George Reeves (January 5,1914 – June 16, 1959) ,
was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman.Reeves's film career began in 1939 when he was cast as Stuart Tarleton (albeit incorrectly listed in the film's credits as Brent Tarleton), one of Vivien Leigh's suitors in Gone with the Wind. It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane, both in brightly dyed red hair as "the Tarleton Twins," were in the film's opening scenes. He was contracted to Warner Brothers at the time, and the actor's professional name became "George Reeves"[6] and his GWTW screen credit reflects the change. He starred in a number of two-reel short subjects and appeared in several B-pictures, including two with Ronald Reagan and three with James Cagney (Torrid Zone, The Fighting 69th, and The Strawberry Blonde). Warners loaned him to producer Alexander Korda to co-star with Merle Oberon in Lydia, a box-office failure. Released from his Warners contract, he signed a contract at Twentieth Century-Fox but was released after only a handful of films, one of which was the atmospheric Charlie Chan movie Dead Men Tell. He freelanced, appearing in five Hopalong Cassidy westerns before director Mark Sandrich cast Reeves as Lieutenant John Summers opposite Claudette Colbert in So Proudly We Hail! (1942), a war drama for Paramount Pictures. He won critical acclaim for the role and garnered considerable publicity.
In Memory of
George Reeves
(January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959)
His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains a polarizing issue. Some believe the official verdict of suicide; others believe George Reeves was murdered or the victim of an accidental shooting. He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California.
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