Frank Gorshin

Riddler' actor Frank Gorshin dead at 72

Wed May 18, 2005 4:26 PM GMT-04:00LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Actor and master impressionist Frank Gorshin,best known for his maniacally menacing turn as the Riddler on the 1960sTV series "Batman," has died at age 72, his agent said.
The veteran entertainer, diagnosed with lung cancer several years agowhile starring in a one-man Broadway show as comic legend George Burns,died on Tuesday at a hospital in Burbank, California, his agent andlongtime friend Fred Wostbrock told Reuters.
Gorshin also had been suffering from emphysema and pneumonia, Wostbrock said.
His wife of 48 years, Christina, was with him at the end, the agent said.
Ironically, Gorshin's death came two days before CBS was set tobroadcast what became his final performance, a guest appearance on theseason finale of the hit show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
Gorshin, a Pittsburgh native, got his start in television and filmplaying bad guys during the 1950s and '60s. But he soon gainedattention as a gifted impressionist, doing comic imitations of suchstars as Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando and Burt Lancaster on thenightclub and TV variety show circuit.
One of his first big appearances, on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964,happened to coincide with the Beatles' famed first performance on thatprogram.
But Gorshin's biggest break came in 1966 when he was cast in therecurring role of the Riddler, the cackling, fiendish arch enemy ofBatman on the ABC series based on the popular comic book hero.
Gorshin made 12 appearances as the Riddler on "Batman," earning an Emmynomination for his work, and donned his green question mark-patternedsuit again for a big-screen movie based on the series.<>He also is remembered by "Star Trek" fans for his memorable guestperformance on that show as Commissioner Bele, a half-black, half-whitealien who appeared in a favorite episode "Let That Be Your LastBattlefield," a parable on race relations.Much later in his career, Gorshin portrayed the late George Burns in the Tony-nominated Broadway show "Say Goodnight, Gracie."
Wostbrock said it was during that show's run that Gorshin was diagnosedwith cancer, but he remained with the production while undergoingchemotherapy and radiation treatments, never missing a performance

posted Thursday, 19 May 2005