Batman depicted in both film and television by Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Dante Pereira-Olson. In early 1939, the success of Superman in "Action Comics" prompted editors at National Comics Publications (the future DC Comics) to request more superheroes for its titles. In response, Bob Kane created "the Bat-Man". Collaborator Bill Finger recalled that "Kane had an idea for a character called 'Batman,' and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with
Val Kilmer Simon Templar in "The Saint" (1997), and Moses in "Prince of Egypt" (1998). Kilmer was born December 31, 1959, in Los Angeles, the son of Gladys Swanette () and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer. His mother was of Swedish descent. His father's ancestry included English, Scots-Irish, French and German. His parents divorced in 1968 when he was 8 years old. Kilmer's grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona. In 1977 Kilmer's younger brother Wesley drowned in a swimming pool at age 15; their father died in 1993. Kilmer