George Barris was an American custom-car designer and builder best known for creating some of the most famous vehicles in television and film history. Born in Chicago in 1925, he moved to Southern California as a child and became one of the central figures in postwar hot-rod and custom-car culture. Through Barris Kustom Industries, he and his collaborators designed and modified cars that became pop-culture icons, including the 1966 Batmobile, the Munsters Koach, the Beverly Hillbillies jalopy and numerous other vehicles for movies, television and celebrity clients. Barris was closely associated with Culver City, where he remembered cruising and customizing cars in the 1940s and 1950s and where later generations celebrated him through the annual George Barris Culver City Car Show.

Barris began customizing cars as a teenager and, with his brother Sam, helped define the look of Southern California custom-car culture after World War II. By the 1950s and 1960s his work had become increasingly visible in Hollywood, where custom vehicles were in demand for studios, television productions and promotional events. He rose to national prominence through a series of highly recognizable creations, especially the Batmobile, which he built from the Lincoln Futura concept car for the 1966 Batman television series. In later years Barris remained a popular public figure at car shows and community events, including repeated appearances in Culver City, where the local show founded in 2004 was named in his honor. He died in 2015 at the age of 89, but his name remains closely linked with both Hollywood car design and Culver City’s celebration of custom-car culture.

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