Patrick Leahy will not seek out re-election. But will he do extra Batman videos?

Yoshiko Yap

Sen. Patrick Leahy, the veteran Democratic lawmaker who informed reporters Monday he will not request re-election in Vermont, retains extraordinary distinctions. He is the longest-serving sitting U.S. senator. He is third in the line of succession to the presidency.

He is also the only member of the U.S. Senate to make cameo appearances in 5 Batman films.

Leahy, who has stated he initially commenced reading through Batman comic textbooks as a younger boy at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, produced his first Batman movie cameo 26 a long time back in “Batman Forever” (1995), starring Val Kilmer.

Sen. Patrick Leahy reads a compilation of Batman comics at his place of work on Capitol Hill in 2017.Mari Matsuri / AFP through Getty Illustrations or photos

The similar yr, Leahy voiced a character in “Batman: The Animated Collection,” a well-liked exhibit that place a darker spin on Gotham City’s masked crusader.

Leahy went on to show up in “Batman & Robin” (1997), “The Darkish Knight” (2008), “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016).

In that final movie, he played a character named Senator Purrington and acted together with Holly Hunter.

“The Darkish Knight” gave Leahy his juiciest job exterior Capitol Hill — as very well as his most cherished Batman cameo, in accordance to David Carle, Leahy’s press secretary.

Leahy reveals up in the seminal Christopher Nolan thriller as a sharply dressed partygoer who confronts Heath Ledger’s Joker and suggests, “We’re not intimidated by thugs.”

“You know,” Ledger’s Joker famously responds, “you remind me of my father. I hated my father.” The Joker then menaces Leahy’s character with a knife.

Leahy has praised Ledger, who died right before “The Darkish Knight” strike theaters and received a posthumous Oscar for his occupation-defining overall performance.

“He frightened the heck out of me, when he arrived at me with the knife,” Leahy informed the political publication Roll Contact. “I didn’t have to act.”

Leahy, paying tribute to the put that initial led him to the Batman comedian books, donates his cameo costs and royalty payments to his hometown Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, Carle confirmed.

He has also composed the introductions to two DC Comics anthologies.

It was not instantly very clear what Leahy’s departure from the Senate suggests for his sideline gig as a film actor.

He explained to the Burlington No cost Push last yr that he “failed to even look for to be in” the future Batman franchise reboot starring Robert Pattinson.

“I have much too a lot of other issues likely on with Covid, with appropriation costs,” Leahy informed the newspaper in August 2020.

But what about potential installments?

“We are going to see,” Leahy’s push secretary stated in an e-mail.

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