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The Batman TV show was so dangerous that a “multi-million-dollar life insurance policy” was taken out for Robin actor Burt Ward

For Burt Ward, playing Robin alongside Adam West's Batman was a risky endeavor

An image of Burt Ward as Robin in the Batman TV show — Image credit: Warner Bros.

News by Jules Chin Greene, Staff Writer

Published on Sat Jan 10 2026

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Being Robin is dangerous business, even if it's just for television. As Burt Ward, the original actor who played Robin alongside Adam West's Batman in the 1960s TV show, can attest, acting as the Boy Wonder is a job that comes with its own set of risks.

Speaking to SyFy, the original Robin actor shed light on the injuries that he got while filming the Batman TV show. "It was a very dangerous show to make. I was in the hospital the first four of the six days of filming. [I had] second-degree burns, my nose [got] broken by a two-by-four landing on it from explosions. I got to be friendly with this doctor at the hospital because I was there all the time ... The studio went and took out a multi-million-dollar life insurance policy on me. By the end of that series, the last couple of episodes, I could swear they were trying to collect on that policy," Ward said.

Burt Ward was in his early 20s when he played Robin on the Batman TV show. And it's genuinely terrifying that he got second-degree burns while filming the show. Now I'm left wondering what the hell gave him those burns in the first place? The lights that were used in film and television production at the time were notoriously dangerous because of the heat that they would produce. Could Ward have gotten burned by one of the lights?

Now, we'll have to go back and rewatch those final few episodes and see all the dangerous situations that Ward was placed in, prompting him to describe the final leg of shooting as the studio "trying to collect on that policy." The poor guy. Even fictional crimefighting isn't easy.

Enjoy our guides to how to watch the recent DCEU, the Arrowverse, and James Gunn's upcoming DCU. Oh, and don't forget our guide to what's coming up for DC projects on the big and small screens.

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Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.