Frank Gorshin, who died Tuesday at age 71, was most famous for his Emmy-nominated role as the Riddler, one of Batman’s archenemies in the camp 1960s television series.

Gorshin had a lengthy show-business career, starting with appearances in B-movies like “Hot Rod Girl” (1956) and “Invasion of the Saucer Men” (1957), but it was as a nightclub impressionist that he had his first real success. Appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” – including one in 1964 that also featured the Beatles and the Broadway cast of “Oliver!” – helped make his name known nationally.

Gorshin’s striking appearance on Batman, clad in a question-mark pocked green suit and a bowler, laughing maniacally as he spread riddles about his crimes amid fashionable pop-art sets, made him famous enough to headline in Las Vegas.

Gorshin’s act consisted mainly of impressions of Hollywood stars – he was famous for his Burt Lancaster and his Marlon Brando. When he was young, he was a ringer for Richard Widmark, and once on a film set did his Widmark for Widmark. “When I finished he said, ‘It’s like looking in a mirror,’ ” Gorshin told gossip queen Hedda Hopper in 1964.

Although often billed as the “man of 100 faces,” or even once as the “mimic of 1,000 faces,” Gorshin insisted that he never had more than 40 impressions in his repertoire. From early in his career, he bridled at being described as a mimic, preferring to think of himself as a performer who happened to do impressions.

Despite appearing in 70 films and making numerous television guest appearances, he was unable to break through into dramatic acting until near the end of his career. Ironically, George Burns had never been in Gorshin’s repertoire, but the one-man show “Say Goodnight Gracie” was among Gorshin’s finest moments. After debuting in Florida in 2000, the show played 364 performances on Broadway, beginning in October 2002. Gorshin then toured with the show.

“George Burns in his death has given me a new lease on life,” Gorshin said, wrapping up a national tour of the show in Memphis, Tenn., just a month ago.

Gorshin grew up in Pittsburgh, where his father was a railroad worker and his mother, a seamstress. Gorshin credited his abilities in mimicry to multiple viewings of classic films while working as an usher during high school. Some of his heroes from that time – James Cagney, Peter Lorre, and Al Jolson – stayed in his act so long that a critic from the Bergen Record recently complained that his act at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City “is as current as a Confederate dollar bill.”

After serving in an entertainment unit in the Army during the Korean War, Gorshin made his way to Hollywood. A poor flyer, he decided to drive, and after 39 straight hours, fell asleep at the wheel, crashed, and was critically injured. Once recovered, he quickly found minor roles in B-movies while honing his nightclub act. In 1959, he appeared in the musical “Bells Are Ringing,” directed by Vincent Minelli, and he soon found a number of supporting roles. It may have been his appearance as Iggy the bank robber in “That Darn Cat!” (1965) that got him the role of the Riddler in “Batman.” A constant stream of nightclub engagements and guest appearances on variety shows stretched through the following decades.

In 1969, Gorshin took his first starring role on Broadway, in “Jimmy,” a musical about New York’s scandalous mayor of the 1920s, Jimmy Walker. Clive Barnes praised Gorshin’s “nervy, driven vitality” and compared him to Cagney (high praise!), but the show closed after a few weeks. Gorshin later appeared in numerous other touring theatrical shows, including “Peter Pan,” “Death Trap,” and “What Makes Sammy Run?”

Gorshin’s career had declined to some extent before George Burns’s convenient expiration. While still appearing at casinos, his movie work had reverted to titles like “Hollywood Vice Squad” (1986) and “Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers” (1989). Exceptions included a small part as a psychiatrist in “Twelve Monkeys”(1995) and vocal work as the “Reverend Jack Cheese” on the Nickelodeon cartoon series “The Ren & Stimpy Show.”

He never stopped working, but said he didn’t mind that Jim Carrey had taken his role in “Batman Forever” (1995). Asked how Mr. Carrey’s performance stacked up, Gorshin said, “I didn’t see the movie. I don’t want to see anything that I’m not in. All I can think is, ‘I can do that too.’ “

Frank Gorshin

Born April 5, 1934, in Pittsburgh; died May 17 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif.; he was ill with lung cancer, emphysema, and pneumonia; survived by his wife of 48 years, Christina, a son, and a sister.