Alan Napier

Alan William Napier-Clavering (7 January 1903 – 8 August 1988) was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatres, he had a long film career first in Britain and then in Hollywood. But Napier finally became widely known for portraying Alfred the butler in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.

Spouse(s)

• Emily Nancy Bevill Pethybridge (1899 - 1970)
• Aileen Dickens Hawksley, known as Gypsy (2nd wife) (1907–61) She was the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens

Early life and career

Napier was the son of Claude Gerald Napier-Clavering (1869–1938) and Mary Millicent Kenrick (1871–1932), sister of Wilfred Byng Kenrick, and a first cousin once removed of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940. After graduating from Clifton College, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with the likes of John Gielgud and Robert Morley. Ironically, as Napier recalled, height played a crucial part in his securing the position and also almost losing it. J. B. Fagan had dismissed Tyrone Guthrie because he was too tall for most parts. Napier was interviewed (and accepted) as Guthrie's replacement while sitting down. Fagan realized that Napier was even taller - 6 feet 4.5 inches (1.94 m) - than Guthrie when he stood up, but honoured his commitment. Napier performed for ten years (1929–1939) on the West End stage.

He made his American stage debut as the romantic lead opposite Gladys George in Lady in Waiting. Though his film career had begun in Britain in the 1930s, he had very little success before the cameras until he joined the British expatriate community in Hollywood in 1941. There he spent time with such people as James Whale, a fellow ex-Oxford Player. He appeared in such films as Random Harvest (1942), Cat People (1942), and The Uninvited (1944). In The Song of Bernadette (1943), he played the ethically questionable psychiatrist who is hired to declare Bernadette mentally ill. He also played the vicious Earl of Warwick in Joan of Arc (1948). He performed in two Shakespearean films: the Orson Welles Macbeth (1948), in which he played a priest that Welles added to the story, who spoke lines originally uttered by other characters, and MGM's Julius Caesar (1953), as Cicero.

In 1949, he made an appearance on the short-lived television anthology series Your Show Time as Sherlock Holmes, in an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band". In the 1950s, he appeared on TV in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and guest starred on Dale Robertson's NBC western series Tales of Wells Fargo.

Batman

In 1966, he was the first to be cast in the Batman TV series, as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler Alfred, a role he played until the series' cancellation in 1968.

"I had never read comics before [I was hired for Batman]. My agent rang up and said, 'I think you are going to play on "Batman,"' I said 'What is "Batman"?' He said, 'Don't you read the comics?' I said, 'No, never.' He said, 'I think you are going to be Batman's butler.' I said, 'How do I know I want to be Batman's butler?' It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. He said, 'It may be worth over $100,000. ' So I said I was Batman's butler."

Later life and career

Napier's career extended into the 1980s, with TV roles in such miniseries as QB VII and such weeklies as The Paper Chase. He finally retired in 1981, in his 78th year.

In early 1988, Napier appeared on FOX Late Show talk show in a Batman reunion show, with the entire cast of the iconic camp TV series. Though in a wheelchair and visibly tired, Napier was lucid, with fond memories of his work on the show.

Death

Napier suffered a stroke in 1987, was hospitalised from June 1988, and had been gravely ill for several days, before his death of natural causes on 8 August 1988, in the Berkeley East Convalescent Hospital in Santa Monica, California. He was 85 years old. Napier was a resident of Pacific Palisades, California, and was survived by his daughter, Jennifer Nichols of East Haddam, Connecticut, and his step-daughter, Jennifer Raine Bissell of Los Angeles. His final resting place is at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

Personal life

Napier is the step-grandfather of actor Brian Forster, best known as portraying (the second) Chris Partridge on the television series The Partridge Family. Napier was close friends with actor Michael Gough, who would later play Alfred in the first four theatrical Batman films.

Homage

The Justice League series finale, "Starcrossed", has Batman going undercover to investigate the true motives of the Thanagarians. His disguise resembles Alan Napier.

Partial filmography

• Stamboul (1931)
• Bitter Sweet (1933)
• Loyalties (1933)
• In a Monastery Garden (1935)
• Wings Over Africa (1936)
• For Valour (1937)
• The Wife of General Ling (1937)
• The Four Just Men (1939)
• We Are Not Alone (1939)
• The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
• The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
• Cat People (1942) (uncredited)
• Random Harvest (1942)
• Eagle Squadron (1942)
• Assignment in Brittany (1943)
• Appointment in Berlin (1943)
• Lassie Come Home (1943)
• The Song of Bernadette (1943) (uncredited)
• Lost Angel (1943)
• Mademoiselle Fifi (1944)
• The Uninvited (1944)
• Action in Arabia (1944)
• The Hairy Ape (1944)
• Ministry of Fear (1944)
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
• Hangover Square (1945)
• Isle of the Dead (1945)
• Three Strangers (1946)
• House of Horrors (1946)
• A Scandal in Paris (1946)
• The Strange Woman (1946)
• Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
• Fiesta (1947)
• The Lone Wolf in London (1947)
• Ivy (1947)
• Lured (1947)
• Driftwood (1947)
• Unconquered (1947)
• Forever Amber (1947)
• Johnny Belinda (1948)
• Macbeth (1948)
• Joan of Arc (1948)
• Hills of Home (1948)
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
• Manhandled (1949)
• Criss Cross (1949)
• The Red Danube (1949)
• Challenge to Lassie (1949)
• Master Minds (1949)
• Tarzan's Peril (1951)
• The Great Caruso (1951)
• Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
• The Blue Veil (1951)
• Double Crossbones (1951)
• The Strange Door (1951)
• Big Jim McLain (1952)
• Young Bess (1953)
• Julius Caesar (1953)
• Désirée (1954)
• Moonfleet (1955)
• The Court Jester (1956)
• The Mole People (1956)
• Miami Exposé (1956)
• Until They Sail (1957)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
• Wild in the Country (1961)
• Tender Is the Night (1962)
• The Premature Burial (1962)
• The Sword in the Stone (1963) (voice)
• Marnie (1964)
• Mary Poppins (1964) (uncredited)
• My Fair Lady (1964) (uncredited)
• 36 Hours (1965)
• The Loved One (1965)
• Batman (1966)