William Austin(1884-1975)

William Austin's being cast as Alfred the Butler in the Columbia Pictures' Batman und Robin (1943) serial proved to have a profound effect on the character. Prior to the serial, Alfred had been portrayed as being a very portly character. In order to rectify the disparity between Comics Page and Film, the Editors at DC Comics had Alfred put on a diet; which resulted in a slimmer Butler, who mirrored the movie version.