the average lifespan of their rescued small and medium breed dogs as well, with dogs living as long as 27 active, healthy years.

Gentle Giants Products manufacturers all natural Gentle Giants dog food which is sold in more than 1,250 stores in California, and in 339 Walmart Supercenters in Oregon, 3 Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida. Gentle Giants dog food is sold nationally through mail order on Chewy.com, Walmart.com, and Amazon.com. In California, Gentle Giants is sold in Walmart Supercenters, Stater Bros. Ralphs, and Gelson's.

Gentle Giants has a spectacular new line of wet (canned) dog food, with 90% Beef, 90% Chicken, and 90% Salmon. Gentle Giants Products also has a new line of super premium dog supplements and super premium dog treats.

The Caped Crusader has truly evolved into the Canine Crusader.

Christopher Eugene O'Donnell was born on June 26th, 1970 in Winnetka, Illinois, to Julie Ann (Rohs) and William Charles O'Donnell, Sr., who managed a CBS radio station, WBBM-AM. He is the youngest child in his family, with four sisters and two brothers. His father had Irish ancestry and his mother's lineage includes German, English, and Swiss.

O'Donnell first started modeling at the age of thirteen and continued until the age of sixteen, when he appeared in commercials. When he was seventeen, he was preparing to stop acting and modeling, but was asked to audition for what would be his first film, Men Don't Leave (1990). He didn't want to go to the audition, but his mother bribed him by saying she would buy him a new car if he went and he duly got the role.

Ever since that moment in his life, Chris has appeared in some major motion pictures including Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Scent of a Woman (1992), Mad Love (1995) and Vertical Limit (2000). He played a part in Kinsey (2004), which appeared in theaters in the year 2004.

Chris took time off from acting to spend time with his wife, Caroline, son, Chris Jr., and his daughter Lilly. He also spent two months in New York performing in Arthur Miller's "The Man Who Had All the Luck".

Brenton Thwaites is an Australian actor. He played Luke Gallagher on the Fox8 teen drama series SLiDE (2011) and Stu Henderson on the Australian soap opera hit Home and Away (1988). His films include Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012), Oculus (2013), Maleficent (2014), and The Giver (2014). He starred in Gods of Egypt (2016) and will headline Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), with Johnny Depp.

Brenton was born in Cairns, Queensland, to Fiona Middleton and Peter Thwaites.

Curran Walters was born on January 16, 1998 in Oak Park, California. He previously modeled for clothing brands including Tilly's, Lee Jeans, and Brothers. He began his screen career with commercial shots in the Samsung Galaxy phone and the sports video game NBA 2K15. He made his feature debut in the 2014 family comedy Growing Up and Down (2014). Curran landed more roles on television including his recurring role as "Young Jackson" in the series premiere of Game of Silence (2016). He also appeared in the two-part episode of "Girl Meets High School: Part 1 (2016)" during Season 2 of Girl Meets World (2014). Further television credits include Too Close to Home (2016), Alexa & Katie (2018), 20th Century Women (2016), Too Close to Home (2016), Speechless (2016). He made his second feature appearance in the 2016 comedy-drama 20th Century Women (2016), starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig. Curran then made his third feature film appearance in the upcoming 2019 horror film Do Not Reply (2019) followed with made-for-television film drama Playing Dead (2018).

Scott Menville is an American voice actor known for voicing Robin in the Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go and associated DC franchises. He also voiced Rick Courage from Evil Con Carne, Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo, Fred Flintstone from The Flintstone Kids, Rocket the Sloth from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings video game and Yaibal in Final Fantasy X-2.

Canadian actor Michael Cera was born in Brampton, Ontario, to parents who worked for Xerox. His mother, Linda, who is from Quebec, has English, Irish, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry, and his father, Luigi Cera, is Italian (from Sicily). Michael is the middle child between two sisters. He was educated at Conestoga Public School, Robert H. Lagerquist Senior Public School and Heart Lake Secondary School until the grade nine. Cera then completed his high school education via correspondence.

