The Life and Tragic Death of ‘Superman’ Star George Reeves — Plus the Actor in His Own Words

Family Background

He was born George Keefer Brewer on January 5, 1914 in Woolstock, Iowa to Donald Carl Brewer and Helen Lescher early on in their marriage. Shortly after his birth, they separated, with George and his mother moving to Illinois. Eventually they ended up in California where she met and married Frank Joseph Bessolo, who adopted George in 1927. George, in turn, took his new father’s last name. As noted by Wikipedia, “The Bessolo marriage lasted 15 years, ending in divorce, with the couple separating while Reeves was away visiting relatives. When he returned, his mother told him his stepfather had committed suicide.”

The Truth Revealed

As Jim Nolt says, “George found himself under the sole care of his mother, who, it was often said, was slightly doting and overprotective.” Even worse, it wasn’t until he was eventually enrolled at Pasadena Junior College that he discovered that Bessolo wasn’t his actual father. “My mother is a real pixie,” he related with affection to The New York Sun in 1943. “It was during spring housecleaning, with everything all torn up, that I came across a picture of a good-looking guy, a big fellow, and idly asked who that was. Mother said, ‘Oh, that’s your father,’ and then stopped dead when she realized what she’d said. Well, I went right after her. I wanted to know who he was and all about it.

“Then,” he added, “I learned she was 16 when I was born, that she divorced him before I was a year old and that when she married Bessolo, he adopted me. I’ve never seen my father or heard of him. Don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. But Bessolo was a grand fellow, never had said a word about the adoption to me. I thought I was Italian, little Georgie Bessolo, who talked Italian and Spanish with the other Bessolos and ate spaghetti, and all of the rest of it. And then I found out I was Irish. All Irish.”

From Boxing to Acting

Michael Hyde, author of Flights of Fantasy: The Unauthorized but True Story of Radio & TV’s Adventures of Superman, says, “Growing up in Pasadena, and attending its community college, George was undoubtedly aware of the drama students who moved on to the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Once he made his decision to try acting, he enrolled there. Hollywood talent scouts were always in attendance, and after a few years of ‘seasoning,’ he got his break.”

“George was a boxer in high school, on a Golden Gloves trajectory,” notes Gary Grossman. “He was doing well, but from what I understand his mother said, ‘You have too pretty a face to keep doing this.’ Instead he went to the Pasadena Playhouse and began taking classes. He became secretary to the director there and that got him to travel a little bit.”

The Pasadena Community Playhouse

Michael adds, “Reeves was both gregarious and drawn to physical activity. When boxing didn’t work out, acting was a way for him to engage in something physically strenuous and also draw upon his natural charm. Plus, he was blessed with an exceptional memory, making it easy to remember lines.”

George told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I went over to the Community Playhouse in Pasadena just to learn how to get on and off a stage. I wound up staying there for five years and became a Shakespearean actor.” He added to the Schenectady Gazette, “We were thinking about stage contracts,” he said. “The movies seemed too far away. We all had our eyes on Broadway.”

His 10-Year Marriage

Before moving on in his career, it’s important to mention the one aspect of George Reeves’ life that seems to have been lost to time, which is the fact that between 1940 and 1950 he was married to fellow Pasadena Playhouse actress Ellanora Needles. Jim Nolt points out that he himself spoke with her several times and that she always had positive things to say about George. “Practically to the level of praising him,” he notes. “By all accounts they had a good marriage for most of the years they were together, but according to Ellanora, she left him when they lost some money on an investment and someone richer came along and ‘swept me off my feet.’ She was not proud of that, but those were her words. George was deeply hurt and preferred not to talk about Ellanora after that.”

‘Gone With the Wind’

George’s first onscreen role was in Gone with the Wind (not a bad way to start), as Stuart Tarleton in a short sequence early on the film. Once he was hired, he had to have his hair dyed, a point that he signed an agreement for. On June 20, 1939, he signed a letter which read, in part, “In consideration of your paying me $108.34, which payment shall be made at the completion of the services referred to below, I agree to have my hair dyed in such manner as you may deem necessary in connection with my services in the photoplay Gone With the Wind, and I hereby release you from any and all liability that may arise by reason of such dying of my hair…”

What’s Your Name?

