King Tut (Adam West Batman)

King Tut is a major antagonist in the 1960s Batman TV Series. He was portrayed by the late Victor Buono.

History
King Tut is in fact William Omaha McElroy, a highly regarded professor of Egyptology at Yale University. One day he was at work when a student protest turned vicious, and rocks were thrown. One such rock hit McElroy, knocking him out. When he regained consciousness, he believed that he was the reincarnation of King Tutankhamun and that Gotham is the ancient city of Thebes. His ultimate goal is to claim Gotham—that is, Thebes—as his own. His antipathy towards Batman and Robin is based on the concept that they have tried to stop him, and as such are regarded as rebels against his throne.

His speech is laced with Egyptian history lessons, his curses and praises directed toward Egyptian gods. His hideouts are decorated with his Egyptian artifacts and his partners in crime are dressed in ancient Egyptian costumes. Indeed, they refer to him as royalty. When anyone dares to question the veracity of his claims, he gets extremely irate, insisting that he is the "Nabob of the Nile" or the "Moon God of Thoth and stuff like that."

He is a rather emotional villain, going from joy to anger and then into sadness in a matter of moments. He also has a tendency to be sadistic, insisting that while he detests violence, he loves a little torture, which he calls "good clean fun." As much as he hates Batman, he seems to hate Robin even more, as on one occasion he has the Boy Wonder suspended above a crocodile pit, and another time plans to have him boiled in a vat of oil. He invests so much time and effort into his capers he often breaks down and cries when things come crumbling down around him. It is usually at this time, when he becomes his old self once again. Sometimes he is hit on the head and this awakens the professor, and sometimes he snaps out of it himself. When he first came to Gotham, King Tut built a sphinx to shout out his demands to Gotham City. Other schemes for world domination included hypnotizing Gotham with deadly juice from scarabs and holding a millionaire's daughter for ransom. Most of the time when he was defeated by Batman, he reverted to his normal scholarly self with no memory of what had transpired.

He was also one of the only two villains in the series (the other being Egghead) to uncover Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne, by putting a tracer on the Batmobile. Fortunately, at Tut's challenge, Bruce Wayne appeared "with" Batman by having a Batman dummy drive up with Robin and Bruce threw his voice to make the dummy speak.

However, in another episode King Tut and his underlings, while tunneling underneath Wayne Manor, accidentally mined into the Batcave. This confimed King Tut's earlier suspicions that Batman and Bruce Wayne were indeed one and the same. After confronting the Dynamic Duo saying that they would have to kill him and his accomplices to stop them from telling the world their secret, a fierce fight ensued with the evil Pharoah making his escape while the heroes spray his tutlings and henchwoman with Batnesia gas to wipe out out any trace of what they had seen.

King Tut raced down the shaft and found Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara and Batgirl at the end. The Dynamic Duo followed him and arrived just as the villain was about to reveal their true identities. Fortunately his loud voice made the roof of the shaft collapse on top of him, making him change back to his normal self once again with no memory of what he had learned.

He was also one of six arch-criminals freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft to form her new invisible gang, but this brief cameo appearance was by a stand-in.

Trivia

 * King Tut is the only recurring villain apart from The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler and Catwoman to appear in all three seasons.
 * King Tut's appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold is based on Victor Buono's version of the character. Due to Fox's owning the name however, he is referred to as Pharaoh.
 * The LEGO version of King Tut that appears in The Lego Batman Movie is based on the Victor Buono version of the character.
 * King Tut is similar to Maxie Zeus, another ordinary man who's other personality has taken him over, in his case believing that he is the Greek god Zeus.
 * King Tut finally made his comic book debut to the world of Batman in 2009.
 * He makes an non speaking cameo in Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusaders but in the sequel, his role is more active.