Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 3, 2026
LEE MERIWETHER on the Sadness of VICTOR BUONO
A BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE: The famed King Tut was born 88 years ago… — UPDATED 2/3/26: Today was Victor Buono’s birthday. He was born 88 years ago. Perfect time to reprint this piece from 2017, featuring Lee Meriwether’s bittersweet recollections of working with Buono on Batman. For more on Buono’s great King Tut, click here. — Dan — In the first entry of The LEE MERIWETHER INTERVIEWS, Batman’s second Catwoman went out on a limb and picked her favorite Feline Fatale. (Click here to see which actress got the nod.) In the second installment, the gracious actress talked about how she got the Catwoman gig to begin with, how rewarding it was to work with her fellow villains — and what she learned. (Click here for that.) Now, in the finale of this recurring series, Lee Meriwether talks about her return to Batman as Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Lisa Carson in the Season 2 two-parter King Tut’s Coup/Batman’s Waterloo. She compares her time in Gotham with Star Trek, The Time Tunnel, Mission: Impossible and Barnaby Jones — and shares her bittersweet memories of Victor Buono. Buono died of a heart attack at the age of 43 in 1982. In the ’60s, he generally played characters significantly older than himself. (He was only 28 when he debuted as King Tut.) He’s also been back in the spotlight given Dominic Burgess’ wonderfully touching performance as the closeted gay actor in the FX show Feud: Bette and Joan… Dan Greenfield: Now, in the aftermath of the movie, you came back to the series. You played Lisa Carson. What was the difference in the experience? Lee Meriwether: In television, I heard the expression for the first time, “Come on, let’s get going, time is money.” And I said “Oh, that’s interesting.” But it was fun and I loved working with Victor Buono. He was just amazing, but he scared me to death because he said, “You know, Lee ” — we were talking before we were filming this one scene — “I’m not going to live very long.” I said “Victor, oh no, you stop that. Don’t talk like that. You’re not sick are you?” (He replied:) “No, no, but I know I’m not going to live very long.” “No stop saying that. No.” Just terrible. And so finally, he didn’t talk to me anymore....
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