Not only did George lose control of his hair color, but his name as well. Going under contract at Warner Bros, the studio decided he needed to change his surname. Bill Herbert of Selznick International — producers of the film — sent out a memorandum on June 22 stating, “The name of George Bessolo, who plays ‘Brent Tarleton’ in Gone With the Wind, has been changed by Warner Bros to whom he is now under contract, to George Reeves.”

Getting the Attention of Hollywood

After Gone With the Wind, George had returned to the Pasadena Playhouse, where he scored his biggest role to date: The lead in a play called Poncho, in which he used a Mexican accent. After the first night, he had offers for tests from Paramount, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox. Warner Bros tested him first and signed him immediately. “George had leading man good looks in a Warner Bros way,” points out Gary Grossman. “I say that because his first contract was with them and he was in a series of shorts, but then put into a bunch of James Cagney movies. With his jaw and his nose — his broken nose from boxing — he kind of fit in with the tough guys from the Warner Bros stock company, whether it was Cagney and Bogey and George Raft and others.”

George’s Pre-War Films

For the next two years he played minor roles in some of the bigger pictures at the studio and leads in a few of the minor pictures. In addition to a few short subjects, he appeared in State Cop, Ride, Cowboy, Ride; Till We Meet Again, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone, Calling All Husbands, Always a Bride and Strawberry Blonde. He was also “loaned out” for the Ritz Brothers film Argentina Nights. Despite all this, those two years didn’t do a lot to advance his career and he remained a relative unknown in the business. His contract with Warner Bros dissolved by mutual consent, and he signed a new one with Fox — which didn’t really work out much better. This despite the fact he played the lead in Man at Large and Blue, White and Perfect. A small part in Blood and Sand followed, during which he was borrowed by United Artists for Lydia. His contract ended uneventfully, which led him to a particular conclusion about his career.

Go West(ern) Young Man

In an interview with the Schenectady Gazette he said, “I decided that I knew about horses even if I didn’t know how to get ahead in Hollywood. So I thought I’d get me a job in Westerns. Anyhow, I knew a swell girl, Tedi Sherman, who’d studied at Pasadena. She introduced me to her father, Harry. He put me to work in a beard as a villain. I did everything around that lot. And finally there was an opening in the Hopalong Cassidy leads; I became one of the trio which carries the pictures. It was fine. It was fun.”

‘Hopping’ to a New Phase

How he came to Harry’s attention was interesting: the filmmaker was planning on giving his daughter a film test to see if she could play the heroine in the Hopalong Cassidy films. He asked George if he wanted to make the test with Teddi, which he did — and which worked out fortuitously for him. The testing script given them was seven full pages of dialogue between them. The duo decided that since Harry was gambling on them, they could make a good impression if they did the whole thing in one take without stopping; it would save money and time. They did it, much to everyone’s amazement. As a result, Teddi was cast and George was put under contract. Small roles led to bigger ones in the Hopalong Cassidy series. This, in turn, led to him co-starring with Claudette Colbert in So Proudly We Hail! and Paramount deciding to sign him up for two films a year.

War, From Reel to Real

While So Proudly We Hail! seemed to signify a true launch for George’s acting career, in early 1943 he decided to put it on hold by enlisting in the U.S. Army. “I guess it was the picture,” he admitted to The New York Sun at the time. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind.” He enlisted under his own name and didn’t bring up the fact that he was an actor. “You know how people feel about actors. I didn’t ask for special duty; so I went right along with the others. That was fine for a while. Then one of the men saw me in a picture and everyone asked why I hadn’t told them I was an actor. That was fine, too, except that they began giving me special duty work as an actor. I’d do my regular job in the daytime and often give a show at night. It could have been all right, except that I couldn’t do both jobs well, so I asked that I be assigned to either one; wherever I fit best. But it’s all strictly G.I. with no one getting any publicity.”

