I have difficulty picking between Bale and Keaton, but lean towards Bale in Batman Begins.
I will, for sure, side with everyone who is saying that Kevin Conroy is the best.
- Conroy
- Bale
- Keaton
- West (and I do love 1960’s Batman- greatest line ever, “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb”)
5 (tie). Clooney and Kilmer. I think that the crap movies they are associated with are a big part of the problem for them…
I honestly don’t think it’s fair to compare them all, because they were attempting such different things. West & Clooney in pretty much the same camp style; Bale, Kilmer, & Keaton were much heavier on the brooding, but the movies had such different emphases that it seems pointless to compare. I’m not willing to say anything more than that Keaton was better than Kilmer.
Except that Keaton wasn’t playing the suave Bruce. He was playing the doofus Bruce, which is a valid interpretation. And his pause isn’t even unreasonable. He was surprised that neither of them recognized him as the owner of the house, which I can easily believe. If Bill Gates walks into a Starbucks in Seattle, I’m sure the baristas write “Bill” on his cup without having to ask his name, and Bruce Wayne would be similarly well-known in Gotham.
I pretty much echo the OP.
However, and maybe this isn’t quite the place for it (I don’t want to hijack), but I’ve heard much about Kevin Conroy both here and other places. I’ll check the youtube video posted upthread, but why exactly is Conroy so great?
You have to see more than just that clip. Rent a Batman the Animated Series DVD. Watch a few episodes from the first season, he was great. He makes Batman expressive, rather than just ominous. Plus he sounds like what I have always thought Batman should sound like.
Rachel Weisz is by far my favorite Catwoman.
Because that is exactly what Batman would sound like.
Conroy does what Bale tries and fails to the point of hilarity to do, which is sound menacing, and he does it effortlessly. Conroy’s Batman has a bite to his voice that is terrifying but is able to be apporpriately soft when addressing, say, Robin or Catwoman.
My favorite Batman: TAS episode - “Perchance to Dream” (basically Batman’s version of “For the Man Who Has Everything”) - showcases this really well. Conroy does a great job of a mind-controlled Bruce Wayne living an idyllic life who slowly slides into what he thinks is insanity, and then, when awaked, pure, terrifying rage.
He packs more emotion into 20-minute cartoons than any of the live-action actors do over the course of one or more movies. Indeed, his acting was as important to Batman: TAS’ overall aesthetic as the style of animation was. They never found someone as good to do Superman, and his cartoon suffered as a result.
I’d put West and Conroy in a tie for first place, depending on whether you’re looking for the best campy Batman or the best serious Batman. I believe both actors gave extremely entertaining performances that suited the tone of their contexts and media.
I’d rank Kilmer next. I agree with the above poster that he’s underrated and I think he’s the most convincing Bruce Wayne/Batman. I especially liked his archly ironic style of delivery for one-liners. (Sample clunker of a line he rescued: “Try firemen, less to take off.”)
Keaton and Bale both bothered me with their unrepentant seriousness, though I give Bale more of a pass than Keaton. Keaton looked to me like he couldn’t decide whether to play the part campy or straight (like in the aforementioned suit of armor scene), while Bale obviously settled on non-camp.
I can’t judge Clooney because the total suck in the rest of the movie overwhelmed my brain. Though he does get bonus points for being a good sport about it. IIRC, he apologized for the movie many years later saying its failure was all his fault. 
Who the heck wants a doofus Bruce? We get enough of that with Clark Kent.
My sentiment exactly.
I do think that Deidrich Bader deserves some sort of honorable mention, though.
Keaton was a great Bruce Wayne and a terrible Batman. Then again, the same is true for Christian Bale, who is a decent Bruce Wayne and only a slightly bad Batman. The Batman growly snarl while the costume gives him chipmunk cheeks is just kind of silly.
The character of Batman had been established decades before West played him. But unfortunately for many people, the televison series was their first exposure to Batman. So it fixed the character in their mind as a comedic camp figure, which was totally different from the established character. It’s like seeing Hamlet for the first time being played by Robin Williams.
Keaton
Bale
West
Kilmer
Clooney
Lewis Wilson
Robert Lowery
Except we really can’t compare a voice actor to a “real” actor.
Sure you can. You just can’t compare how they handle action sequences. But you can absolutly compair how they use dialogue to create a the persona of the character.
- Bale. No contest.
- Keaton. He had the intensity and acted the part well, but was a poor fit physically.
- Kilmer. Physically not bad, but too young-looking and too androgynous.
- West.
- Clooney.
To be fair, the TV series was made not long after the end of a decade and a half of goofy over-the-top Batman comic books (example: “Batman Becomes Bat-Baby”).
You folks keep forgetting Diedrich Bader, the current Batman. Next to Conroy and West, he has the most suitable Bat-voice of the entire group.
As an incidental note, I’d like to repeat my earlier claim that had the big-screen Batman movie been made in the early eighties, as was the rumor circulating at the time, Rutger Hauer would’ve been megacool at it.
I nominate him if they ever make a film version of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knght Returns or a live-action Batman Beyond.