King Tut (Batman)

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King Tut was a villain created for the 1960s television series Batman. Victor Buono portrayed King Tut on the aforementioned TV series.

[edit] Character history

He was actually an Egyptologist, Professor William Omaha McElroy, but he developed amnesia after suffering a blow the head in a student riot and thereafter believed he was a reincarnation of King Tut. He sought to take over Gotham City and defeat Batman and Robin. He would be defeated by another blow to the head, returning him to his normal state.

The pattern would follow for subsequent appearances – he would suffer a blow to the head, believe himself to be King Tut, fight Batman and Robin for control of Gotham City, only to suffer another blow to the head, returning to his real self. As such, he would be the only villain not to be jailed for his actions (the insanity defense would apply here). Prof. Elroy has tried to prevent the personality switching such as wearing a reinforced hat to prevent unwanted blows, but he still has had changed his personality repeatedly.

In his final appearance in the series, King Tut bought a plot of land adjacent to Wayne Manor, as part of a plan to obtain a rare mineral. The villain tunneled beneath the manor and accidentally discovered the subterranean Batcave. He realized that Batman and Bruce Wayne were the same person. Batman and Robin then battled Tut and his henchmen in the Batcave. The Dynamic Duo administered pills to the henchmen that would erase their recent memory. Tut, however, fled to the surface via the tunnel. Once at the top of the tunnel, Tut was about to reveal his discovery of the Batcave to Commissioner Gordon, when Batman provoked Tut to raise his voice, thereby causing a rock to fall on his head, knocking him out. When Tut regained consciousness, he was once again Prof. McElroy, with no memories of Batman's secret identity.

Tut's hideouts sometimes included an "apothecary", the only one in Gotham, in the "Pyramid" building.

[edit] Trivia

While King Tut hasn't appeared outside of the 60's television series, there were plans by Ty Templeton to include him to appear in Batman: Gotham Adventures, a comic based on The New Batman Adventures.

King Tut bears some similarity to another Batman villain, Maxie Zeus, who also believed himself to be the embodiment of an Ancient World ruler (in Maxie's case, the Greek god Zeus).