Egghead is a fictional character created for the 1960s Batman television series. Played by horror film mainstay Vincent Price, the character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believes himself to be "the world's smartest criminal", and his crimes usually have an egg motif to them; he also includes egg-related puns in his speech. Additionally, he would use a wide assortment of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs.
Background
Like many other villains, Egghead was created specifically for the 1966 Batman TV series. Egghead would go on to be introduced in the comic books.
Egghead was introduced in the second season two-parter, "An Egg Grows in Gotham" and "The Yegg Foes in Gotham," where he schemed with Chief Screaming Chicken of the MohicanIndian tribe to revert control of Gotham City to the Chief's people. In return, Egghead would also govern the city and enable the criminal underground to run amok. Their scheme was foiled by Batman and Robin. Egghead would return three times in the third season with his new partner and love interest Olga: Queen of the Cossacks, an exile from Bessarovia. The first two third-season appearances, "The Ogg and I" and "How to Hatch a Dinosaur", were actually filmed as one multi-part story, but split into two separate stories prior to airing. In "How to Hatch a Dinosaur," Egghead and Olga's plan was to hatch an egg of a Neosaurus and later to try to feed Robin and Batgirl to it. It did not work and the Neosaurus advanced toward Egghead and Olga, causing them to surrender to the police as the Neosaurus was actually Batman in disguise. On a related note, Batman's Neosaurus costume was actually a recycled costume of the alien creature Gundemar from the Lost in Space episode "The Questing Beast." The final season three appearance was in episode 15 "The Ogg Couple" where Egghead and Olga steal the Sword of Bulbul and the Egg of Ogg. In "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," Egghead was freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft and her husband Cabala, but this brief appearance was by a stand-in. Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft promised Egghead control over the poultry farms when she took over Gotham City, even giving him and the other villains her camouflage pills to assist in their crime spree. Egghead was one of only two Batman 1960s series villains to deduce Batman's secret identity. Reasoning that the enormous "egg-spense" involved would point to only one of three Gotham City millionaires who would be of the right age as Batman, and deducing that two could not be the Caped Crusader, he concluded that the last, Bruce Wayne, must be Batman.
In other media
Television
Egghead appears in 1960's Batman series portrayed by Vincent Price.
Egghead can be seen in episode "Day of the Dark Knight!" as a convict trying to escape Iron Heights Penitentiary, but was stopped by Batman and Green Arrow, among other villains from the show and the Adam West series.
In the animated film , Egghead appears among other criminals during the climax after Robin and Catwoman freed Egghead and the other villains from Gotham City Penitentiary. He is seen fighting Batman and his duplicates by using egg-like bombs.
In Team StarKid's comedy musical Holy Musical B@man, Egghead makes a minor appearance, stealing all the chickens from Gotham City, hoping to see its citizens suffer from a lack of eggs. He is almost immediately defeated by Batman and Robin.
Egghead briefly appears in The Lego Batman Movie, but his voice actor is uncredited. He is seen tossing eggs at his opponents and laughing similarly to Vincent Price at the time when he was among the villains assisting in Joker's attack on Gotham City. Egghead later appears using an egg-shaped mech to fight off the Phantom Zone inmates.
Egghead is seen in Batman vs. Two-Face. He appears as one of the super-criminals that Hugo Strange and Harleen Quinzel are attempting to cure of their insanity.
Comics
A bald criminal called Egg-Head appeared in Detective Comics #63. He was a flunky in the employ of Mr. Baffle, a criminal said to rival Batman for intelligence. Egg-Head himself was portrayed as no more intelligent than typical gangsters appearing in comics at the time. Baffle's other henchman was a bespectacled criminal called Fish-Eyes. Readers were asked to write in if they would like to see more of Mr. Baffle. Apparently, they did not, because neither he nor his henchmen ever appeared again.
Egghead has rarely made cameo appearances in other Batman media outside of the 1960s series. He can be seen in ' #3-4 as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, battling Batman gladiator-style after being set free from his cell by the maddened Jeremiah Arkham.
He is also featured in ' issue #16. In this issue, his real name is given as Edgar Heed and he seeks to awaken Egg Fu.
Egghead appears in Batman '66 where the comic series is supposed to take place in the same continuity as the original series. He appears in issue #3 where "The Joker Sees Red" has him appearing as an inmate at Arkham Asylum. Later on in the same issue, he appears in the story "Scrambled Eggs." He is depicted as the ancestor of Universo in the one-shot Batman '66 Meets the Legion of Super-Heroes.
He appears as Professor Egghead in Gotham Academy #14.
In the DC Rebirth reboot, Egghead is mentioned by Copperhead and Cheshire as one of the many villains who have made a failed attempt to kill Batman for Two-Face.