During a childhood illness he repeatedly viewed Ghostbusters (1984), learning the dialogue. It was this that sparked his interest in performing. He went on to take classes in improvisation at The Second City Toronto. Roles followed in commercials and TV, but he first came to major public attention when he was cast as George Michael Bluth in the critically acclaimed comedy series Arrested Development (2003). After the cancellation of this series, Cera successfully transitioned into movies, scoring starring roles in various projects such as Superbad (2007), Juno (2007), Youth in Revolt (2009) and as the eponymous hero in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).

Alongside acting, Cera is also a musician - he sings and plays guitar and bass.

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. His parents, Bryna (Sanglel) and Herschel Danielovitch, were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mahilyow Voblast (now in Belarus). Although growing up in a poor ghetto, Douglas was a fine student and a keen athlete and wrestled competitively during his time at St. Lawrence University. Professional wrestling helped pay for his studies as did working on the side as a waiter and a bellboy. However, he soon identified an acting scholarship as a way out of his meager existence, and was sufficiently talented to gain entry into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his Broadway debut in "Spring Again" before his career was interrupted by World War II. He joining the United States Navy in 1941, and then after the end of hostilities in 1945, returned to the theater and some radio work. On the insistence of ex-classmate Lauren Bacall, movie producer Hal B. Wallis screen-tested Douglas and cast him in the lead role in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). His performance received rave reviews and further work quickly followed, including an appearance in the low-key drama I Walk Alone (1947), the first time he worked alongside fellow future screen legend Burt Lancaster. Such was the strong chemistry between the two that they appeared in seven films together, including the dynamic western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), the John Frankenheimer political thriller Seven Days in May (1964) and their final pairing in the gangster comedy Tough Guys (1986). Douglas once said about his good friend: "I've finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I've got nice-looking girls in my films now."

After appearing in "I Walk Alone," Douglas scored his first Oscar nomination playing the untrustworthy and opportunistic boxer Midge Kelly in the gripping Champion (1949). The quality of his work continued to garner the attention of critics and he was again nominated for Oscars for his role as a film producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and as tortured painter Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), both directed by Vincente Minnelli. In 1955, Douglas launched his own production company, Bryna Productions, the company behind two pivotal film roles in his career. The first was as French army officer Col. Dax in director Stanley Kubrick's brilliant anti-war epic Paths of Glory (1957). Douglas reunited with Kubrick for yet another epic, the magnificent Spartacus (1960). The film also marked a key turning point in the life of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s. At Douglas' insistence, Trumbo was given on-screen credit for his contributions, which began the dissolution of the infamous blacklisting policies begun almost a decade previously that had destroyed so many careers and lives.

Douglas remained busy throughout the 1960s, starring in many films. He played a rebellious modern-day cowboy in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), acted alongside John Wayne in the World War II story In Harm's Way (1965), again with The Duke in a drama about the Israeli fight for independence, Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and once more with Wayne in the tongue-in-cheek western The War Wagon (1967). Additionally in 1963, he starred in an onstage production of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but despite his keen interest, no Hollywood studio could be convinced to bring the story to the screen. However, the rights remained with the Douglas clan, and Kirk's talented son Michael Douglas finally filmed the tale in 1975, starring Jack Nicholson. Into the 1970s, Douglas wasn't as busy as previous years; however, he starred in some unusual vehicles, including alongside a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the loopy western comedy The Villain (1979), then with Farrah Fawcett in the sci-fi thriller Saturn 3 (1980) and then he traveled to Australia for the horse opera/drama The Man from Snowy River (1982).

Unknown to many, Kirk has long been involved in humanitarian causes and has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963. His efforts were rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1981), and with the Jefferson Award (1983). Furthermore, the French honored him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. More recognition followed for his work with the American Cinema Award (1987), the German Golden Kamera Award (1987), The National Board of Reviews Career Achievement Award (1989), an honorary Academy Award (1995), Recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999) and the UCLA Medal of Honor (2002). Despite a helicopter crash and a stroke suffered in the 1990s, he remained active and continued to appear in front of the camera. Until his passing on February 5 2020 at the age of 103, he and Olivia de Havilland were the last surviving major stars from the Golden Years of Hollywood.

