Robin Boy Wonder RIP
Johnny Duncan, a popular guy around Hollywood who played Robin the Boy Wonder in a Batman serial that was shown in theaters in 1949, has died. He was 92.
Duncan, who taught Lana Turner the Lindy, palled around with Humphrey Bogart and had his head chopped off by Kirk Douglas in a sword fight in Spartacus, died Feb. 8 at his home in Davenport, Fla., his family announced.
He also appeared, mostly as a background player, in such films as Mervyn LeRoy’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944); Otto Preminger’s Whirlpool (1949); John Ford’s When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950); Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), starring Ronald Reagan and a chimp; and the infamous Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959), directed by Ed Wood.
Duncan, though, is best known for starring as a shaggy-haired Robin/Dick Grayson in Batman and Robin, a 15-chapter serial from Columbia Pictures. He appeared opposite Robert Lowery as the Caped Crusader/Bruce Wayne, and they battled the black-hooded criminal The Wizard in the series that took three months to make and typically played for young audiences on Saturday mornings and afternoons.
