10 Famous Guest Stars From ‘Batman: The Animated Series’

It’s been close to 30 years since Batman: The Animated Series (commonly abbreviated as BTAS) ended, yet the show continues to fascinate franchise fans and critics. Winner of multiple Daytime Emmy Awards as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Programming, the series was widely praised for its scripts, art design, orchestrated soundtrack (notably the opening theme), and modernization of the comic storylines. Superb voice acting also elevated the show to the critical heights it reached.

Among the voice actors, Kevin Conroy, Loren Lester, Robin Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Bob Hastings, and Mark Hamill stood out the most. By lending their vocals to the main characters, these actors were the targets of most of the reviews (good or bad). However, they weren’t the only ones responsible for the magic. Various other stars had roles in the animated show, voicing supporting protagonists or other key members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery.

10 Ron Perlman

Role: Clayface

Ron Perlman is one of Hollywood’s late bloomers, having found success later for playing the nefarious biker gang leader, Clay Murrow, in Sons of Anarchy and the super-abled Hellboy in Hellboy. However, the latter wasn’t his first foray into the superhero genre. The actor voiced the villain, Matt Hagen, aka, Clayface in Batman: The Animated Series.

An Illustrious Voice-Acting Career

Perlman’s gravelly voice was ideal for a character with an unusual DNA structure. In the show, Hagen, a famous actor, takes a strange compound to enable him to restore his good looks after an accident, only to make things worse.

Time has also proven that Perlman was a perfect casting choice. Over the years, he has landed various other iconic voice roles, including Slade in Teen Titans, Lord Hood in the Halo video games, and as the narrator of the Fallout video games.

9 Adam West

Role: Simon Trent

Adam West is best known for portraying Batman in Batman ’66. His version was different from what we are used to, donning a poorly made costume and falling into numerous slapstick situations. Years later, West would find himself in Batman territory again, playing the washed-up actor Simon Trent in BTAS.

A Tribute to West’s Legacy

Simon Trent’s arc is structured as a tribute to Adam West’s Batman legacy. We learn that Trent used to play The Gray Ghost, a fictional superhero that Bruce Wayne admired when he was young. When he grew up, he modeled his superhero persona after the character.

This wasn’t be the first and only time Adam West voiced a parodied version of himself. He proceeded to do so again in The Simpsons and Family Guy.

8 Heather Locklear

Role: Lisa Clark

Heather Locklear was a TV icon in the ‘80s and ‘90s, achieving global fame for her roles in the soap operas, Dallas and Melrose Place. She would later get a gig at BTAS as Lisa Clark, a friend of Bruce Wayne, whose father had become embroiled in a dangerous cult.

Locklear Ruled the ’90s

Getting Heather Locklear to voice a character was a major win since she was at the height of her popularity when the show was airing. Around this time, she was also named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. Thanks to her “naïve princess” voice, Lisa Clark’s desperation and anxiety in the animated series felt very believable.

7 Nichelle Nichols

Role: Thoth Khepera.

Nichelle Nichols‘ best-known gig is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek television series. Her role was groundbreaking for black actresses on TV, and she would top it by championing the inclusion of minorities in NASA. Years later, she would join Batman’s world, voicing the ancient Egyptian queen, Thoth Khepera.

One of the Most Adored Trekkers

There was no one more deserving of voicing an Egyptian goddess better than Nichols. In her prime, she was the darling of many, with President Obama even confirming that he crushed on her when he was a young boy. Ever calm in her roles, the actress channeled the same energy in BTAS as her character feuded with Ra’ al Ghul. Unfortunately, she was only present for a short time. For now, she rests well like Queen Khepera as her ashes were reportedly sent to Deep Space after her death.

6 John Rhys-Davies

Role: Wacklaw Jose

Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies built a name for himself by playing the Egyptian excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones franchise and the Dwarf, Gimli, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Rhys-Davis has credits in BTAS as Wacklaw Josek, a con artist who swindled the Gotham Foreign-Aid Society and had ties to The Interrogator.

Always a Smart-Talker

For most of his career, Rhys-Davies has played wisecracking and smart-talking characters. The case is no different in the popular Batman show. Though villainous, Josek is so likable that Batman lets him go. The actor’s voice resume is quite long too. The actor has been a part of major productions like Aladdin and the King of Thieves, The Jungle Book 2 (2003), Gargoyles, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

5 Adam Ant

Role: Bert

Rockstar Adam Ant — lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later a solo artist — lent his unique voice to Bert, a henchman for the series’ exclusive villain, Red Claw. Ant has also had cameos in numerous other TV shows, notably The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries and La Femme Nikita.

An All-Round Gifted Performer

Ant’s rock-star vocal range sure helped make his character seem more menacing. It’s a shame that the singer wasn’t given a larger role, considering that he is as good an actor as he is as a singer. Apart from the screen, he has also done some work in theatre, appearing in various plays, notably Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

4 Helen Slater

Role: Talia al Ghul

Helen Slater is best known for her work in Supergirl-related media. She hit prominence after starring as the titular character in 1984’s Supergirl. Later, she played Kara’s adoptive mother in Smallville, before landing a recurring role in Supergirl, where she portrayed one of the most intriguing fictional female presidents. But these aren’t her only DC roles. Slater was also on BTAS, voicing Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, Talia.

Familiar with the Superhero World

Slater is very familiar with the DC landscape. After playing Supergirl in the ‘80s, she was more than qualified to be among the cast of BTAS, and she did extremely well, infusing vim and verve into a character who mostly gets upstaged by her father. Hopefully, we’ll see her in even more DC productions.

3 Jim Cummings

Role: Several

To many fans, Jim Cummings will forever be Winnie the Pooh and Duckwing Duck. However, these roles are only a tiny fraction of his work. The legendary voice actor has been in over 400 productions, including Batman; The Animated Series, where he brought several background characters to life.

A Necessary Inclusion

Undoubtedly one of the greatest voice actors of all time, Cummings has always had the unique ability to tweak his voice on demand, which made him perfect for a show like BTAS. Given his talents and busy schedule, it made sense to have him voice several minor characters rather than a few major ones.

2 Malcolm McDowell

Role: Arkady Duvall

Malcolm McDowell, better known for playing the miscreant, Alex, in A Clockwork Orange, was cast in Batman: The Animated Series as Arkady Duvall, Ra’s al Ghul’s hot-headed estranged son, and Talia’s half-brother. As is the case with Alex, Arkady also earned himself a prison sentence.

Reliable… Like Clockwork

It’s almost as if the show’s writers modeled Arkady after Alex. Arkady is such a psychopath that even Ra’s finds him hard to deal with. Unfortunately, he only appeared in a single episode. Despite the brief nature of the arc, voicing Arkady opened up more doors for McDowell, enabling him to work on major animated and video game projects, including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Fallout 3, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

1 Jeffrey Tambor

Role: Crooker

Jeffrey Tambor’s portrayal of George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development, and Maura Pfefferman on Transparent, made him a paparazzi target. For his role in the latter, he won two Emmys. This was all years after he voiced Crooker, a henchman for the corrupt Dagget Industries owner, Roland Dagget.

Superb Work from a Comedy Legend

Tambor tends to be more comfortable in comedy roles, but he did surprisingly well here, channeling his character’s key traits (sycophancy and ruthlessness), by appropriately modifying his intonation. The actor would go on to have an even greater voice role in The Lionhearts, for which he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award.