Alan Napier (born Alan W. Napier-Clavering; 7 January 1903 in King's Norton in Birmingham, England - 8 August 1988 in Santa Monica, California, United States) was an English character actor. He is best known for playing Alfred in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.
Napier was a cousin of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940 and the great-great grandson of author Charles Dickens. He was stage-struck from childhood and after graduating from Clifton College, the tall 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), booming-voiced Napier studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then later was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with such raw young talent as Sir John Gielgud and Robert Morley. He continued working with the cream of Britain's acting crop during his ten years (1929-1939) on the West End stage. He came to New York City in 1940 to co-star with Gladys George in Lady in Waiting. Though his film career had begun in England in the 1930s, he had very little success before the cameras until he arrived and joined the British community in Hollywood in 1941. There he spent time with such people as James Whale. He usually played dignified, sometimes WASPish roles of all sizes in such films as Cat People (1942), The Uninvited (1943), and House of Horror (1946).
In The Song of Bernadette, he played the ethically questionable psychiatrist who is hired to declare Bernadette mentally ill. He appeared in two Shakespeare films - the Orson Welles Macbeth, 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, in which he played Cicero. He also played the vicious Earl of Warwick in Joan of Arc. In the 1950s he appeared on TV in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In 1966, he was the first to be cast on the smash-hit TV series Batman, as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler Alfred, a role he played with delightful gusto until the series' cancellation in 1968. Napier's career extended into the 1980s, with TV roles in such miniseries as QB VII and such weeklies as The Paper Chase.
He died from a stroke, in Santa Monica, California, United States, at the age of 85.
Cousin of Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minister, 1937-1940).
He was initially reluctant to sign on to play Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, on "Batman" (1966) until a friend pointed out to him that the show would make him the most famous butler in the world.
Maternal grandfather of actor Brian Forster (I).
In Tim Burton (I)'s Batman (1989) the Joker's alter ego is named Jack Napier, in Alan's honor.
