Remembering Kevin Conroy: A tribute to a true hero

On Nov. 10, 2022, the world lost a hero with the passing of actor Kevin Conroy. To some, he may have just been a voice actor, but he was so much more than that.

For a generation of people who have felt like an outcast, lost and forgotten in the world, Kevin Conroy was the voice of their hero in the darkness. He was the Batman. He was THEIR Batman. Kevin Conroy was a man who saw the hope in Batman and the nuance of the character.

Whenever you read a Batman comic book and you hear the voice in your head, that’s Kevin Conroy, but that’s not all that he did. He was also a classically trained actor who had a full scholarship to Juilliard School’s drama division where he roomed with Robin Williams and was in the same performing group as Williams and Kelsey Grammer.

Yet despite his acting chops, and being the voice for Batman for a few generations of fans, he was also a real-life hero. After the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 left the country reeling, being a New Yorker, he wanted to help out. The only thing that they had for him was cooking in a restaurant for those who were working at Ground Zero to try and cast aside the rubble. When the firemen found out that Batman was making their food, a lot of laughing took place and it allowed everyone who was putting their blood, sweat, and tears into trying to save anyone who was down there just a moment of levity in an otherwise horrific situation.

His list of acting credits not just included Batman: The Animated Series but a slew of other animated projects from Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman Beyond. He also was at the helm as the Dark Knight in many of the DC Animated films like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and the controversial adaptation of the iconic Batman story: The Killing Joke. It didn’t end there though. He was also the voice of Batman in some major video game releases stemming from the Arkham trilogy and the Injustice series.

Kevin Conroy loved his work, and he loved his fans. He was the hero we needed and for the time we had him, which in the universe seems like a blink of an eye, we were better off for having him.