All This and World War II

Gary Grossman points out a different series of events, commenting, “George didn’t go into the infantry, he went into the entertainment corps and traveled with various shows. What happened, though, is that when he came back three years later, the movie industry had changed. People were not picking up contracts. This is from Jack Larson but, according to George, when he was loaned to Fox for So Proudly We Hail!, which also starred Claudette Colbert, director/producer Mark Sandrich took a real liking to him. This was before he went into the service, but Mark died and George said if Mark had stayed alive, he promised he would make George a star. So George came back from the war and things had changed. When he came back, he’d end up in B movies, playing bad guys and good guys, and it was like he had gone back to the beginning in a way.”

New Challenges

Observes Jim Nolt, “After the war and with each passing year, it seemed the roles George was offered became less. By 1949 he was cast as Sir Galahad in Sam Katzman’s low budget Columbia serial, The Adventures of Sir Galahad.”

Financially George was taking a hit, which resulted in his making extra cash by digging cesspools. In an interview with the Long Beach Press-Telegram, he admitted, “I’m not one of these four-figures-a-week actors. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to be. I can live on what I make, if I work regularly. But when five months go by and no movie job comes up, you begin to worry a little. Especially if you have a wife to support and a one-acre estate to pay for.”

Digging In

He also explained how he got into this particular line of work, noting that his plumbing backed up and he called “the boys” saying he needed a new cesspool. When told the price would be $150, George offered to serve as an assistant, saving $20. Over the course of that week he learned a lot and then it turned out his neighbor needed a new cesspool. George offered to dig it for $100. More followed as he waited for acting roles. “I’m not worrying,” he said. “More and more people are moving out our way, and they all need cesspools.”

To New York and Back Again

“In truth,” Michael Hayde emphasizes, “he was struggling. Up to mid-1949, he had been under contract to three major studios, all of which had released him. And he had done a lot of freelancing. In late summer of that year, he tried New York City in hopes of being cast in a Broadway show, but his work there consisted of live television dramas and occasional radio programs. When he returned to Hollywood in April 1951, it was specifically to appear as a supporting player in Fritz Lang’s Rancho Notorious. That was immediately followed by another supporting role in Bugles in the Afternoon. It’s possible that he could’ve gone on to become a stock character actor for one or two directors like Lang, but leading roles and stardom were unlikely.”

Things Start to Turn Around

When the decision was made to produce the syndicated series Adventures of Superman, George auditioned for and was cast as the Man of Steel, the idea being he would appear in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, which would become a two-part episode of the series. “When he took on the role of Superman,” reflects Jim Nolt, “and with few exceptions, his movie career came to an end. Ironically, it was during these years portraying this strange visitor from another planet, that the caring, compassionate and human side of George Reeves became most evident.”

Bringing Superman to Life

“He was a journeyman actor with a pleasant, charming presence,” muses Michael Hayde, “but in all the films he did before Superman, it could hardly be said that he lit up the screen. Like William Shatner the following decade, he won a role that would bring out the best of his looks, his ability and especially his personal warmth. More than one newspaper critic pointed out that Reeves looked almost exactly like his comic book counterpart as he was then being drawn. That might’ve led viewers to their TV sets the first time, but it was Reeves’ personality, plus the chemistry of the rest of the cast, that brought them back. Jimmy Fidler, a Hollywood columnist, summed it up best back in 1954. Noting that Reeves had appeared in Gone With the Wind, he added, ‘Nobody noticed George at that time, but as the fabulous Superman on the air waves, he’s kicking up a lot of dust.’”

‘Welcome to the Bottom of the Barrel!’

That phrase above — uttered to actress Phyllis Coates, who was playing reporter Lois Lane — was George’s initial response to accepting the role of Superman, although it was obvious that for a time he came to appreciate it and the fact that it was so important to the (perceived young) audience who was watching him. Initially he was admittedly reluctantly to take on the part, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “I said, ‘Superman, what’s that?’ I’d heard of the comic strip, but that’s all I knew. Then I said, ‘Why not?’ and went to work. We made a batch of 25 pictures and it got to be fun. Now it’s a whole career.” He added to The Washington Free Press, “You have to get used to being laughed at and have to laugh at yourself a little. At first I wasn’t too sure [about doing the show], but any actor likes his own series, though it means identification with one character. So I took the job and the show has grown like Topsy.”

“It’s sort of a fairy tale,” George said of Superman to the Press-Telegram Long Beach. Sort of St. George and the Dragon all over again.”

