Kevin Conroy, the iconic voice of Arkham’s Batman, has died

Kevin Conroy, the actor best known as the voice of Batman and Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series and the Batman: Arkham games, has passed away at the age of 66. Conroy had been struggling with illness for some time, according to sources.

Conroy was a Julliard-trained actor who first took on the role of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. He would go on to play the Dark Knight well after the series concluded in 1995, reprising the role for multiple DC Animated Universe spin-off shows and direct-to-video movies, most recently in Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019).

Conroy also voiced the caped crusader in many of the best Batman games on PC, including Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight, the Injustice series, MultiVersus, and Batman: Arkham VR.

Diane Pershing, who voiced Poison Ivy alongside Conroy in the Animated Series, posted several photos of Conroy in a Facebook post announcing his passing.

“Very sad news: our beloved voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, died yesterday,” Pershing wrote. “He’s been ill for a while but he really put in a lot of time at the cons, to the joy of all of his fans. He will be sorely missed not just by the cast of the series but by his legion of fans all over the world.”

For the 2022 issue of DC Pride, Conroy contributed an autobiographical story titled ‘Finding Batman,’ which recounts his experiences as a gay man trying to make a name for himself as an actor amid the turmoil of the 1980s and the AIDS crisis. It’s a powerful and haunting story, told with sensitivity, triumph, and a palpable sense of lingering pain.

Of the many actors who have played Batman over many decades, Conroy’s run was by far the longest and arguably the most definitive.