Michelle Pfeiffer Joins Instagram With An Awesome ‘Batman’ Throwback — Plus, See Every Actress to Play Catwoman!

Julie Newmar

Julie was the first actress to bring Catwoman to life, doing so in the 1966-68 Adam West Batman TV series. In an interview with Observer, she commented on the fact that the first shot of her in costume featured golden claws. “They were made of metal,” she explained. “They pinched my fingers. Did they bleed? In those days, who cared? When you’re performing, pain never matters.”

She voiced Catwoman, alongside Adam as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, in the animated films Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader (2016) and Batman vs. Two-Face (2017).

Lee Meriwether

At the height of Batmania in 1966 (and you have no idea how big it was unless you were there), 20th Century Fox released a feature film version of the Adam West series (while the show was in its first season!). Julie Newmar being unavailable, Lee Meriwether took her place, teaming up with Frank Gorshin’s the Riddler, Burgess Meredith’s the Penguin, and Cesar Romero’s the Joker.

At CallMeAdam.com, Lee reflected, “The villains are the ones I got to work with the most. I tell you, when you have the opportunity to work with true professionals with incredible work ethics building their characters and developing delightful, wonderful theatrical bits, it was a gift! Just the inventiveness of it all. Do you remember the scene in the movie in the Penguin’s submarine when he had the cigarette and cigarette holder in his mouth, and he says, ‘Run silent, run deep,’ and his cigarette holder goes down, well he worked on that scene, I swear, for an hour. He wanted to get it just right so when he uttered that line, the cigarette holder would fall just at the moment he wanted it to happen. It was just fabulous.

“And watching Frank Gorshin getting out of that suit jacket, when he finally got the chance, he tried to convince the director, ‘I want to show underneath the shirt and everything about it.’ The director said, ‘No, no, no, come on, let’s just do the scene.’ Well, Frank went off to the side and just worked and worked and worked to himself and then I watched him do the scene and when he came back in, he took off the jacket so smoothly, didn’t miss a beat in all the dialogue and everything else, it was perfect. The director said, ‘All right, print.’ Frank got to do exactly what he wanted, but that was because he worked on it. Cesar worked on so many different scenes, like with that little sparkly thing that goes zap in your hand, he worked on it over and over again, timing it out perfectly.”

Eartha Kitt

Eartha played Catwoman during the third and final season of Batman. When the late star was once asked how she got the role, she admitted, “I don’t know. They called and asked if I would do it… I’m very glad I got that part. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever done without thinking how funny I was… People say to me, ‘You are a cat. You move like a cat. You talk like a cat. You grrrrowl like a cat. And you look like a cat.” Sounds like she met all the proper requirements.

Jane Webb

Jane, who had an extensive career in radio drama, voiced the part of Catwoman on the 1968 animated series Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder, which was actually a rebranded version of the Dynamic Duo’s portion of the Batman/Superman Hour that aired Saturday mornings on CBS the season before. Olan Soule was the voice of Batman, Casey Kasem the voice of Robin.

Melendy Britt

Very briefly in 1977 — from February to May — CBS aired 16 episodes of The New Adventures of Batman. What was fun about the show is that it featured the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their roles from the ’60s series. Melendy Britt, who voiced Catwoman and her alter ego of Selina Kyle, also took on the dual parts of Barbara Gordon and Batgirl. She was also the voice of the popular character She-Ra.

Adrienne Barbeau

In the aftermath of Tim Burton’s Batman (which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year) came Batman: The Animated Series, a revolutionary show back in 1992 that truly shaped the cartoon landscape of the time. In it, and its 1997 follow-up series, The New Batman Adventures, Adrienne Barbeau voiced Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Adrienne, of course, has been acting on film and television for decades, though one of her most popular roles was as the daughter of Bea Arthur’s Maude, Carol Traynor, in what was one of the TV shows of the 1970s that helped progress the medium forward.

Michelle Pfeiffer

Here’s the lady we’ve all come to see: Michelle Pfeiffer, who took on the role of Catwoman in the Tim Burton-directed sequel, Batman Returns (1992). As Michelle explained to Empire, “I was halfway through the script when I said yes. Someone else was cast in the part and I remember being absolutely devastated and calling my agent and saying, ‘How have I not had a meeting about this? Wy have I not heard about it?'” That “someone else” was actually Annette Bening, who left the project when she found out she was pregnant.

Tim Burton, interviewed in the Los Angeles Times, pointed out, “I don’t really go back and look at the movies, but [Michelle’s] performance in that was one of my favorite performances of anything by anyone in any movie that I’ve worked on. It was just the best. Really, I’ll never forget her in that.”

He’s not alone.

