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The man third in the line of presidential succession has been in five 'Batman' movies

January 23, 2021. Summarized by summa-bot.

Compression ratio: 17.6%. 1 min read.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the longest-tenured member of the Senate, is a Batman aficionado who's turned his fandom into philanthropy. Now, he's President pro tempore of the Senate and third in line to be President.

When Leahy met Batman

Leahy was elected to the Senate in 1974 and until the mid-1990s, his affinity for Batman didn't have much to do with his duties on Capitol Hill.

Leahy has long advocated to end the use of landmines, and he told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that he placed copies of the comic on every senator's desk that year.

Leahy's first foray into screen acting -- something he does strictly when Batman is involved -- came in 1995, when he appeared in the critically reviled "Batman Forever. " The same year, he voiced a character billed as "Territorial Governor" in "Batman: The Animated Series. "

Since then, Leahy has appeared in nearly as many "Batman" films as the Caped Crusader himself.

Why Leahy loves Batman so

Leahy preferred Batman to other characters because, unlike the god-like Superman or the super-powered Spider-Man, Batman was just a man, albeit an extremely rich one, with "human strengths and human frailties. " The danger Batman faced was different than that of other heroes -- his felt real, Leahy wrote in the DC collection foreword.

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