Burt Ward

"Adam and I had a special friendship for more than 50 years. We shared some of the most fun times of our lives together; our families have deep love and respect for each other. This is a terribly unexpected loss of my lifelong friend, I will forever miss him. There are several fine actors who have portrayed Batman in films, in my eyes there was only one real Batman and that is and always will be Adam West; He was truly the Bright Knight."

"“When you’re involved with saving lives,” Ward said, “…sometimes, it’s a life and death situation,” and time is of the essence. “We’re known for rescuing dogs, but we’ve also rescued cats, horses, pigs, goat, sheep. And when you do that (save lives), and you give more of yourself. We actually get more pleasure of doing things for others, than doing for ourselves. We don’t buy anything for ourselves anymore. We don’t need anything extra. It’s just about the way you look at life. In my opinion, and in the opinion of my wife Tracey,” continued Ward, “…life is the most precious commodity in the world. Every life is precious. That’s how we look at it.”"

"“Look, some kids are in school and study and do very well. Other kids don’t study, and they don’t make a lot of their lives. We’re not going to push you. You do whatever you want. But keep in mind, good or bad, it’s going to be the results of your own efforts.” “And that was a pretty heavy statement for me to hear as a child,” Ward explained. But he took it to heart, and subsequently, soared with success. “I was always very good in school because I saw the importance of it,” he said. “I never took drugs. I never smoked. I never drank…not because I was being Puritan, but because I simply did not think those things were good to do.”"

"Bruce Lee’s first filmed fight scene of his career, was fighting me as Robin on Batman. Because we were friends, we sparred together,"

"I have to believe... the reason I got the part is that in their eyes I represented the character and what he’d really be like if he were alive. But the reason I represented him is that as a kid growing up I constantly thought about it. I was a bit of a loner. I used to come back home from school and then while I was kicking a ball against the wall for hours, I’d daydream about this. I really believe this shapes our lives and brings things to us. Fans like to think that there’s an element of kismet when an actor is cast as a superhero — that the actor was somehow fated to play the character. I believe that if there is such a thing that it would apply in my case. If you look at my screen test, which you can see online, you can see the dedication that I had… even in the screen test. I was so into it, that for me, it was real."

"Ward shared another memory, this time from when he was taking professional acting lessons from prominent instructor Eric Morris, who trained several young thespians in the process of method acting. One day after class, Morris called Ward aside, and said, “Burt…I just want to tell you something. All the other students in my class want to be an actor so bad and have such a burning passion. And if they don’t make it, they will be devastated. But not you. You’re different from all of them.’ At which point, Ward wondered, “Is that a bad thing?” To which Morris replied, “Not at all. If you succeed as an actor, you’ll do very well. And if you don’t succeed, and you don’t become a star, then you’ll be just as happy without it. That’s the difference between you and every other young actor in my class. You have this happy-go-lucky attitude that, well, ‘If I get make it, great. And if I don’t, that’s okay, too.”"