Halle Berry

Released in 2004 was the film Catwoman, which presented Halle Berry in the title role. In the film’s production notes, Halle said, “Catwoman epitomizes fantasy. She’s who every woman wants to be and every man would like to be with. In many ways, cats embody the true psyche of women — cats are very elusive, and you have to work to gain their trust and their respect. It’s not something that’s given very freely. I’ve heard it said that dogs have masters, but cats have servants. And it’s true. This is a Catwoman for the 21st Century. She’s very modern and very reflective of our collective culture as we know it today. Our Catwoman is theoretically one of many who have gone before her and will come after her.”

Gina Gershon

The Batman animated series (2004-08) had Gina Gershon voicing Catwoman. Although Gina is (in)famously known for her role in 1995’s Showgirls, she currently plays Gladys Jones — mother to Jughead — on the CW’s Riverdale.

Nika Futterman

Bringing Catwoman to vocal life on Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-11) and the made-for-DVD film Scooby-Doo! and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018) is Nika Futterman, whose other credits include the Star Wars series Clone Wars, Teen Titans Go! and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Grey DeLisle

This voice actress has portrayed Catwoman in the games Batman: Arkham City, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman: Arkham Origins — Blackgate, Infinite Crisis, Batman: Arkham Knight and Injustice 2.

Eliza Dushku

She’s gone on to many other roles, but Eliza Dushku remains unforgettable as Faith in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. But she also happens to have voiced Catwoman in the animated film, Batman: Year One. In “finding” the Selina Kyle, she once said, “I found the attitude for this character deep down in the Eliza Dushku archive of bad girls. They’re in there somehow, somewhere for some reason, and I tap into them when I need them. They’re characters with an edge. I grew up with three older brothers in Boston, and my mother was a single mom. So I spent my early years running the streets with the boys. After I fell into the film and television business, I went back to public school in Boston, and kids didn’t think it was that cool. So I had to kind of fight for my street cred. I adopted this really sort-of-hard exterior and got in a couple fights. So by the time I graduated high school and came out to make Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it was really art imitating life. I was fighting for my life.

“It’s incredible being part of the Batman legacy,” she adds. “It’s iconic. It’s Batman. I grew up with brothers and we would play Batman and Robin. Well, I would always try to get in and play, but usually, they would let me join the game as some character or another, and they would immediately kill me off (laughs). So, I used to watch from afar. So now look brothers – I get to be a part of this and you don’t. “

Anne Hathaway

For the concluding chapter of Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy — The Dark Knight Rises — Anne Hathaway was brought on board to play Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and she feels the connection between her and Bruce Wayne is an importat one. “He was leading a pretty lonely life until she came in and got his blood pumping and reminded him that there are fun people out there in the world,” she explains in studio-provided quotes. “One of the things that fans have always enjoyed about Bruce and Selina is the playful side of their relationship. They may operate very differently, but they actually have a lot in common: they like to keep certain things hidden; they’re usually several steps ahead of everyone else in the room; and they prefer to dress in black.

“I did look back at some archival comics and read a lot about Bob Kane’s inspirations for Catwoman, but the most important thing was to be Catwoman in this film and fit into Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City. I’m such a huge fan of Chris’s. With Batman, he has been able to pose some really interesting philosophical questions, while shooting these spectacular action sequences and also finding the humor. It was a thrill to work with someone whose mind is so brilliant and whose talent is so very evident.”

Tress MacNeille

The animated film The Dark Knight Returns Part 2, like its predecessor, projects the action into the future where Batman has come out of retirement to fight a new enemy. Selina Kyle — and not the way we remember her — is back as well, and this time she’s voiced by actress Tress MacNeille.

Laura Bailey

Laura is another actress who has voiced the character in a number of different projects, notably 2014’s Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, 2016’s Batman: The Telltale Series video game; and 2017’s game, Batman: The Enemy Within.

Camren Bicondova

Gotham has offered us one of the most intriguing versions of Selina Kyle in that we’ve been watching her evolve from a teenager towards adulthood. Actress Camren Bicondova detailed to comicbook.com, “I don’t think there’s any other character like Selina, because she’s so unpredictable. she’s very mischievous and very challenging to play at times, because she feels emotions but he hides them. So it’s challenging showing emotions she’s trying to hide, but that’s what makes the character so lovable. That’s the fun part of my job.”

Cristina Pucelli

Catwoman has been brought to life by this actress in the 2015 animated film DC Super Hero Girls as well as 2018’s Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High. Both are geared for younger audiences with heroes (and villains) designed to inspire.

Zoe Kravitz

The singer/actress voiced Catwoman in the hit 2017 animated feature film The Lego Batman Movie, the plot of which is officially described as follows: “A cooler-than-ever Bruce Wayne must deal with the usual suspects as they plan to rule Gotham City, while discovering that he has accidentally adopted a teenage orphan who wishes to become his sidekick.” Catwoman finds herself in the middle of the action.

Jennifer Carpenter

In an alternative Victorian Age Gotham City, Batman begins his war on crime while he investigates a new series of murders by Jack the Ripper. One of the intended targets of the murderer is Selina Kyle (voiced by Dexter‘s Jennifer Carpenter).