'Batman' Actor Burt Ward Got To Fight With The Famous Bruce Lee

Burt Ward played Robin in Batman in the 1960s. One of the most iconic scenes was when Burt was able to fight martial arts star, Bruce Lee. Bruce played the Green Hornet character Kato. Burt once said that he would often fight with Bruce Lee, but just for fun! They both would film their own stunts.

Burt once said, “I loved the fight scenes because I’m a black belt in karate. And I was just inducted into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, which was a great honor. I started in 1959, the same year it came to the United States. I was a first-year [when] karate came to the United States.”

Burt Ward and Bruce Lee often fought off the set too

BATMAN, Burt Ward, Adam West, Van Williams, Bruce Lee, 1966-68, TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved, Courtesy: Everett Collection

In the late ’60s, Bruce and Burt actually lived in the same apartment building in California when they were rising stars. They became friends and would like to practice fight scenes. Burt recalled, “I lived in the same complex that Bruce Lee lived in. We used to spar together. In fact, when I was doing Batman and I had met him [and] his wife Linda, at the time Brandon, his son, was six months of age. We would go down into Chinatown and order all the most authentic food. Because he lived in China or Hong Kong for 10 years.”

BATMAN, Burt Ward, 1966. TM and Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

While some called Bruce cocky, Burt said that he was also a very smart and nice guy. He added, “He was cocky, but he’s also a very nice guy, and he was very smart — he was a really great guy and very nice to me. And he had a wonderful sense of humor. He’s just a really nice guy.”