American actor (1955-2022). He was born in Westbury, New York, and moved to Westport, Connecticut when he was 11. Conroy's father was an alcoholic who attempted suicide while Kevin was a teenager, and his brother struggled for much of his life with schizophrenia. Kevin lived with a friend during his last year in high school. He moved to New York City in 1973 and earned a scholarship to attend the drama division at Juilliard. He studied under John Houseman and roomed with Robin Williams. (And he could have roomed with Christopher Reeve, but the rent was too high.)
After graduating from Juilliard in 1978, Conroy toured with The Acting Company, a professional theater group founded by Houseman, and later went on a national tour of Ira Levin's comic thriller "Deathtrap." Conroy and his co-star Brian Bedford disliked each other and actually got into a fight on-stage during their opening night performance at the Kennedy Center. During the 1980s, Conroy acted in "Another World," an NYC-based soap opera, before moving to California so he could get more work in television. While waiting to catch his break in Hollywood, he performed in a number of plays at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, including "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He also performed in Edward Albee's adaptation of "Lolita" and in Richard Greenberg's "Eastern Standard." He picked up TV roles on "Search for Tomorrow," "Dynasty," "Ohara," and "Tour of Duty." He also had guest-starring roles on "Cheers," "Matlock," and "Murphy Brown."
But he felt hindered in the career he wanted -- the entertainment industry has always operated with the overwhelming support and hard work of the LGBTQ community, but the industry itself was blindly and stupidly hostile to anyone who came out of the closet, even by accident. And though Conroy had always worked to keep his private and professional lives separate, a few too many people learned that he was gay, and that was enough for studios and directors to decide they didn't want to work with him.
Conroy is by far best known for his voice acting role as Batman and Bruce Wayne on "Batman: The Animated Series" from 1992-1995. Conroy had never worked in voice acting before but showed up for an audition and surprised himself with a deep, harsh, rumbling baritone much different from his natural voice, and he won the part. BTAS was one of the greatest TV cartoons ever made -- a lot of that was because of the high quality of the storytelling and animation, and a giant chunk of it was how great casting and voice director Andrea Romano was at her job. She brought in actors of all kinds to voice characters, and a bunch of them turned in performances that were absolutely world-class -- Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Paul Williams, Richard Moll, Michael Ansara, Ron Perlman, Ed Asner, John Vernon, Diane Pershing, and plenty more -- but Conroy was likely the best of the bunch. He was in every episode, had the most lines, and just never, ever got tired of the job.
Conroy continued providing the voice for Batman for most of the rest of his life. He played Batman in "The New Batman Adventures," "Batman Beyond," "Justice League," and "Justice League Unlimited." He also played the Dark Knight in a number of animated movies, including "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," "Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero," "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker," "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman," "Batman: Gotham Knight," "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies," "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse," "Justice League: Doom," "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox," "Batman: Assault on Arkham," "Batman: The Killing Joke," "Batman and Harley Quinn," "Justice League vs. the Fatal Five," and "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three."
He also voiced Batman in guest appearances on other programs, including "Superman: The Animated Series," "Static Shock," "The Zeta Project," "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who," "Justice League Action," and "Teen Titans Go!"
And he also voiced Batman in video games, including "Batman: Arkham Asylum," "Batman: Arkham City," "Batman: Arkham Knight," "DC Universe Online," "Injustice: Gods Among Us," "Injustice 2," "Lego DC Super-Villains," "MultiVersus," and "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League."
He played Batman only once in live action, as the Bruce Wayne of Earth-99 in the Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths" on the CW network in 2019.
He also played a few Batman parodies over the years. He played an over-the-top version of himself on actor Tim Daly's Internet series "The Daly Show" -- Daly had voiced Superman in "Superman: The Animated Series." Conroy also played a character called Canadian Bat, Man! in Kevin Smith's "Yogo Hosers." And he voiced a superhero called Captain Sunshine in a couple episodes of "The Venture Bros."
One of the better-known tales of Conroy's private life came in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Conroy was participating in relief efforts by cooking meals for emergency workers and first responders. One of his fellow cooks recognized him and went out to the front of the dining area to tell everyone that Batman was cooking their meals. Challenged to prove his identity, Conroy recited "I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!" from the kitchen. The reaction was cheers and applause from the weary diners, which Conroy later said was deeply flattering to be recognized and humbling to know that he'd brought a brief moment of joy for the workers.
Conroy finally went public with his sexual orientation in a 2016 interview with the New York Times while promoting "Batman: The Killing Joke." He also wrote a short comic for DC Comics' 2022 Pride anthology called "Finding Batman," which told about his life and struggles as a gay man and told how he found the perfect Batman voice within himself. The story won the 2023 Eisner Award for Best Short Story.
Conroy died of intestinal cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC on November 10, 2022. DC Comics quickly opened free online access to "Finding Batman." Many of his costars, as well as comics artists and writers, paid tribute to him on social media. Mark Hamill, one of Conroy's most frequent guest stars as the Joker, announced that he wouldn't voice the Joker again, as it didn't feel right to play the character without Conroy playing Batman.
Conroy remains the actor who has portrayed Batman over the longest period of time and on the most different productions. While you can always find arguments about which actor played the best Superman or Joker, everyone pretty much agrees that the best Batman ever was Kevin Conroy.