Posted By Dan Greenfield on Feb 28, 2026 | 5 comments

A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION…

By CHRIS FRANKLIN

Olan Soule (Feb. 28, 1909-Feb. 1, 1994) was one of those “that guy” actors, a familiar face on TV and in films for half a century.

He often played supporting or bit parts, sometimes uncredited, but there was something about this thin, frail man that made him memorable. He put a lot of character into his sparse scenes, making the most of the moments given him without distracting from the stars or the narrative. He was a typical, unassuming everyman, often cast as clerks, bartenders or technicians of some kind.

Soule in Wanted: Dead or Alive

But his greatest acting gift was his voice. Soule was quite prolific in the Golden Age of radio and later found steady work doing voiceovers in animation. Soule’s longest lasting gig was one near and dear to readers of 13th Dimension, for despite his thin frame and nebbish outer appearance, deep within his vocal cords reverberated the commanding tones of the Caped Crusader.

Olan Soule was the original, animated voice of Batman.

To celebrate his birthdate, let’s take a look at some of the many roles played by Olan Soule, including a certain Masked Manhunter, of course!

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Secret Squadron Agent SS-11/L. William Kelly on Captain Midnight (1938-49). Soule’s first long-running heroic role was portraying L. William Kelly, aka Agent SS-11 on the famed Captain Midnight radio program. Kelly was the liaison between the title hero and his superior at the Secret Squadron, Maj. Barry Steele.

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LAPD Criminalist Ray Pinker on Dragnet; Radio (1949-57) and Television (1951-59). Producer and star Jack Webb took his Dragnet series from radio to TV, and many of the cast followed, including Soule, who portrayed the recurring character of Ray Pinker, based on a real-life LAPD criminalist, or in modern terms, forensic scientist. Given the popularity of the CSI and NCIS series, one can see Soule as quite the TV pioneer!

He essentially reprised the role when Webb revived the series for a new run from 1966-70 but was credited as Ray Murray. Maybe his name was changed to protect the innocent?

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Aristotle “Tut” Jones on the Captain Midnight TV Series (1954-56). Soule was the only actor from the Captain Midnight radio series to carry over to the television version, albeit in a different recurring role. Obviously, the casting directors felt Soule looked more like the academic type, and so he became head scientist Aristotle “Tut” Jones, responsible for making high-tech gadgets and dispensing knowledge.

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IRS Man in The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 2, “The Man in the Bottle” (1960). Soule appeared to rain on the parade of the Castles, an older couple who happens upon a magic bottle, a genie (Joseph Ruskin) and four wishes.

When the couple (Luther Adler and Vivi Janiss) wishes for a million dollars in cash, the genie gladly grants their wish. The kind-hearted Castles give away a good chunk of their treasure, only for Soule to arrive and remind them that Uncle Sam wants his cut. By the time he’s through, the struggling antique store owners only have five bucks left to their names.

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Storekeeper in The Rifleman, Season 5, Episode 12, “The Anvil Chorus” (1962). Like every working television actor in the ’50s and ’60s, Soule spent many hours in period dress, appearing in countless Western series, usually as a clerk, telegrapher or some other officiant type. He would sometimes go uncredited in these roles, as he did here. Maybe it was the bushy mustache he wore as North Fork’s storekeeper?

Soule interacts with Mark (Johnny Crawford), the son of titular Rifleman Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors). Also, in this episode playing an outlaw is an actor Soule would later spend a great deal of time conversing with: Norman Alden, Aquaman to Soule’s Batman on the first two seasons of Super Friends.

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Hotel Manager/Choir Leader John Masters on The Andy Griffith Show (1962-64). Soule had a recurring role as Mayberry choir director John Masters on The Andy Griffith Show. In his first appearance, he detects a sour note provided by the tone-deaf Barney Fife (Don Knotts).

In “The Darlings Are Coming” we learn John is also the town’s hotel manager and is flummoxed when Briscoe Darling (Denver Pyle) sneaks his entire Bluegrass-playing family into his room. Soule made five appearances as the character overall.

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Doctor Passmore, Psychiatrist in Bewitched, Season 2, Episode 9 “…And Then I Wrote” (1965). It was only a matter of time before nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz (Alice Pearce) would seek psychiatric help to deal with the strange things she witnessed while snooping on her neighbors, the Stephenses. And who better to treat her than Soule as the reassuring Doctor Passmore?

It just so happens Passmore had hired Darrin Stephens (Dick York) to create the advertising for his office, so Gladys is confronted with the root of her problem as she leaves the office and bumps into Darrin and his wife, Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery), who of course is secretly a witch!

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Newscaster in Batman, Season 1, Episode 28, “The Pharaoh’s in a Rut” (1966). Soule’s first job in Gotham City wasn’t as the Caped Crusader. No, he played a newscaster in the second part of King Tut’s first appearance on the classic live-action Batman TV series.

In his secret lair, Tut catches a news broadcast, hosted by Soule, updating the public on Bruce Wayne’s kidnapping at the hands of the nefarious pharaoh. Soule then switches the broadcast to a remote from Commissioner Gordon’s office, where Batman sets a trap for the deluded former Yale professor gone rogue.

