The worst news, he was the iconic batman

I'm not sure where you are going with this...
it's terrible that he was the iconic Batman
or it's terrible that he died and was the iconic Batman?

Christopher Reeve was also the iconic Superman although the movies were pretty bad.
- Well, the first one was corny but was still an okay movie.

Brandon Routh could have been an iconic Superman but Return of Superman was NOT a good movie. Routh had the same kind of "innocence" in some ways that Reeve gave to the role.

He was the actor who defined batman in my view, and maybe specifically for people who grew up on TAS.

When TAS started, the only other batman we had was Keaton. Conroy held the role for longer than any other actor and had more "screen time" (voice time?) than all of the others. Also to your point, not only was he great in the role, but TAS was highly acclaimed and had a huge fan following. Even the spin offs and movies had some great ones among them.

Not to forget that he was in the Arkham game series too, which isn't a common thing - for an actor to also play the character they're known for in a game that has very little to do with the series/movies. Those games were also highly acclaimed

That's why I think he was an icon.

It's terrible that he died, not just because he was so good, but he did seem like a good person as well. 66 seems too young, somehow

Okay.. the original phrasing kind of confused me but well put.

I was reading an interview with her. She was talking about roles and something her mother had said to her. She had told her no matter what she did for the rest of her life when she died she would always be "The Girl who died in Psycho."
There are roles that define an actor.
It may not be the biggest role or the best role but that's who they are remembered for. That's who they really are to us.
I think she was also being a bit ironic in telling the interview this story.
For her it's always going to be Halloween.
Conroy spent SO MUCH time bringing what he had to both Batman and also just as much Bruce Wayne. When he's talked about and remembered it always cycled back to Batman.
THat's leaving your mark.