George Reeves George Reeves ( born George Keefer Brewer , 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 " . His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains a polarizing issue , the official finding was suicide , but some believe he was murdered or the victim of an accidental shooting . Early life . Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock , Iowa , the son of Don Brewer and Helen Lescher ( his death certificate erroneously lists his birthplace as Kentucky ) . Reeves was born five months into their marriage ( the reason Reeves ' s mother subsequently claimed a false April birth date for her son , something he was unaware of until adulthood ) . They separated soon afterward and Helen moved back to her home at Galesburg , Illinois . Later , Reeves ' s mother moved to California to stay with her sister . There , Helen met and married Frank Bessolo . George ' s father married Helen Schultz in 1925 and had children with her . Don Brewer apparently never saw his son again . In 1927 , Frank Bessolo adopted George as his own son , and the boy took on his new stepfather ' s last name to become George Bessolo . Frank and Helen Bessolo ' s marriage lasted fifteen years and ended in divorce while Reeves was away visiting relatives . His mother told Reeves that Frank had committed suicide . Reeves ' s cousin , Catherine Chase , told biographer Jim Beaver that Reeves did not know for several years that Bessolo was still alive , nor that he was his stepfather and not his biological father . George began acting and singing in high school and continued performing on stage as a student at Pasadena Junior College . He also boxed as a heavyweight in amateur matches until his mother Helen ordered him to stop , fearing his good looks might be damaged . Acting career . While studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse , Reeves met his future wife , Ellanora Needles . They married on September 22 , 1940 , in San Gabriel , California , at the Church of Our Savior . They had no children and divorced ten years later . At the Pasadena Playhouse , Reeves met fellow actor Frank Wilcox , who was best man at Reeves ' wedding . The two were subsequently cast together in eleven films . Reeves ' s film career began in 1939 when he was cast as Stuart Tarleton ( incorrectly listed in the film ' s credits as Brent Tarleton ) , one of Scarlett O ' Hara ' 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 . Like Wilcox , Reeves was contracted to Warner Brothers soon after being cast . Warners changed his professional name to " George Reeves . " His " Gone with the Wind " screen credit reflects the change . Between the start of " Gone With the Wind " production and its release twelve months later , several films on his Warner Bros . contract were made and released , making " Gone With the Wind " his first film role , but his fifth film release . 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 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 . Reeves was drafted into the U . S . Army in early 1943 . He was assigned to the U . S . Army Air Forces and performed in the USAAF ' s Broadway show " Winged Victory " . The long Broadway run was followed by a national tour and a movie version . Reeves was then transferred to the Army Air Forces ' First Motion Picture Unit , where he made training films . He looked forward to working with " So Proudly We Hail ! " director Mark Sandrich . Sandrich felt that Reeves had the potential to become a major star , but he died in 1945 . Reeves would later comment on the impact Sandrich ' s death had on his film career . Discharged at the war ' s end , Reeves returned to Hollywood . However , many studios were slowing down their production schedules , and some production units had shut down completely . He appeared in a pair of outdoor thrillers with Ralph Byrd and in a Sam Katzman - produced serial , " The Adventures of Sir Galahad " . Reeves fit the rugged requirements of the roles and , with his retentive memory for dialogue , he did well under rushed production conditions . He was able to play against type and starred as a villainous gold hunter in a Johnny Weissmuller Jungle Jim film . Separated from his wife ( their divorce became final in 1950 ) , Reeves moved to New York City in 1949 . He performed on live television anthology programs as well as on radio and then returned to Hollywood in 1951 for a role in a Fritz Lang film , " Rancho Notorious " . Meanwhile , DC Comics was planning a television adaptation of its most famous character . In 1953 , Reeves played a minor character , Sergeant Maylon Stark , in the motion picture " From Here To Eternity " . The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and gave Reeves a second motion picture appearance in a film that ultimately won the Oscar . Superman . In June 1951 , Reeves was offered the role of Superman in a new television series titled " Adventures of Superman " . He was initially reluctant to take the role because , like many actors of his time , he considered television unimportant and believed few would see his work . He received low pay and only for the weeks of production . The half - hour films were shot on tight schedules ; at least two shows were made every six days . According to commentaries on the " Adventures of Superman " DVD sets , multiple scripts would be filmed simultaneously to take advantage of the standing sets , so that , e . g . , all the " Perry White ' s office " scenes for three or four episodes would be shot the same day and the various " apartment " scenes would be done consecutively . Reeves ' s career as Superman had begun with " Superman and the Mole Men " , a film intended both as a B - picture and as the pilot for the TV series . Immediately after completing it , Reeves and the crew began production of the first season ' s episodes , all shot over 13 weeks in the summer of 1951 . The series went on the air the following year , and Reeves was amazed at becoming a national celebrity . In 1952 , the struggling ABC Network purchased the show for national broadcast , which gave him greater visibility . The Superman cast members had restrictive contracts which prevented them from taking other