Mr Freeze # 3 -
Eli Wallach
How did you find the entrance
to the ice palace ?? !!!
Oh darling, stop spitting ice cubes !
Brrr, Mr Freeze, He wanted to put Batman and Robin on
ice. Using a freeze gun and a special machine that caused global freezing, The
Caped Crusaders would have been in trouble if they hadn't worn their special super
insulated bat underwear !!!
In the series, the third Mr Freeze
was played by Eli Wallach. Already a star, he was a welcome change from the hated
Otto Preminger ( the previous Mr Freeze ) .
Eli was born in Born , Brooklyn, N.Y on Dec.
7, 1915. He wanted to be an actor at a young age, and at 15 he performed in a
local drama club. He enlisted in the armed service and did his duty for his country
in WW II . He then made his Broadway debut in 
1945.
During the next few years he concentrated on a career in the theater and became
a large Broadway star. Wanting to expand his roles he started a movie career
in the role
of the seducer in the movie Baby Doll (56). He then
appeared in many more movies and was a popular heavy in many western films. A
year before he was to appear in Batman, he was a star alongside of Clint Eastwood
in his film, The Good the Bad and the Ugly (66).
Eli on his role in Batman, "
When my kids were little, they'd always plead with me to appear on Captain
Kangaroo or Batman or Rawhide, Howdy Doody..... Otto Preminger was unavailable for
one sequence , ( editors note: Otto probably WAS available but everyone hated
him so much, he was not asked back by the producers. ) so I stepped into that
character, with his German accent intact. I saw little of Batman and Robin since
I was the heavy, but it was a fun experience for me. For years afterward, I was
respected
by my kids. Later I did Trader Eli on Captain Kangaroo,
but I received only half the kudos that I got for MR Freeze !
He went on to perform in a ton of other movies. In 1968 he starred in McKenna's Gold which also featured Julie Newmar, The reason she didn't appear in the third season. By the late 1970's he shifted to appearing in mostly TV appearances. Many movies made for TV and shows had Eli in the credits. some notable performances were, "Law & Order" (1990), 'Working Stiff, The (92) Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (85), "Murder, She Wrote" (84), "Highway to Heaven" (84).
He remains active still, his last appearance being in the 1996 movie with Whoopi Goldburg, The Associate.
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