Michael Gough, best known around the world for his seminal portrayal of Alfred Pennyworth in Tim Burton’s Batman films, died today at the age of 94.

This isn’t his only connection to geekdom, aside from Hammer Horror films, he also was a regular in non-Batman Tim Burton projects, turning performances in The Corpse Bride and Sleepy Hollow.

For a generation, this was the face of Alfred, Batman’s faithful father figure and Butler and for that he will be recognized forever.

It is fitting that we end this In Memoriam with the poem that Bruce Wayne reads at funerals:

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.