Batmania United Kingdom Villians :: Roddy Mc Dowall as The Bookworm

Date of Birth & Location : 17 September 1928, London (UK)
Date of Death & Location : 3 October 1998, California (USA)

"It was a show that everyone wanted to do at that period. It was such fun. They were larger-than-life cartoon characters, which are very interesting to play."

"I loved being part of the whole series. The costume, though, was very hot to wear. It was a wonderful part. I think there was talk about three episodes, but I don't know what happened, because there was only one segment. I don't know whether they changed their minds about the Bookwork or whether I was doing other things."

IMDB:

Roderick McDowall was born in London, the son of a Merchant Mariner father and a mother who had always wanted to be in movies. He was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, Murder in the Family (1938), playing Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns. His mother brought Roddy and his sister to the US at the beginning of World War II, and he soon got the part of Huw, youngest child in a family of Welsh coal miners, in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), acting alongside Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp in the film that won that year's best film Oscar. He went on to many other child roles, in films like My Friend Flicka (1943) and Lassie Come Home (1943) until, at age 18, he moved to New York, where he played a long series of successful stage roles, both on Broadway and in such venues as Connecticut's Stratford Festival, where he did Shakespeare. In addition to making many more movies (over 150), McDowell acted in television, developed an extensive collection of movies and Hollywood memorabilia, and published five acclaimed books of his own photography. He died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70, of cancer.

1. The episodes were used for national book week.