There was plenty to be seen at Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon 2013, which ran the weekend of March 1-3. From watching the attendees dressed in every type of costume to getting the scoop and what’s going on the world of comic books, the show had a little something for everyone. However, one of the places to be was the main hall of the convention center, which featured a ton of special celebrity guest panels. Celebrity guests ran the gamut from legends to some current stars of television and film. The hour-long panels offered an up close and personal experience with a favorite celebrity for attendees of the show. The renowned performers that took the stage shared entertaining stories about their lives, both on and off screen.
Legendary guests included Star Trek’s Walter Koenig and Patrick Stewart,
actors Christopher Lloyd and Billy Dee Williams, as well as the Batman and Robin themselves—Adam West and Burt Ward. All of them regaled the audience with stories from their experiences in the entertainment industry. With Billy Dee Williams, the audience was of course clamoring for any news on the recently-announced Star Wars Episode 7. Unfortunately, Williams was only able to offer that the project is in progress and that he has not yet been approached about reprising his role as Lando Calrissian. Williams’ manager jumped in with the suggestion that fans let Disney know (via social media sites like Twitter) if they want to see Lando in the new movie.
Williams was asked about playing Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, which led to discussion about the nature of Batman himself. Having recently caught Taxi Driver on TV, Williams equated Bruce Wayne with Travis Bickle, stating that they shared a similar “kind of psychosis.” The primary difference between the two characters, Williams observed, was that Bickle didn’t “have the opulence” of Wayne. After a beat he added, “Or a cave.”
Christopher Lloyd entertained the crowd with stories from his many projects. Of course there were a lot of Back to the Future fans in the audience, but his role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit brought almost as many questions. Even panel moderator Danny Bonaduce couldn’t resist chiming in with a confession of having had inappropriate feelings about Jessica Rabbit. Lloyd told some great stories about all of his costars over the years. Best of all were some funny recollections about Andy Kaufman on the set of Taxi, including the time Kaufman nearly convinced the entire cast he was capable of levitating. “We got along well,” Lloyd remembered, “He wasn’t crazy. I went with him one night when he was mud wrestling women. He was extraordinary.”






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