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George Reeves
Age: 45 (passed away Jun. 16th, 1959)
Height: 6'
Birth Place: Woolstock, Iowa, USA
Born: Jan. 5th, 1914
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George Reeves' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: George Reeves was raised in Pasadena, California, and educated at Pasadena Junior College. He was a skilled amateur boxer and musician. He interned as an actor at the famed Pasadena Playhouse, and was discovered there. He was cast as Stuart Tarleton in Gone with the Wind (1939). Over the next ten years he was contracted to Warners, Fox and Paramount. He achieved near-stardom as the male lead in So Proudly We Hail! (1943), but war service interrupted his career, and after he returned it never regained the same level. While in the Army Air Corps he appeared on Broadway in "Winged Victory", then made training films. Career difficulties after the war led him to move to New York for live television. It was television where he achieved the kind of fame that had eluded him in films, as he was cast in the lead of the now-iconic "Adventures of Superman" (1952). He got a few film roles, but he was mostly typecast as Superman, and other acting jobs soon dried up. His career had slid to the point where he was considering an attempt at exhibition wrestling when he committed suicide by shooting himself. Controversy still surrounds his death, due mainly to the fact of his longtime affair with Toni Lanier (aka Toni Mannix), the wife of MGM executive E.J. Mannix. Many of Reeves' friends and colleagues didn't believe that he had committed suicide but that his death was related to the Mannix situation. However, no credible evidence has ever been produced to support that contention.
TRIVIA:
- He was cautious in his interaction with the young children who were fans of the Superman TV series because they often tried to test his "invulnerability" by assaulting him.
- Personally defended 'Noel Neill' (qv) when she replaced 'Phyllis Coates' (qv) as Lois Lane in the second season of the Superman TV series when he felt the director was being too harsh with her. He also defended 'Robert Shayne' (qv), who played Inspector Henderson, when Shayne was accused of being a radical during the 1950s witch hunt and was in danger of losing his job. Producer 'Whitney Ellsworth' (qv) also defended Shayne along with Reeves.
- A false story has circulated that 'George Reeves (I)' (qv) was hired to play detective Milton Arbogast in the movie _Psycho (1960)_ (qv) and filmed a few of his scenes with the rest of the cast just a week before his death. There is no truth to this rumor whatsoever. Reeves died on June 16, 1959, almost two months before 'Alfred Hitchcock (I)' (qv) decided to make a film of "Psycho." Work on the script began in October, 1959, four months after Reeves's death. Filming began in November, 1959, five months after Reeves's death. At the time of Reeves's death, Hitchcock was on a world tour promoting _North by Northwest (1959)_ (qv). (Source: "The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock," by Donald Spoto.) George Reeves did not live long enough to even know a film of _Psycho (1960)_ (qv) was planned, much less actually appear in it.
- Actor 'Jim Beaver (I)' (qv) is at this writing (2006) preparing the definitive biographical book on Reeves's life, and served as historical consultant on the film about Reeves's death, _Hollywoodland (2006)_ (qv).
- A skilled musician, he appeared briefly with his _"Adventures of Superman" (1952)_ (qv) co-star 'Noel Neill' (qv) in a touring county-fair act in which she sang and he played guitar and upright bass, following his performance of a wrestling/judo act as Superman (versus "Mr. Kryptonite," "Gene LeBell").
- Served with actress and friend, 'Virginia Grey' (qv), as chairperson of autograph booth for Fiesta Sunday, a fundraiser for Rancho San Antonio, the Boys Town of the West, Fifth Annual Benefit, sponsored by Knights of Columbus of the Southern California Chapter on September 19, 1954, Chatsworth, California.
- A false story has also circulated that Reeves had signed a five-picture deal with Paramount studios just prior to his death, this given as evidence that his life was on an upbeat and thus, presumably, he could not have been depressed enough to take his own life. Whether he did so or not, there is no truth to the rumor that he had a deal of any size or number of pictures with Paramount or any other studio at the time of his death. Paramount, like all the major studios in the 1950s, was jettisoning actor deals and contracts as quickly as possible in face of the onslaught of television. In 1959, only superstars such as 'John Wayne (I)' (qv) or 'William Holden (I)' (qv) would have been given multi-picture studio contracts. Reeves, whose contract with Paramount had been dropped a few years earlier was, in 1959, a typecast TV kiddie show star who hadn't had a job anywhere in film or television in over two years. It is virtually impossible that he could have achieved such a deal at that point in his life and in the existing studio hierarchy, and indeed Paramount administrative records confirm that no such contract existed.
- Born George Keefer Brewer, but was adopted by step-father and took name George Bessolo, by which he was known until taking the stage name George Reeves in 1939.
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