Who was the first "Robin, the Boy Wonder"? No, not Burt Ward, but this popular, curly-haired child actor of the 1940s. In addition to being in the first "Batman" film, he appeared in many other major films, mostly at Warner Brothers. In almost all of these films, he played the hero as a boy, "growing up" to be, among others, James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Ronald Reagan in Kings Row (1942). Not much is known of him after he dropped out of acting towards the end of the decade.

Johnny Duncan lived well into his 90's, with his wife Susan, enjoying life not far from where it began.

He started out on a small farm near Kansas City in 1923. As a child growing up during the Great Depression, Johnny danced up a storm in local towns, and with the money he saved he was able to pay out his parent's overdue mortgage to the banks. Not long after, he ran a little dance school with his little girl pal, Lou, teaching locals kids how to tap dance.

Not long after, an agent helped him make it to L.A. on a $50-a-month contract. He got roles playing juveniles with the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys and other movie roles. You can see him working the radio in the Bogart classic Action in the North Atlantic (1943). During the war he met Lana Turner and taught her the Lindy Hop (Jitterbug). At the age of 26, he became the second Boy Wonder, in the 15-part serial Batman and Robin.

Off the set, you could find Johnny out on his Triumph 600 on the weekend in the canyons around Calabasas with mates like Lee Marvin, Larry Parks, Keenan Wynn and Clark Gable, or at dinner parties held by Jimmy Cagney. During the '50s, Johnny made fewer films after The Caine Mutiny (1954) (also with Bogart), but he did play another sailor in a film with Rita Hayworth, whom he described as the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. You can also spot him in the legendary Ed Wood flick Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and getting his head chopped off in Spartacus (1960). Nowadays, you can still spot him at the occasional movie convention, signing photos from Batman and Robin and The East Side Kids.

William Allen Friedle was born on August 11, 1976, in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in Avon, Connecticut. He went to Avon High School. Will is a comedian, and he is probably best known for his starring role as the dim yet creative older brother Eric Matthews in ABC's hit TV show Boy Meets World (1993), which ran from September 1993 until May 2000. Will also plays animated characters such as Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond (1999) and Ron Stoppable in the Disney Channel hit animated show Kim Possible (2002). Also, in 2002, he got a staring role in the short-lived UPN series The Random Years (2002) in which he played Alex Barnes, one of the three roommates in college. Since UPN picked up that show, UPN did not let him join the cast of the WB show Off Centre (2001). Both shows ended up getting canceled after about two months on the air. In 2003, Will tried again to make it on TV, when he got a starring role in the pilot of the Fox show Jack's House (2003), which never aired. Will also does voices for video games such as Kingdom Hearts II (2005) and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005).

Loren Lester is an American actor in film, TV and theatre. A native of Los Angeles, he resides in New York City. In 2024 he made his Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated production of Cabaret. He is a Chita Rivera Award nominee. Prior to that, he was in the National Tour of the Tony-winning Broadway musical The Band's Visit.

He began his career as a teenager and has accumulated almost 50 years of film, stage and television credits. In his early years, he played the evil hall monitor "Fritz Hansel" in the cult classic film Rock 'n' Roll High School and he recurred for five seasons as "Roy" on The Facts of Life opposite Nancy McKeon.

Since then. Loren has appeared in more than 200 TV shows including The Orville, Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm Dying Up Here, NCIS, The Closer, Bones, Gilmore Girls, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Castle, Two and a Half Men, Las Vegas, etc.

He recurred for three seasons on the HBO hit comedy series Hung, directed by Academy Award winner Alexander Payne.

His favorite film role was in the Wes Craven suspense thriller Red Eye (starring Rachel McAdams)

As a voice-over artist, Loren is best known for creating the roles of "Robin" and "Nightwing" on Batman: The Animated Series (aka Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures (aka The Adventures of Batman and Robin).

Loren is a graduate of Occidental College's theater department and has starred in dozens of plays and musicals. Loren and his wife, actress Kelly Lester, are the proud parents of three actress-daughters: Jenny, Lily and Julia Lester (Tony-nominee for Into the Woods.)

Melissa Villaseñor was born on 9 October 1987 in Whittier, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Hubie Halloween (2020), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019).