Biography

George Reeves

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Overview

Born
January 5, 1914 · Woolstock, Iowa, USA
Died
June 16, 1959 · Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (gunshot wound)
Birth name
George Keefer Brewer
Height
6′ 1¾″ (1.87 m)

Biography

George Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, to Helen Roberta (Lescher) and Donald C. Brewer. He was of German, English, and Scottish descent. Following his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage to Frank J. Bessolo, 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, performed in dozens of plays, and was discovered there by casting director Maxwell Arnow. He was cast as Stuart Tarleton in Gone with the Wind (1939). While shooting the film, he appeared in another play at the Pasadena Playhouse and was seen there and signed by Warner Bros. studios. 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 in the early 1950s, 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 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.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

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Trivia

On June 16, 1959, he was found shot to death at his home in Hollywood, California. To this day, there is still controversy over whether he killed himself or was murdered.
Although his Superman costume was padded, Reeves himself was actually very athletic and did most of his own stunts for his role in the Adventures of Superman (1952). Episodes routinely required him to jump from significant heights to simulate Superman landing in frame or hitting a springboard with enough force to propel him out of frame. A frequent stunt required Reeves to grab a bar (outside of camera range) and swing in through a window, clearing his own height (over six foot) and landing on his feet. Reeves had mastered this gymnastic move so well that he could perform the stunt and immediately deliver his dialog without the need to cut to another angle.
He was cautious in his interaction with the young children who were fans of Adventures of Superman (1952) because they often tried to test his "invulnerability" by assaulting him. According to urban legend, at one appearance a young boy came up to Reeves, pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him. The boy had taken the weapon, a Luger that his father had brought home from World War II, to see if "Superman" really was invulnerable. Reeves convinced the boy to give him the gun by saying that someone else would get hurt when the bullets bounced off of "Superman". In fact, there is no citable evidence to support this story.
What raised eyebrows regarding Reeves' death is that he was found naked in his bedroom by his guests during a small gathering at 1:59 a.m.; his guests waited 45 minutes to call police; detectives found additional bullet holes in the floor of his bedroom; bruises were found on Reeves' body; shell casings were discovered in strange locations; and a jilted lover of an MGM executive and a volatile, overly- possessive fiancée also figured into the unhappy storyline. Forensic evidence and expert testimony, however, suggest non-criminal explanations for all or most of these seeming anomalies.
Although it is circulated that he was depressed over being labeled Superman, and that it inhibited his future career, he took the part of "role model" seriously, even to the extent of quitting smoking and not making appearances around children with his girlfriends.