Burt Ward  Burt Ward (born Bert John Gervis Jr. , July 6, 1945) is an American actor and activist. He is best known for his portrayal of Robin, the sidekick of Batman (played by Adam West), in the television series "Batman" (1966–1968), its theatrical feature film, the Saturday morning animated series "The New Adventures of Batman" (1977), the two-episode pilot "Legends of the Superheroes" (1979), the animated reunion films "" (2016) and "Batman vs. Two-Face" (2017), and the live-action television event "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (2019). Ward was born Bert John Gervis Jr., on July 6, 1945, in Los Angeles, California. His father, Bert Sr., was the owner of a traveling ice show called "Rhapsody On Ice". At age 2, Ward was listed in the magazine "Strange as It Seems" as a professional ice skater. Growing up, he was an avid reader of comic books such as "Superman" and "Superboy", and enjoyed the action-adventure show "Adventures of Superman". He acquired the nickname "Sparky" in his youth, possibly from the sparks his skates kicked up during his routines or his energetic nature. He excelled in high school sport activities such as football, track, and wrestling; he was also a member of the chess club and is a practitioner of Taekwondo. After graduation, he enrolled in college, while working part-time for his father's real estate company. At the age of 19, Ward auditioned for the role of Robin. West and Ward were up against Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell for the roles of Batman and Robin, respectively. Selected for the role of Robin, Ward thought people would find Gervis (the "G" is soft, as in "gentleman") hard to pronounce and adopted his mother's maiden name, Ward. He also changed the spelling of Bert to "Burt" to add "punch". Unlike the series' lead, Adam West, Ward was required to perform some dangerous stunt work. He was told this was because his costume revealed more of his face, making it impractical for all of his stunt scenes to be performed by a stunt double. Later, he also discovered that he was being paid the minimum wage allowed by the Screen Actors Guild, and his stunt double was paid per stunt, so having Ward perform his own stunts was a cost-saving strategy.