Special Sub-Topic: 15 Degrees of "Batman" Villains Click Here To Play: 15 Degrees of "Batman" Villains

We start off with a trick question about that frosty fiend, Mr. Freeze. Which of the actors who played him was also a renowned film director?

Otto Preminger. Sure, Arnold played Freeze, but in the movie "Batman and Robin", long after the show went off the air! Sanders was the show's first Freeze, Wallach the last, but only Preminger was the film director. (He was also a memorable Nazi officer in Wilder's "Stalag 17".)

This "Batman" villain, best known for horror roles, had an early role in one of the director's films. What is his name?

Vincent Price. The other three never appeared on the show. Price was slimy Shelby Carpenter in Preminger's classic "Laura" and bald Egghead on "Batman".

Among this actor's many roles was one in a DeMille spectacle opposite Anne Baxter and this famed film gangster, who did a "Bat-climb" cameo. His name?

Edward G. Robinson. In DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" Robinson was the traitorous Dathan, who was overseer for the Egyptians, Price was Master Builder Baka, whose neck was snapped by Heston's Moses and Baxter was Nefretiri. She played Zelda the Great and later Olga on "Batman"; in the latter role she re-teamed with Price (Egghead).

This tough guy also appeared in a Frank Capra film opposite this "Batman" villainess who had a bit part in a Hitchcock thriller. She was TV's Morticia Addams. Her name?

Carolyn Jones & Jones. Jones was in Hitch's own remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much, appeared opposite Elvis Presley in "King Creole" and starred with Robinson and Frank Sinatra in Capra's "A Hole in the Head", which gave Frank one of his signature tunes, "High Hopes". She played Marsha, Queen of Diamonds twice on the show.

2 other "Batman" rogues were in the Hitchcock opus "Lifeboat". Their names?

Tallulah Bankhead and Walter Slezak. In "Lifeboat" Bankhead was a lady journalist and Slezak the Nazi villain. Bankhead's swan song was on "Batman" as Black Widow, while Slezak was the time-obsessed Clock King. Both were beaten by Batman, of course, as were all the show's bad guys!

Morticia's TV hubby had a bit in Robert Wise's "West Side Story", and was the only other actor to play Riddler. He was...

John Astin. Astin was the stammering teacher in the gym dance scene of "Story"; Glass and Oakland, while starring in the film, never appeared on "Batman". Julia was the Gomez of the two "Addams" movies. For one episode Astin stood in for Frank Gorshin when the latter couldn't appear because of a nightclub gig. Astin was once married to Oscar-winner Patty Duke.

2 "Batman" baddies were also in Wise films. First: before he appeared in a fur coat, he came to Earth in a UFO. He was...

Michael Rennie. The last two never played aliens or acted on the show! Arness had the title role on the 50's classic, "The Thing". Rennie was Klattu in Wise's sci-fi masterwork "The Day The Earth Stood Still". He was the fur-clad Sandman for one episode opposite Julie Newmar's Catwoman.

The other played one of Batman's greatest foes; for this and Rocky Balboa's manager he is best known, though he played many another role. Once he co-starred with Ethel Merman. Know him?

Burgess Meredith & Meredith. Holy Actors Studio! As the waddling Penguin he co-starred with Merman, who was Lola Lasagna. He played a con artist in Wise's "The Hindenburg" among many other roles, including a psychiatrist in "Mine Own Executioner", George in "Of Mice and Men" and Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe".

Merman also acted with this "florid" villain once in a Stanley Kramer film. Who was he?

Milton Berle. All were in Kramer's "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" but only Berle was "Batman" villain Louie the Lilac. Merman was Berle's harpyish mother-in-law in the film.

"Cleopatra" starring Liz Taylor came out in '63. This rotund star of 3 Robert Aldrich films played a villain created for the TV series, a Yale professor who, when struck on the head, thinks he's an Egyptian Pharaoh. His name?

Victor Buono & Buono. Buono starred in Aldrich's "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "Four for Texas".

What "Batman" rogue appeared opposite Taylor's Cleo as a Roman emperor?

Roddy McDowell. Rex and Dick co-starred with Liz, but it was McDowell who was Octavian in the film and played the erudite, bibliophilic Bookworm (in leather clothes, yet!)for a single "Batman" story. Ustinov was Nero in "Quo Vadis".

This actress was allegedly deep-sixed by Montgomery Clift for Taylor, but was a gangster mom on the show and later played her real-life inspiration in the movies. The 2-time Oscar-winner's name?

Shelley Winters & Winters. Winters won for "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue". She was Clift's (accidental?) victim in "A Place In The Sun". On "Batman" she was Ma Parker, spoofing real-life Ma Barker, whom she played in the 1970 Roger Corman opus "Bloody Mama".

Three "Batman" villains already got Oscars by the time they appeared on the show. A fourth one would win after the show's demise. Who is he? (Hint: he played a cowboy!)

Cliff Robertson. Robertson was Shame, a cowboy crook who spoofed Alan Ladd's Shane. In 1968, after "Batman" was cancelled, he won the Best Actor Oscar for "Charley", as a retarded man who becomes a temporary genius after experimental surgery. Steiger would win the Supporting Oscar for "In The Heat Of The Night", but neither he, nor Newman or Lemmon appeared on the show!

This actor got his Oscar opposite Baxter, wooed and sang to (!) Merman and had 2 Hitchcock roles before becoming a Batman foe. Know him?

George Sanders & Sanders. Sanders won as "All About Eve's" Addison DeWitt, serenaded Merman in the film of "Call Me Madam" and was in Hitch's "Rebecca" and "Foreign Correspondent". He was the first Mr. Freeze. (His ex-wife, Zsa Zsa Gabor, was the series' last villain, Minerva) Sanders, Winters, Baxter ("The Razor's Edge") and Robertson are the only Oscar-winners to appear on "Batman".

And what director and "Batman" foe lensed him as an English king?

Otto Preminger & Preminger. Holy full circle! Preminger directed Sanders as Charles II in "Forever Amber".