The Actors Who Played Riddler

From acting to impressionist to comedy to broadway. Frank Gorshin certainly left his mark in the entertainment world. But his most memorable role was that of Riddler in the 1966 version of Batman and Robin with Adam West and Burt Ward. His portrayal of Riddler was so good that the comic book Riddler became more prominent instead of remaining in just a couple comic book issues. Frank started out working as an usher in a movie theater and while he was watching the movies he was also impersonating the actor on the screen. At 17 he won a contest which got him his first paying gig, which was one week at Jackie Heller's Carousel night club. In 1953, Gorshin entered the Army and did 2 years in Special Services as an entertainer. After he returned from the Army, and for the next 50 years Gorshin managed to get over 100 movie and television shows under his belt, having a little set back in '57 when he tried to drive 39 hours straight to get to a screen test in Hollywood, Frank Gorshin ended up in a comma for a few days and the papers had reported that he died in the accident. Among his credits is 12 appearances on the Ed Sullivan show including the same night as The Beetles and Davy Jones in 1964. Frank Gorshin's role as Riddler got him his first emmy nomination, his second was in 1969 for his role in Star Trek.

Starting in 2002 and going on for the next couple of years, Gorshin played a one man Broadway show called Say Goodnight Gracie. It is the story of George Burns before he became a big star. One of Frank Gorshin's last performance was in the Season 5 finale Grave Danger of CSI, Crime Scene Investigation. It was the episode that Nick gets kidnapped and buried alive. Gorshin's role was to play himself. The episode aired 2 days after his Frank Gorshin's death and they dedicated the episode to him.

Having well over 100 movie roles and tv sitcoms under his belt,John Astin will always be better known as head of the wacky

Addams Family, Gomez Addams from 1964 - 1966 then again in 1993 and then he played Grandpa Addams in The New Addams Family in 1999. John Astin was the actor who also played the role of Riddler in 1967, the year that Gorshin decided he was worth more money and refused to do the role that year. Gorshin returned for the final year of the Batman series. Some of Astin's more memorable roles also include I'm Dickens....He's Fenster ('62 - '63), Evil Roy Slade ('72), Operation Petticoat ('77 -'78), his role as Professor Gangrene in the horror spoof Attack of The Killer Tomatoes series during the '80s and '90s and his recurring role from '84 - '90 as Buddy Ryan in Night Court (as a side note, this was one of my favorite sitcoms, it was simply hilarious).

From 1956 - 1972 Astin was married to Suzanne Hahn and they had 3 children, David, Allen and Tom. The marriage ended in divorce. Then from 1972 - 1985, he was married to Patty Duke (everyone should remember her from her dual role of Patty and Cathy Lane in The Patty Duke Show from '63 - '66), Astin legally adopted her son Sean and together they had one more child Mackenzie. Sean Astin starred as Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings. In 1989 Astin married for the third time to Valerie Ann Sandobal and is still married today.

Canadian born actor Jim Carrey started out his comedy act in a comedy club called Yuk Yuk's in Toronto at the age of 16. Moving to LA in '81, Carrey started working in The Comedy Store and was spotted by Rodney Dangerfield who signed him to open for him during his tour. During the 80s, Carrey did a number of little spots in different movies such as Peggy Sue Got Married

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('86) and The Dead Pool ('88), he also starred in a short lived tv show playing Skip Tarenton in The Duck Factory ('84) but never really got noticed until his performances in Damon Wayans, In Living Color ('90 - '94). The '90s was a lot better for Carrey with his first major role as Ace Ventura, Pet Detective in 1994, a movie which got him his first nominations, altho it was his first Golden Raspberry Nomination as the Worst New Star and it didn't stop him from making the sequel to it in Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls in '95 either. In '94 Carrey made two other movies, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber. In '95 he became the next actor to play Edward Nygma aka Riddler in Batman Forever with Val Kilmer. From time to time Carrey kept trying to break out of his stereotyped roles and move into more menacing roles such as The Cable Guy ('96) or more dramatic roles such as The Truman Show ('98) or The Man on the Moon ('99) but he'd slip back into his comedic roles now and then too such as Liar Liar ('97) and How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Me, Myself and Irene (both in 2000). During the 2000s Carrey has also done a number of other movies as well and I will admit to not being much of a fan of his, but I did see the movie Number 23 which came out in '07 and I was amazed at how good he was in it. It definitely is a must see for those of you who do like a good thriller.

• The first animated voice for Riddler was done by Ted Knight in 1968 in The Batman/Superman Hour. Most will remember Knight as Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore show from 1970 - 1977.

• In 1978 and 1980 Michael Bell was Riddler in Challenge for Superfriends and Superfriends. Bell is one of the leading voice for a lot of commercials and animated shows. He also did the voice overs for Zale's Diamond Store and he was the voice of the Parkay tub for the Parkay margarine commercials for the first 5 years.
  

• For the animated Batman and Superman series as well as The New Batman Series, Riddler was played by John Glover. Glover had many roles under his belt but some may remember mostly from his role in Gremlins 2 or his later role as Lionel Luthor in Smallville.
  

• The most recent voice for Riddler in the 2004 animated series, The Batman is done by Robert Englund. Guess that's not that far of a stretch from doing Freddy Krueger to doing Riddler. Englund has done many voices of different characters such as Felix Faust in Justice League and Vulture in The Spectacular Spiderman.

• And a few more voice over actors of The Riddler as well.