George Barris obituary

George Barris, who has died aged 89, was a leading American figure in the world of exotic and sensational automobiles. The king of “kustom” cars, as he liked to call them, Barris had a gift for transforming a run-of-the-mill vehicle into a four-wheeled event, and his talents were eagerly sought by television and film studios, rock stars and movie icons.

An outstanding landmark in his long career was his creation of the Batmobile for the 1960s Batman television series, which starred Adam West as the caped crusader. “I saw the script and it said, ‘Bang’, ‘Pow’, ‘Boom’,” said Barris in a 2012 interview. “That’s exactly what I wanted the car to be able to do. I wanted it to be as big a character as the actors themselves.”