Born to Fly

“Although it was a role he seemed born to play,” Jim Nolt suggests “it must have been difficult for him to spend his working days in the dual role of Clark Kent and Superman from 1951 until 1957. He so often climbed into the flying rig, jumped off ladders and out of windows, collared crooks and saved the entire city of Metropolis from a multitude of close calls. The hours were long, the pay was short and undoubtedly it was not satisfying professionally.”

Embracing the Positive

During shooting of Superman and the Mole Men in 1951, George told the Independent Long Beach, “Our idea is to give the children good entertainment without all the guts and blood and gore. We think the series should teach them something, too. That’s why I decided to do this.” To TV Radio Life he added, “In Superman we’re all concerned with giving kids the right kind of show. We don’t go for too much violence. Once, for a big fight scene, we had several of the top wrestlers in town do the big brawl. It was considered too rough by the sponsors and producers, so it was toned down. Our writers and the sponsors have children and they are all very careful about doing things on the show that will have no adverse effect on the young audience. We even try, in our scripts, to give gentle messages of tolerance and to stress that a man’s color and race and religious beliefs should be respected.”

‘Fists and Fury’

Making Adventures of Superman more kid friendly stemmed from the approach taken for the first season and a half or so, where it’s a fairly dark and violent show. Things would eventually change when the show went to color, with the scripts being geared more for kids and Phyllis Coates replaced by Noel Neill as Lois Lane. “As I got older, I saw how George Reeves brought the character to life in those early episodes,” says Michael Hayde, “and if there’s any drawback to them, it’s that Superman is all fists and fury and a serious demeanor. And later on Reeves got to bring more of himself into the role and became more of a personality and less the super traffic cop.”

Gary Grossman points out, “Part of the story of Superman was the creation of children’s television, although certainly the first two seasons of The Adventures of Superman really never felt like a kid’s show. It was more of an outgrowth of what the radio show was, which was a crime show. And if you accept this guy flying through the air and doing super feats, you might as well build a good crime story on it. And that’s what those black and white episodes were really all about: an outgrowth of the radio show, with many of the scripts being adaptations of the radio show in those days, too.”

Importance of the Children

One of George’s great interests at the time of the series was working with underprivileged kids, sponsoring, along with his friends Henrietta and Natividad Vacio, the Mambo Club. “About two years ago,” he related to TV Radio Life in a 1954 interview, “when I was in motion pictures, Natividad, who is a close friend of mine, was telling me about the youngsters at the school. He mentioned that no one ever came to see them — no one of any kind of prominence, that is — so he asked if I would come over and talk to them. I said I’d be glad to. I spoke the Spanish language, which is probably unique for an Irishman like myself. Anyway, I brought my guitar along and Natty and I not only talked to the boys and girls, but we also put on a show for them.”

Growing Crowds

“From that moment on,” he continued, “I became interested in these young people. Recently, I was supposed to attend a meeting of the club — and there was some interest among the boys and girls in seeing Superman. Since there were about 150 in the club, I was totally unprepared for the mob that greeted me when I went to the school. There were about 3,000 children waiting for me. I managed to get to the recreation hall and I talked to them until the police finally had to come and send the kids home. There was just too much of a mob to handle.” Which was nothing compared to the thousands of kids who would come out to greet him at public appearances.

The Challenges of Stardom

In that same interview, George related that kids’ most frequent questions were in regards to his flying sequences. To the older kids he would explain that the flying sequences were achieved through an “elaborate rig” rather than wires. “We discarded wires when I fell 30 feet once,” George said. “As for my jumps, which I’m always taking, I explained that they were done with the help of a springboard from which I took my dives. I didn’t say that I usually land in a net. Occasionally I miss the net, but there are always two or three Supermans warming up in case I don’t come out of a dive too well. I do all my own stunts, which consists of going through windows and walls and, of course, jumping. The highest jump I ever did was 20 feet. To keep physically fit, I do tumbling and calisthenics, primarily to learn how to fall without being hurt.”

