I only ever remember actor Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon in the 1966 Batman television series and maybe an episode of Perry Mason or Outer Limits here or there. Today I caught him in Blind Date (1934) playing a rakish aristocrat opposite Ann Sothern playing the working class object of his affection. I didn’t recognize him at first, but the voice was unmistakably that of the top cop in Gotham.
Curious, I looked up trivia on Hamilton and was surprised to learn that he was one of the Arrow Shirt men and was used as a model for legendary illustrators including Leyendecker, James Montgomery Flagg, Arthur William Brown, Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson, and more. That was before he received his big acting break from legendary director D.W. Griffith in 1918. He had an amazing career before playing his most memorable role as straight man to Adam West’s loopy dark knight detective.
