Featured artwork by Lyle Cruse.
Batman: The Animated Series fans had a rough 30th anniversary, following the death of lead actor Kevin Conroy after an undisclosed battle with cancer in 2022. Within 12 months, we also lost Arleen Sorkin and Richard Moll, who respectively originated the roles of Harley Quinn and Two-Face in DC media on that legendary show, along with a few other creatives who worked on it. As 2024 begins, I wanted to take the time to remember some of the people who helped make me such a huge Batman fan today.
Earl Boen
Actor Earl Boen passed away at the start of 2023 on January 5, aged 82, shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He only played the Ventriloquist’s dumb heavy “Rhino” on the show a few times, an oddly small role for an actor as memorable as Boen, who stole the show as the smug Dr. Silberman in the first three Terminator films, and lent his voice to the Red Skull and the Beyonder on the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, Señor Senior, Senior in Kim Possible, and the dread pirate LeChuck in the Monkey Island games. Regardless, there are no small parts if you’re a great actor, and Boen was part of the DCAU family, something voiceover director Andrea Romano presumably remembered when he was cast as Simon Stagg on Justice League. Rest assured, that we did not forget you a year later either Earl.
Richard Moll
Two-Face has been my favorite Batman villain since I was young enough to think he was called “Toothpaste,” and Moll’s performance would’ve been a huge reason why, with his guttural vocals as the tragically broken Harvey Dent. Rewatching the “Two-Face” two-parter after his passing this year, I was moved by the sheer anguish Moll channeled: perhaps more than any other actor in the cast, he was the one taking the material seriously the most, which is why Two-Face may’ve spoken to me most as a child. Moll’s performance is beloved, but feels underappreciated too: I didn’t even realize he was the first actor to play Two-Face (not just Dent), and he didn’t return as the character in the Arkham games like his castmates, even though he had briefly reprised the role on The Brave and the Bold.
According to Conroy, Moll was a quiet, quirky, and reserved man, something I assume probably stemmed from his conspicuous 6 ft 8 stature; one imagines he was perfectly happy to stand in the background, and let the spotlight shine on his co-stars. I’ve never seen or read an interview or panel with him, but he was one of my favorite character actors, not only for embodying Two-Face, but for countless other animated and live-action roles during my childhood, including Vorn the Unspeakable on Freakzoid! (where he really got to go to town with Two-Face’s voice), and the Drifter on 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd. R.I.P. you literal, and figurative giant of a man sir.
Michael Reaves
Not only did Michael Reaves shape my childhood as a writer and story editor on Batman, and as co-writer of Mask of the Phantasm, but he also did so in the same capacity on Disney’s Gargoyles, which he wrote many pivotal episodes of the first two seasons of with his wife Brynne Chandler. On Batman, Reaves wrote or co-wrote the debuts of Poison Ivy, Clayface, Killer Croc, and Ventriloquist, many of whom had not appeared outside the comics before then, and Kevin Conroy’s favorite episode of the entire series, “Perchance to Dream.”
After Reaves passed away following a years-long battle with Parkinson’s last year, one comment about his life particularly stayed with me: it was a reflection on how he had accomplished so much, despite doing poorly at school, and not attending college. Between that and his disease, Reaves’s life was a testament to how we can all help talent find a way out there, no matter what. If I recall correctly from his blog, he didn’t believe in God, but I hope he got to be pleasantly surprised, and to finally relax, and bask in how much fans loved him.
Continued belowArleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin was a clown. I know that’s generally not a nice thing to say, but according to her husband Christopher Lloyd, that’s how Sorkin would’ve described herself. Reading his recollections of her in The New York Times and Variety, as well as her close friend (and fellow DCAU star) Dana Delany’s tribute in People magazine, it was clear Sorkin was an effervescent woman, who always went above and beyond to make everyone’s life happier. How cruel, and ironic it is that she had been living with multiple sclerosis, a disease whose symptoms include exhaustion; listening to a Comic Book Central interview from 2017, it was so clear how much of a toll it was on her, even while her jovial personality shone through.
What’s not ironic is how she’ll be remembered first and foremost for inspiring, and originating the character of Harley Quinn. Harley’s asymmetrical color scheme, and propensity for roller blades? That came from the Days of Our Lives dream sequence Sorkin pitched. That accent almost every subsequent actress, and writer and letterer uses? That’s her too. Her Jewish background? That’s also her. The character’s own name, Harleen Quinzel? Gee, I wonder where that came from too. You could argue Harley’s turn from villainous sidekick to anti-hero was the inevitable result of someone as sweet and funny as Sorkin voicing her too.
It’s remarkable how Harley is now considered by DC Comics to be one of their four pillars, even though Sorkin, who is effectively her co-creator, did not work in comics. Sorkin told Comic Book Central she would’ve loved the chance to write a comic starring Harley, and she certainly knew how to write, penning episodes of cartoons, a movie, and sitcoms she created. She was also a Peabody Award-winning producer, a singer, a dancer, a model, and fundraiser; she was particularly a longtime supporter of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, helping create the organization’s annual Les Girls cabaret event. To Sorkin: may her memory continue to be a blessing, regardless of what shape her alter-ego takes on in the future.
Treat Williams
Treat Williams played mad scientist Achilles Milo twice on Batman, a surprising part for such a dashingly all-American actor. It wasn’t an especially memorable role, and tellingly, it was one of his few forays into voice acting (the only other one being a guest appearance on The Simpsons.) I wasn’t very familiar with Williams’s work, but I loved his performance in 1996’s The Phantom, where he got to go full ham as villain Xander Drax.
It was a deliciously evil turn, and it’s a shame he didn’t get to play more colorful comic book villains. Williams passed away under especially tragic circumstances last year, following injuries sustained in a highway accident. He was by all accounts a very active man, who enjoyed riding motorcycles, scuba diving, and flying planes (to the point he wrote a children’s book about it), and it is absolutely terrible he didn’t get to live out his sunset years with his family.
To all the friends and family of the people on this list, I hope you had the best possible first Christmas or Hanukkah without them, and that your memories will sustain you as much as their work continues to entertain and inspire us.
