We’ve been told that Jill St. John considers her appearance on the 1966 Batman pilot as just another guest spot on a TV show. It’s understandable, given her success as the female lead in the 1971 James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever.
However, her performance was not just memorable because it was the first episode of a legendary television series that was a smash hit going out of the gate on 12-13 January 1966. It wasn’t just because she was one of the few characters to die in the series. Rather, she cast a long shadow on the entire Batman comic, in that she influenced comic book luminaries Neal Adams, Denny O’Neill and Frank Miller. Messrs. Adams and O’Neill had patterned the character of Molly Post on Ms. St. John in two Batman comics in 1972 (more on that later), and Frank Miller’s character of Carrie Kelley is based, at least in part, on her.
Whatever the case, her presence remains memorable after 50+ years!
Publicity shots
