Penguin (character) rebuild. The Penguin is in the 1960s "Batman" television series, in which he was portrayed by Burgess Meredith. Spencer Tracy was offered the role but he said he would only accept the role if he was allowed to kill Batman. Meredith's performance is perhaps best remembered for his signature laugh, meant to mimic the squawk of a penguin. (One cause of the laugh was the cigarettes the character always smoked, which irritated Meredith's throat as he was a non-smoker.) His thugs wear black bowler hats and dark clothing adorned with names of various animals of prey, such as birds ("Hawk")
Burgess Meredith on the show in a starring role. In his first appearance in 1959, "Time Enough at Last", he portrayed a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the sole survivor of an unspecified apocalypse which leads him to contemplate suicide until he discovers the ruins of the library. In 1961's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith played the title character, a timid weakling who receives superhuman strength from an extraterrestrial experiment in human nature. Also that year in "The Obsolete Man", Meredith portrayed a librarian sentenced to death in a dystopic totalitarian society. Lastly, in 1963's "Printer's Devil", Meredith portrayed the Devil himself.