NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Conroy, the prolific voice actor whose gravelly delivery on “Batman: The Animated Series" was — for many Batman fans — the definite sound of the Caped Crusader, has died at 66.

Conroy died Thursday after a battle with cancer, series producer Warner Bros. announced Friday.

Conroy was the voice of Batman on the acclaimed animated series that ran from 1992-1996, often acting opposite Mark Hamill's Joker. Conroy continued on as the almost exclusive animated voice of Batman, including some 15 films, 400 episodes of television and two dozen videogames, including the “Batman: Arkham” and “Injustice” franchises.

In the eight-decade history of Batman, no one played the Dark Knight more.

“For several generations, he has been the definitive Batman,” Hamill in a statement. “It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the exact right guy for the right part, and the world was better for it."

“He will always be my Batman,” Hamill said.

Conroy's popularity with fans made him a sought-after personality on the comic-con circuit. In the often tumultuous world of DC Comics, Conroy was a mainstay and widely beloved. In a statement, Warner Bros. Animation said Conroy's performance “will forever stand among the greatest portrayals of the Dark Knight in any medium.”

“Kevin brought a light with him everywhere, whether in the recording booth giving it his all or feeding first-responders during 9/11 or making sure every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman," said Paul Dini, producer of the animated show. ”A hero in every sense of the word."

Born in in Westbury, New York, and raised in Westport, Connecticut, Conroy started out as well-trained theater actor. He attended Julliard and roomed with Robin Williams. After graduating, he toured with John Houseman's acting group, the Acting Company. He performed in “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at the Public Theater and in “Eastern Standard" on Broadway. At the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, he performed in “Hamlet.”

The 1980s production of “Eastern Standard," in which Conroy played a TV producer secretly living with AIDS, had particular meaning to him. Conroy, who was gay, said at the time he was regularly attending funerals for friends who died of AIDS. He poured out his anguish nightly on stage.

In 1980, Conroy moved to Los Angeles, began acting in soap operas and booked appearances on TV series including “Cheers," “Tour of Duty” and “Murphy Brown.” In 1991, when casting director Andrea Romano was scouting her lead actor for “Batman: The Animated Series,” she went through hundreds of auditions before Conroy came in. He was there on a friend's recommendation — and cast immediately.

Conroy began the role without any background in comics and as a novice in voice acting. His Batman was husky, brooding and dark. His Bruce Wayne was light and dashing. His inspiration for the contrasting voices, he said, came from the 1930s film, “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” about an English aristocrat who leads a double life.

“It’s so much fun as an actor to sink your teeth into,” Conroy told The New York Times in 2016. “Calling it animation doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like mythology.”

As Conroy's performance evolved over the years, it sometimes connected to his own life. Conroy described his own father as an alcoholic and said his family disintegrated while he was in high school. He channeled those emotions into the 1993 animated film “Mask of the Phantasm,” which revolved around Bruce Wayne's unsettled issues with his parents.

“Andrea came in after the recording and grabbed me in a hug,” Conroy told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Andrea said, ‘I don’t know where you went, but it was a beautiful performance.’ She knew I was drawing on something.”

Conroy is survived by his husband, Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy and brother Tom Conroy.

In “Finding Batman,” released earlier this year, Conroy penned a comic about his unlikely journey with the character and as a gay man in Hollywood.

“I've often marveled as how appropriate it was that I should land this role,” he wrote. “As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in a devoutly Catholic family, I’d grown adept at concealing parts of myself.”

The voice that emerged from Conroy for Batman, he said, was one he didn't recognize — a voice that “seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning."

“I felt Batman rising from deep within."

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck said "I do" again this weekend.But instead of in a late-night Las Vegas drive-through chapel, this time it was in front of friends and family in Georgia, a person close to the couple who was not authorized to speak publicly said Sunday.According to People Magazine, the wedding was held at Affleck's home outside of Savannah, Georgia, with all of their kids present for the proceedings on Saturday.The celebrity couple was officially married last month in Las Vegas, which Lopez shared with fans in her "On the J Lo" newsletter."Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient," Lopez wrote last month, signing off as Jennifer Lynn Affleck.Lopez, 53, and Affleck, 50, famously dated in the early 2000s. They starred together in 2003's "Gigli" and 2004's "Jersey Girl" and became engaged but didn't wed at the time.Paparazzi has feverishly trailed the couple since they rekindled their romance last year, from the earliest stages of the courtship to their red carpet debut at last year's Venice International Film Festival and their recent honeymoon in Paris.Representatives for the couple did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

After weeks of smooching on yachts and holding hands on intimate walks, Jennifer Lopez and old flame turned new again Ben Affleck made it official Friday night on the red carpet for the premiere of Affleck's "The Last Duel" at the Venice International Film Festival.

She was dripping in Cartier diamonds in a white mermaid body hugging gown with plunging neckline and high side slit by Georges Hobeika. He was dapper in a black Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo. There were plenty of kisses and hugs for the cameras after a summer of love for the two, who rekindled their romance in May, 17 years after they broke up in 2004.

They were spotted out and about in Venice before their formal coming out. At the premiere, the 49-year-old Affleck waved to the crowd as he helped Lopez, 52, out of a black car and onto the red carpet.

For weeks the two haven't been shy about PDA after coming back together not long after Lopez's coming apart with Alex Rodriguez. Affleck's divorce from Jennifer Garner was finalized in 2018.

Throughout the summer, they were photographed on a yacht off Saint-Tropez, cuddling on a walk in the Hamptons and nuzzling over sushi in Malibu.

Ridley Scott's medieval drama "The Last Duel" also reunites Affleck and Matt Damon, with some Adam Driver thrown in.