Bob Kane - Later Life and Career

Later Life and Career

As Kane's comic-book work tapered off in the 1960s, he parlayed his Batman status into minor celebrity. He enjoyed a post-comics career in TV animation, creating the characters Courageous Cat and Cool McCool, and as a painter showed his work in art galleries, although some of these paintings were produced by ghost artists. DC Comics named Kane in 1985 as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great. In 1989, Kane published the autobiography Batman and Me, with a second volume Batman and Me, The Saga Continues, in 1996.

He was set to make a cameo appearance in the 1989 movie Batman as the newspaper artist who prepares the drawing of the "Bat-Man" for Alexander Knox (portrayed by Robert Wuhl), but scheduling conflicts prevented this and he was replaced by Denis Lill in this role. Kane's trademark square signature can still be seen clearly on the drawing the news cartoonist gave to Knox. In the novelization of the movie, the character is identified as "Bob the cartoonist". Kane worked as a consultant on the film and its two subsequent sequels with directors Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher.

Stan Lee interviewed Kane in the documentary series The Comic Book Greats.

Kane died on November 3, 1998, from natural causes, leaving behind his wife, Elizabeth Sanders (Kane), an actress who appeared in three Batman films; and daughter Deborah Majeski. Kane is buried at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.