He was equally concerned about the image of Superman being hurt as well, telling the St. Louis Post Dispatch, “The burden is not a light one. In fact, it’s a frightening responsibility. I can never go in a bar or smoke a cigarette, because Superman doesn’t do those things. And I can’t get in arguments in public. And like champion prizefighters, I’m always beset by some character who wants to boast that he took a poke at Superman.”

His Connection With the Audience

Whatever misgivings George may have had early on, his appeal in the role is absolutely undeniable, whether you were a first generation viewer or not. “I think one of the big strengths was his portrayal of Clark,” suggests Steve Younis, who runs the Supermanhomepage, the most popular site in the world devoted to the Man of Steel. “Clark Kent was obviously the dominant character in that series. Superman would show up to save the day, but Clark was doing the investigating and had the relationship with Lois and Jimmy, and then Perry White. I guess Clark almost played a father figure role, not just in the way the viewers of the show saw him, but the characters of the show too. He was that guy that was looking out for everybody. He was just kind of endearing.”

The Wink

Jim Hambrick, who runs the Super Museum in Metropolis, Illinois (yes, that’s a real place), reflects, “George Reeves was like a surrogate father to a lot of people. When I got my museum out there, I was able to see exactly what that means, not just because of people’s reactions, but the fact that they noticed things like the wink of the eye he gave them and the different things that George was able to put across with very little effort. There was a trust there: ‘You know who I am, we’ll keep it our secret.’ That kind of thing that really drove the show. The flying wires and all of that didn’t mean nothing. We didn’t care about the special effects; we were just into that character.”

Super Sincerity

“I think I can speak for most of those who love the series and love George Reeves when I say that the reason he stands out from all the others who have worn the cape is his sincerity in the role,” opines Jim Nolt. “He exhibits no bluster, no false bravado. He is supposedly the strongest man in the world, yet he takes time to cure a girl’s blindness and to take a girl stricken with polio for an exciting flight above the city. Of course we know it’s the writers who created those scenarios, but no one could have carried them off better than George.”

‘Panic in the Sky’: A Showcase for George

One of the strongest episodes of Adventures of Superman is “Panic in the Sky,” in which Superman’s attempts to stop an asteroid on a collision course with Earth results in it locking into orbit, and him returning without his memory. The problem is that the asteroid is still a threat, and only the Man of Steel can place an explosive device on it to knock the deadly stone out of orbit. “Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in the movie serials, wanted to do the TV series, but he was never really considered,” Gary Grossman says. “I don’t want to disparage Kirk at all, because he really had a great look for Superman, but George Reeves was a more dynamic actor. We got to see it in ‘Panic in the Sky,’ where he has amnesia and he’s got to play a character who doesn’t know who he is. But then realizes he has these abilities, and whether or not he’s really Superman, he’s going to go out to save the Earth and fulfill his sense of responsibility and duty.”

Lucy Meets Superman

Production of Adventures of Superman was grueling, with two episodes shot a week. By the time the show had reached the fifth season, George was reportedly bored of the scripts, tired of the character and had visibly aged. And yet, in 1957 it was pure magic when he guest-starred — as Superman — on an episode of I Love Lucy. Prior to that, on December 15, 1956, he received a photo request from a fan named Pat, and wrote in response, “Dear Pat, thank you for the recent letter, your kind words about Superman brings joy and happiness to my heart. I am sorry to say, that I have long exhausted my supply of photos. I am in the process of filming a small bit part on a new television sitcom entitled I Love Lucy. I have been told that working with Lucille Ball will definitely keep me on my toes…”

Historic TV Moment

“That show must have been a thrill for him,” says Jim Nolt. “He was on a primetime network show with two of television’s top entertainers. In the episode he’s referred to only as Superman, and to us kids, that’s who he was, yet the writers dropped enough clues to let the adult audience know that ‘Superman’ was an actor. That played perfectly to both audiences. George was a wonderful actor and a warm, friendly person, and that showed through so well in the Lucy episode. And look at Desi Arnaz’ face when George ‘flies’ into the living room from the kitchen. For just a second, Desi looks out to the audience. I think he was as excited as any of the kids in the room.”

