Batman: All 7 Penguin actors ranked from worst to best

2. Burgess Meredith

If you’re looking for the most comic-accurate portrayal of The Penguin, then look no further than Burgess Meredith’s unforgettable turn in the 1966 Batman TV series and its big-screen spin-off Batman: The Movie.

With his tall purple hat, classy style, monocle and umbrella, Meredith’s Penguin looked like he had just stepped off the pages of a DC comic book at the time and onto both the small and big screens. However, it was his performance that made the character the household name that he is today.

Make no mistake about it, Meredith was a highly-esteemed actor with a long history of stage work in Shakespeare and Beckett plays, but he didn’t let that stop him from throwing himself into the colorful and campy world of Batman ’66 to bring The Penguin to life.

Committing to the role in a way that he had done in his more serious offerings, he hammed up every line of dialogue with delicious villainy, squawked out every exclamation with passion and gleefully quacked every time that something was going the villain’s way.

These aren’t things that can be written into a comic book or, in this case, a script; they ‘re eccentricities that Meredith added to the character through his performance – eccentricities that have inspired every single version of The Penguin since.

By far, the defining version of the character – Meredith’s performance made The Penguin a legend. And to say that it stands the test of time would be a major understatement.

The role would, however, be redefined in the early ’90s…