Leslie H. Martinson was a film and television director who logged more than 200 credits over the course of a career spanning more than three decades. In addition to episodes of dozens of TV series — including two installments of Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward — his notable projects included the 1966 feature film Batman: The Movie.
The Boston native got his start working for the Boston Free Trade and later moved to Los Angeles, where found a job at MGM Studios. There, he was a script supervisor on such films as Easter Parade and The Pirate.
He began his directing career in television, during the live production era, on shows such as General Electric Theater, Chevron Theatre and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse. In the years that followed he also directed episodes of The Roy Rogers Show, Colt .45, Maverick, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Run for Your Life, Cheyenne, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Ironside, Mission: Impossible, Love, American Style, The Brady Bunch, Room 222, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Quincy, Dallas, CHiPS, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Diff'rent Strokes, Small Wonder and many others.
In addition to Batman: The Movie, his feature credits included PT109, Lad: A Dog, The Atomic Kid, For Those Who Think Young and Mrs. Polifax, Spy.
His professional accolades included the Golden Gryphon Award from the Giffoni Film Festival for Batman, and a Golden Boot Award for his work in the Western genre.
Martinson died on September 3, 2016. He was 101 years old.