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Everyone from Mike Nichols to John Belushi got their start with Chicago's famed Second City improvisational group. Michael Keaton landed there in 1975, and went on to L.A. to write comedy and to act in various television series. After a few mediocre film comedies, he broke through with Mr. Mom, in 1983. Five years later, he shone in two totally disparate genres: as a goofy ghoul in the surprisingly successful Beetlejuice, and as a strung-out yuppie addict in Clean and Sober; he was named best actor of the year by national film critics. In 1989, he slipped into the cape and cowl of Batman under the direction of Tim Burton and had a surprisingly effective star turn as the alienated caped crusader, a part that many thought would never mesh with his average looks. He had this to say in 1990 about portraying the Dark Knight:
After returning in 1992 for the sequel, Batman Returns, he refused to suit up for the third Batman installment in 1995 and returned instead to his comedy roots for 1996's Multiplicity, in which he played a pressed-for-time construction foreman who clones himself. Apart from cropping up in the recurring supporting role of fed Ray Nicolet in the Elmore Leonard adaptations Jackie Brown and Out of Sight, Keaton's recent starring roles — as a crafty mass murderer in Desperate Measures and as a rock musician who dies and is reincarnated as a snowman in Jack Frost — have left much to be desired.