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Steve Younis adds, “It worked so well, because he had so much fun with it. And there you got to see the thing about George Reeves: he seems so genuine. He didn’t seem to be acting; he seemed to be genuinely enjoying it. Which was contrary to what you’d hear behind the scenes, where he supposedly said he would like to burn the suit because he hated it. He called it the monkey suit and whatever. And at the end, when he makes that comment to Ricky Ricardo about Lucy, ‘And they call me Superman,’ it kind of breaks the fourth wall. We know what Ricky has to deal with being married to Lucy, but for Superman to be the one to say it is hilarious. He didn’t get to do a lot of comedy on Adventures of Superman, so to be in that situation where the rain’s pouring down on them and Lucy is looking like a drowned rat is just hilarious, and George is able to be standing there, just having fun with it.”

Gary Grossman suggests, “He is just full of this charm and self-effacing joy in the role. You could really see how much he was enjoying it.”

Defining Role

Michael Hayde concedes, “He had amazing charisma in the role, but he’s not a great actor. William Shatner is not a great actor, but nobody else could have played Captain Kirk like William Shatner. It’s the same for me with George Reeves, and even Robert Stack as Elliot Ness in The Untouchables. They’re just people who managed to luck into a role that defines them for generations to come. And the sad thing about his story is that George didn’t live long enough to realize just how important he was to that generation. And it breaks your heart when you know his story and how frustrated he was with being identified as Superman. I don’t know if it would’ve turned into money for him later on, but certainly the love was there. The appreciation was there from the fans, even if he didn’t know it.”

Growing Frustration

For George, the end of Adventures of Superman was on the horizon for him, as he conveyed in that 1955 interview with the Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon. In it, he notes that he would soon go back to make 13 more episodes of the show, bringing the total to 104. “And I think that will be about it,” he said. “They can run for years, for the audience turnover is considerable — new young kids coming up ever year.”

By 1956, you could also see the growing frustration in the way he was treated by others, particularly the media. For instance, in May of that year he had gotten into a car accident, which generated newspaper headlines like “Superman Sues for Damages After Wreck” and “Superman Is Hurt Like Other Mortals.”

‘I’ve Done Other Things!’

In August August 1956 he made an appearance on The Perry Como Show — being hosted by Tony Bennett — to sing accompanied by his guitar. As he pointed out to the Akron Beacon Journal, “You know, some people may not be aware of it, but I’ve done other things besides playing Superman. I wanted to be a singer, but I got my start in Hollywood with Hopalong Cassidy. If you remember those early ‘Hoppy’ movies, I was the kid who used to look at Cassidy and shout, ‘Gee, Hoppy, what’re we gonna do now?’ From that I graduated to roles with Claudette Colbert. When the war came along, I wound up in Moss Hart’s Army production of Winged Victory and in 1946 I went back to Paramount. Except for the Sgt. Stark role in From Here to Eternity and a new part coming up in Walt Disney’s Westward Ho! The Wagons. I haven’t done much else. That’s why I was glad to get this spot with Tony Bennett. It will give me an opportunity to prove again that I haven’t always been Superman.”

At the same time, he was honest with the Kingsport Times in Kingsport, Tennessee, when he said, “Until I got my cape and badge of courage, I was never the height of success.”

His Contract With ‘Superman’ Ends

By December of 1957, word reached the media and the public that George Reeves’ contract for Adventures of Superman had come to an end and that the show itself was drawing to a close. At the time, his attitude seemed to be a fairly healthy one, telling the Los Angeles Times that he hoped to move into directing and, when asked whether or not he had “sold out” by taking on the role of the Man of Steel, replying, “How can a starving actor sell himself out? I wasn’t doing anything when this chance came along. The way I look at it, a working actor is a good actor, no matter what he’s doing.”

He Hoped to Shift to Directing

By June of 1958, it was becoming clear to people that George really wasn’t working much at all. The Meridan Journal interviewed him on the subject. “It’s like Hopalong Cassidy trying to get an acting job in white tie and tails. Producers wouldn’t give me a job. They’d take one look at me and say it was impossible,” George said, noting that the idea of directing appealed to him. “I took over as director on the last 13 Superman segments we made last fall. I did it as sort of a chance, but I was surprised to find out how much I knew. I suppose you ought to absorb some knowledge after being in the business as long as I have. Now I’m enthused about doing more. I’m forming a production company and we plan to make a couple of science fictions features back-to-back. The trick stuff should come easy. We’ve done everything imaginable in the Superman series.”

