LOS ANGELES — Before Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck donned Batman’s cape in a stream of Hollywood blockbusters, there was Adam West.

West, whose straight-faced portrayal of Batman in a campy 1960s TV series lifted the tights-clad Caped Crusader into the national consciousness, died at age 88, his publicist Molly Schoneveld said Saturday.

West died Friday night after “a short but brave battle with leukemia,” his family said in a statement.

When West wore the tights, he stoked the stoicism for laughs: a superhero letting everyone know he was in on the joke. “We were making overstated morality plays for children that adults could watch and enjoy,” West told the Los Angeles Times in 2004. “We played it terribly serious, and that’s half the fun of it.”

West’s Batman, which he called his “Bright Knight,” protected Gotham City from criminals such as the Penguin, the Riddler and the Catwoman.

Viewers came to expect fight scenes in which Batman and his sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder, played by Burt Ward, battled an array of anonymous henchmen, dispatching them with comedic blows punctuated with graphics that filled the screen: “Bam!” “Whap!” “Pow!”

He would be associated with the role for the rest of his life.

West initially chafed at being typecast after “Batman” went off the air after three seasons, but in later years he acknowledged he was pleased to have had a role in kicking off a big-budget film franchise by showing the character’s wide appeal.

“You get terribly typecast playing a character like that,” he told The Associated Press in 2014. “But in the overall, I’m delighted because my character became iconic and has opened a lot of doors in other ways, too.”

“He was bright, witty and fun to work with,” Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman to West’s Batman, said in a statement Saturday. “I will miss him in the physical world and savor him always in the world of imagination and creativity.”

Ward was friends with West for more than 50 years. “We shared some of the most fun times of our lives together,” Ward told Variety. “This is a terribly unexpected loss of my lifelong friend. I will forever miss him.”

A new generation of TV viewers knew West as the voice of nutty Mayor Adam West on the long-running animated series “Family Guy.”

“Adam West was a joy to work with, and the kind of guy you always wanted to be around,” “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane said in a statement.

“Batman” was among the most popular TV shows in 1966, the year it debuted, and some of the era’s top actors played villains. Burgess Meredith squawked as the Penguin. Eartha Kitt purred as Catwoman. Cesar Romero cackled as the Joker. Years later, Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, Bale and Affleck took on the Batman role.

Filmmakers Edgar Wright and Leslye Headland were among those lamenting West’s death on Twitter.

“Farewell Adam West. You were MY Batman,” Wright wrote. “Such a super funny, cool, charismatic actor.”

Headland wrote: My childhood hero & still my favorite Batman. RIP Adam West. #pow”

“Our dad ... aspired to make a positive impact on his fans’ lives,” West’s six children from three marriages said in a statement. “He was and always will be our hero.”

West is also survived by Marcelle, his wife.