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 films and documentaries during his long career, including "" (1983). "Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in "The New York Times", "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others." Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess) and Dr. William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician, of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a religion to which he adhered throughout