Fear of the Space Race

The following month to Ohio’s The Lima News, he wondered — and it’s hard to tell if he was joking or not — if the growing space race would actually impact on his image as Superman. “I’m a little worried,” he said. “Things are going great now, because I’m the only star from a star — a planet, really. You’ve heard of Krypton, naturally. It’s out a ways. Things will be fine as long as I’m TV’s only alien from the universe. But strange things are happening. With all this real life space travel talk, next thing you know guys from other planets will be appearing on Top Tunes and New Talent. How will the kids feel about little old me then?”

Times Grow Darker

Adventures of Superman ended its run in 1958 (filming having wrapped the previous year), and George’s professional life was more or less running in place. There just wasn’t a lot happening; projects he’d hoped to develop fell through, there were rumblings of another season of the show going into production (not everyone agrees that that was indeed the case) and he was extremely frustrated. And his personal life was filled with turmoil. Biography describes it this way: “In addition to his professional problems, Reeves was burdened by his relationship with longtime lover Toni Mannix, the common-law wife of Eddie Mannix, vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1958, Reeves began a relationship with a young New York socialite, Leonore Lemmon. When he broke off his romance with Mannix, she was enraged, and began to harass the new couple, causing Reeves to file for a restraining order against his former lover. On June 16, 1959, Reeves was found dead in his bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 45 years old. The police ruled his death a suicide, but rumors quickly surfaced that Reeves was murdered. Although Lemmon and Mannix were both suspected of killing Reeves, no arrests or convictions were made. His death remains shrouded in mystery.” And the debate over it has gone on ever since.

Blame the ‘Jungle’ of Hollywood

The day after George’s death, the Los Angeles Mirror News quotes screenwriter Rip Van Ronkel as saying, “George Reeves had been unhappy because everyone thought of him as Superman, not as an actor. George was not a weak man, but he was soft and sensitive and this jungle we live in out here killed him. They couldn’t make a buck off of him anymore, so they discarded him.” Virtually every headline seemed to add weight to this theory as they announced the fact that “Superman” had killed himself, with George’s name only featured within the body copy.

Bottom Line, George Was Gone

In April 1959, George was involved in a car accident that resulted in a five-inch gash in his forehead, and collapsing at the scene. “George was going through a lot at the time he died,” says Gary Grossman. “[Superman producer] Whitney Ellsworth said he had been in a traffic accident not too much earlier. He loved to drink, but Whitney said he was on these pain killers and really didn’t know what he was doing at the moment. That was the story I believed for a long time, and I think Jack Larson tended to follow that story. But then Jack said ‘No, no, no, I believe he did not take his own life.’ You also have to remember that in those days MGM was a very powerful studio with very powerful tentacles into the LAPD and into the gossip columnists and into the legitimate press. Eddie Mannix was powerful enough to keep stories out of the press. His wife, Toni Mannix, was unhappy. Maybe somebody said something to somebody and somebody did something and that’s what I choose to believe. Leonore Lemmon did do interviews for Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition, and kept to the story about suicide, but there have been reports that Toni Mannix, on her death bed, confessed. I don’t know if that’s true. I will say, though, that George was the first time that I was really aware of somebody dying. I remember the headlines and going to school the next day and we were all shocked, because the headlines were, ‘Superman Kills Self.’”

There’s No Easy Answer

Jim Hambrick notes that he actually worked on the case. “Watch Hollywoodland,” he suggests, “and you’ll see my name as the last credit before it fades to black. I’m the one who investigated the case of whether or not it was suicide or murder. I got involved with the L.A. Police Department and things like that, so I’d have access to the files. I went the whole gambit and was able to extract certain information; driver’s license, plate number and things like that. And this is not an opinion, it’s cold, hard fact. I have an audio confession of the lady that did it. I have morgue photos and everything that goes along with that. I just didn’t want to exploit George and that’s the direction they wanted to go in. There’s a lot that happened during that time period that people don’t know, and that’s too bad. You know what I mean? I’ve had my life threatened several times by the mob and there’s all kinds of things that went on during that time that would have kept anybody from going any further than I did.

