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Alan Napier ( born January 7, 1903 in Birmingham, England, died August 8, 1988 in Santa Monica, California) was an English character actor. He is best known for playing Alfred in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.
This cousin of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940, was born Alan Napier-Clavering in Birmingham, England. He was also the great-great grandson of author Charles Dickens. He was stagestruck from childhood and after graduating from Clifton College, the tall 6 ft 7 in (201 cm), booming-voiced Napier studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then later was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with such raw young talent as Sir John Gielgud and Robert Morley. He continued working with the cream of Britain's acting crop during his ten years (1929-1939) on the West End stages. He came to New York City in 1940 to co-star with Gladys George in Lady in Waiting. Though his film career had begun in England in the 1930s, he had very little success before the cameras until he arrived and joined the British community in Hollywood in 1941. There he spent time with such people as James Whale. He usually played dignified, sometimes WASP-ish roles of all sizes in such films as Cat People (1942), The Uninvited (1943), and House of Horror (1946).
In The Song of Bernadette, he played the ethically questionable psychiatrist who is hired to declare Bernadette mentally ill. He appeared in two Shakespeare films - the Orson Welles Macbeth, in which he played a priest that Welles added to the story, who spoke lines originally uttered by other characters, and MGM's Julius Caesar, in which he played Cicero. He also played the vicious Earl of Warwick in Joan of Arc.
In 1966, he was the first to be cast on the smash-hit TV series Batman, as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler Alfred, a role he played with delightful gusto until the series' cancellation in 1968. Napier's career extended into the 1980s, with TV roles in such miniseries as QB VII and such weeklies as The Paper Chase.
He died from a stroke, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 85.
Trivia
Alan Napier is the grandfather of actor Brian Forster.
Brian Forster (born April 14, 1960) was the second actor to play the role of Chris Partridge in the television series The Partridge Family. He joined the show in 1971, replacing Jeremy Gelbwaks, and continued until the show ended in 1974. He is now a race car driver in Northern California, and continues to act in community theater there.
The Justice League series finale, has Batman going undercover to investigate the true motives of the Thangarians. His disguise resembles Alan Napier.
In the 1989 Batman film, The Joker's name is Jack Napier, in homage to Alan Napier.
Selected filmography
- Cat People (1942)
- Random Harvest (1942)
- The Song of Bernadette (1943)
- The Hairy Ape (1944 film) {1944}
- Johnny Belinda (1948)
- Joan of Arc (1948)
- Macbeth (1948)
- Julius Caesar (1953)
- Tender is the Night (1962)
- Batman (1966)
Personal quotes
"I had never read comics before I . My agent rang up and said, 'I think you are going to play on "Batman,"' I said 'What is "Batman"?' He said, 'Don't you read the comics?' I said, 'No, never.' He said, 'I think you are going to be Batman's butler.' I said, 'How do I know I want to be Batman's butler?' It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. He said, 'It may be worth over $100,000.' So I said I was Batman's butler."