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Waiter in The Monkees, Season 1, Episode 30, “Monkees Manhattan Style” 1967. Soule also showed up on another ’60s show that burned red hot for a brief period: The Monkees. Soule plays Bronis Wakalanaski, a waiter at a fancy hotel where the Prefab Four are running amok, trying to keep a would-be Broadway producer from being evicted. He even manages to make it into that episode’s first music segment, for the song “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.”

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Prune Juice Pitchman. Soule got up close and personal with audiences in this TV spot, which appears to be from the late ’60s. Has anyone ever been more passionate about their love of prunes? Personally, I can’t stand prunes or their juice, but Soule is so convincing here, I’m considering giving them another shot. No wonder he was in demand for commercials too!

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Father in The Small One (1978). Soule appeared in several Disney productions, including six episodes of its anthology TV series — which went under several names, including The Magical World of Disney — often as a narrator. Our example here is a rare theatrical animation effort from the 1970s, and the final one involving animator Don Bluth before he left the studio to form his own.

Soule provided the voice for a boy’s father in the short, The Small One. The father is forced to order his son to sell the boy’s beloved tiny donkey when the four-legged friend is no longer able to carry his weight in their farm work.

Despite his decision, Soule gives the character a gentle and caring delivery that doesn’t make the audience hiss him. His son eventually sells the donkey to a man named Joseph, who plans to use it to carry his wife to Bethlehem. I think you know the rest of the story!

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Professor Martin Stein in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984-85). After a year of no new episodes airing in the US, the long-running Super Friends animated series returned to ABC Saturday mornings in 1984 with a facelift, and a new name, tying into Kenner’s new Super Powers Collection toy line.

After years of service as the Caped Crusader, Soule was assigned a new role, Professor Martin Stein, since Batman was now voiced by another actor. Stein was one half of the dual alter-egos that made up the Super Friends’ newest member, Firestorm. Stein and Firestorm’s other half, Ronnie Raymond (Mark Taylor) got more of a focus than any of the Super Friends previously had in their civilian identities.

As in the comics, Stein also appeared as a translucent floating head that only Firestorm could see or hear, advising him on how to use his atomic restructuring powers. Soule was a perfect choice to voice this heroic academic, and you can’t argue with his replacement as Batman — some fellow named Adam West. For reasons unknown, Soule did not voice Stein’s more limited role in the follow-up season, Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

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Batman in The Adventures of Batman (1968-69), Sesame Street (1969-71), The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972) and Super Friends (1973-83). But of course, Soule’s biggest claim to fame for most of us is his role as Batman across four different series!

Soule was the first voice actor to portray Batman in animation with the 1968 debut of Filmation’s The Adventures of Batman, as part of the Batman/Superman Hour, just after the live-action TV series ended. Along with Casey Kasem as Robin, Soule essayed the role in a fashion that was less intentionally square than how Adam West had portrayed the hero.

The tone of the Filmation series in general was more of a straight adventure, since it was aimed solely at kids, unlike its predecessor, which was spoofing the comics it was based on, to appeal to adults.

Filmation also produced a handful of animated shorts featuring Batman and Superman to fill out time in the fledgling Sesame Street program in 1969, and Soule and Kasem provided the voices of the Dynamic Duo again. These educational shorts wouldn’t be the last time they offered kids advice and safety messages!

Soule and Kasem returned to the roles in 1972, but for a different animation studio, Hanna-Barbera. The Dynamic Duo were just some of the guest stars on the star-studded New Scooby-Doo Movies, featuring the famous Great Dane and his mystery-solving pals.

Of course, Kasem had been voicing Scooby’s best pal Shaggy since the show started in 1969. Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes and brought along the Joker and the Penguin. But Batman and Robin are quite a bit campier here, closer to their live-action counterparts.

These episodes proved so popular, Hanna-Barbera considered a show teaming Scooby with various DC and even Marvel heroes. That evolved into the next series where Soule would reprise his Batman role.

Along with narrator Ted Knight, Soule and Kasem were joined by Danny Dark’s Superman, Shannon Farnon’s Wonder Woman and Norman Alden’s Aquaman to form the Super Friends, Hanna-Barbera’s version of DC Comics’ Justice League of America. The series shifted over several seasons, going from a completely non-violent and overtly preachy show to one that appealed more to comics fans with actual battles with super villains.

Despite Batman and Robin being able to magically pull whatever deus ex machina device they needed from their utility belts, Soule played Batman straight for the most part. In addition to participating in full-team adventures and team-ups with one or two other heroes, the Caped Crusaders took time to teach kids about the benefits of eating fresh fruit, how to ride a skateboard safely, and even administer the Heimlich maneuver! Soule’s kind, but authoritative voice made Batman feel like a real super friend, one worth listening to.

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MORE

— The TOP 13 FILMATION BATMAN Episodes — RANKED. Click here.

— CASEY KASEM: Robin’s Perfect Voice. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor CHRIS FRANKLIN is a graphic designer, illustrator, writer, and podcaster, who co-hosts and produces several shows on the Fire and Water Podcast Network, including Superman Movie Minute. Check out his illustrative and design work at chrisfranklincreative.com.