“Hearing that George was dead was like when JFK died. It affected me the same way. And it taught me a whole lot about myself; I ran the gambit as far as having balls the size of grapefruits. That’s what it took. I felt obligated, like I was the chosen one that could get this figured out, and I did. I was right.” He doesn’t elaborate on exactly why he won’t go public with the information he has in his possession — presumably tied to the threats he’s received.

The Debate Goes On

Michael Hayde explains, “I went through what everybody goes through, and here’s the progression: You hear that George Reeves shot himself in the head. You go back and scroll through microfilm and through newspapers, which is what I did. Then you start seeing newspaper stories about their being no fingerprints on the gun. Then you see a newspaper story about two additional bullet holes are found and you see a news story about how his mother has raised a probe to find out what really happened. And, of course, you think, ‘Why didn’t I hear about this before?’ Later, stuff comes out about how he was seeing a married woman and then he broke off with her and hooked up with this New York socialite, and the first woman had mob ties back east. So it really got convoluted and there were so many things that didn’t look normal that you start to think something nefarious must have happened. The other thing is that in the newspapers was the report that George’s alcohol level was just under twice the legal limit at the time.”

One Theory

“What I ultimately think happened is that Monday morning or afternoon he found out that Kelloggs was putting up the money to do another batch of episodes and they would be going back into production in September,” he elaborates. “George started ‘celebrating’ fairly early and kept on drinking all day. He and Leonore went out to dinner, words were exchanged apparently, and it got a little uncomfortable. At home, George decided to go to bed and then visitors came over. He drank with them and it just depressed him. He had an alcohol-fueled depression. He had gotten up earlier when he heard he was going to be working again, but he came down from all the alcohol and it just put him in a state of mind where he made a tragic mistake. I also came to that conclusion after seeing actual autopsy photos of the head wounds. There was no possible way that it could be anything other than self-afflicted, because of the way the wound was created around the head.”

Maybe at This Point It Doesn’t Matter

Jim Nolt sounds the most troubled when he considers this subject. “I just don’t know what to think,” he admits. “It pains me to even try. Whatever happened that night was a tragedy. A horrible tragedy. There was a time when I thought he died as the result of an accidental shooting, but I’m not so certain of that anymore. But he wasn’t murdered. I was in that house twice. I was in the bedroom where he died. There is no way anyone could have secretly entered, shot him and escaped without being seen by the people there. But it no longer matters to me. Instead, I want to remember and think about all that George Reeves did while he was alive. I’ve talked to many people who knew him and I’m sure he wasn’t perfect. We all know that. But who among us is?”

The ‘Adventures’ Continue

Adventures of Superman ended its original run more than 60 years ago, yet the impact of the show and George Reeves continues to live on in the hearts of millions. “When I was a child,” says Michael Hayde, “I was just in awe of him. You watched the episodes as a child and you see the moment when he’s taking off his glasses and ducking into the store room and I would start to get goose bumps. It’s the thrill all children get when they’re seeing something that excites them. So in that respect, it’s a lot of what has stayed with me. And, of course, as a child I had a fairly vivid imagination and I’d like to pretend that I was Superman. I would get the costume every year and I would wear it throughout the year. I even got cheap toy sunglasses and popped out the lenses so that I could be Clark Kent.” 

George Reeves biographer Jim Beaver (featured in the podcast at the start of this article, which is also available on iTunes), offers, “He had an innate ability to take seriously something that kids took seriously, and at the same time connected to the audience in a way that let both children and adults feel like they were in on a secret. It was his persona that not only were we privy to his secret identity and all the other secrets that grew out of that dynamic, but that somehow or another we were connected to him and that he knew us. He knew we were out there and he made us feel like we were member of a club that nobody else was privy to.”

“There are a lot of other superheroes and TV heroes who don’t have that,” he closes. “It’s a gift that Reeves had that only a few actors are blessed with. And it doesn’t even have a great deal to do with talent — not that he didn’t have talent. But there are a lot of talented people who can’t do what he did in that role, and that is to connect on a personal level with the audience. And I think that is his legacy.”