work that might interfere with the series . Except for the second season , the Superman schedule was brief ( 13 shows shot two per week , a total of seven weeks out of a year ) , but all had a " 30 - day clause , " which meant that the producers could demand their exclusive services for a new season on four weeks ' notice . This prevented long - term work on major films with long schedules , stage plays which might lead to a lengthy run , or any other series work . However , Reeves had earnings from personal appearances beyond his meager salary , and his affection for his young fans was genuine . Reeves took his role model status seriously , avoiding cigarettes where children could see him and eventually quitting smoking . He kept his private life discreet . Nevertheless , he had a romantic relationship with a married ex - showgirl eight years his senior , Toni Mannix , wife of Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer general manager Eddie Mannix . In the documentary " " , Jack Larson described how when he first met Reeves he told him that he enjoyed his performance in " So Proudly We Hail ! " According to Larson , Reeves said that if Mark Sandrich had not died , he would not be there in " this monkey suit . " Larson said it was the only time he heard Reeves say anything negative about being Superman . In between the first and second seasons of " Superman " , Reeves got sporadic acting assignments in one - shot TV anthology programs and in two feature films , " Forever Female " ( 1953 ) and Fritz Lang ' s " The Blue Gardenia " ( 1953 ) . But by the time the series was airing nationwide , Reeves found himself so associated with Superman and Clark Kent that it was difficult for him to find other roles . An untrue but often - repeated story suggests that he was upset when his scenes as Sergeant Maylon Stark in the classic film " From Here to Eternity " were cut after a preview audience kept yelling " There ' s Superman ! " whenever he appeared on screen . " Eternity " director Fred Zinnemann , the screenwriter Daniel Taradash , and others have maintained that every scene written for Reeves ' s character was shot and included as part of the released film . Zinnemann has also asserted that there were no post - release cuts , nor was there even a preview screening . Everything in the first production draft of the script is still present in the final product seen since 1953 . With Toni Mannix , Reeves worked tirelessly to raise money to fight myasthenia gravis . He served as national chairman for the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation in 1955 . During the second season , Reeves appeared in a short film for the Treasury Department , " Stamp Day for Superman " , in which he caught the villains and told children why they should invest in government savings stamp s . In the 104 episodes of the show , Reeves got along well with his costars . Larson , who played Jimmy Olsen , recalled that Reeves enjoyed playing practical jokes on the crew and cast . Reeves insisted his original Lois Lane , Phyllis Coates , be given equal billing in the credits . He also stood by Robert Shayne ( who played Police Inspector William " Bill " Henderson ) when Shayne was subpoenaed by FBI agents on the set of " Superman " . ( Shayne ' s political activism in the Screen Actors Guild in the 1940s was used by his embittered ex - wife as an excuse to label him a Communist , although Shayne had never been a Communist Party member . When Coates was replaced by Noel Neill ( who had played Lois Lane in the Kirk Alyn serials ) , Reeves defended her nervousness on her first day when he felt that the director was being too harsh with her . On the other hand , he liked to stand outside camera range , mugging at the other cast members to see if he could break them up . According to Larson , Reeves took on - set photos with his Minox and handed out prints . By all accounts , there was strong camaraderie among the show ' s actors . After two seasons , Reeves was dissatisfied with the one - dimensional role and low salary . Now 40 years old , he wished to quit and move on with his career . The producers looked elsewhere for a new star , allegedly contacting Kirk Alyn , the actor who had first portrayed Superman in the original movie serials and who had initially refused to play the role on television . Alyn turned them down again . Reeves established his own production company and conceived a TV adventure series , " Port of Entry " , which would be shot on location in Hawaii and Mexico , writing the pilot script himself . However , " Superman " producers offered him a salary increase and he returned to the series . He was reportedly making $ 5 , 000 per week , but only while the show was in production ( about eight weeks each year ) . As for " Port of Entry " , Reeves was never able to gain financing for the project , and the show was never made . In 1957 , the producers considered a theatrical film , " Superman and the Secret Planet " . A script was commissioned from David Chantler , who had written many of the TV scripts . In 1959 , however , negotiations began for a renewal of the series , with 26 episodes scheduled to go into production . ( John Hamilton , who had played Perry White , died in 1958 , so the former film - serial Perry White Pierre Watkin was to replace him . ) By mid 1959 , contracts were signed , costumes refitted , and new teleplay writers assigned . Noel Neill was quoted as saying that the cast of Superman was ready to do a new series of the still - popular show . Producers reportedly promised Reeves that the new programs would be as serious and action - packed as the first season , guaranteed him creative input , and slated him to direct several of the new shows as he had done with the final three episodes of the 1957 season . In the documentary " Look , Up in the Sky : The Amazing Story of Superman " , Neill remembered that Reeves was excited to go back to work . Jack Larson , however , told biographer Beaver : " Anyone who thought another season of Superman would make George Reeves happy didn ' t know George . " Attempting to showcase his versatility , Reeves sang on the Tony Bennett show in August 1956 . He appeared on " I Love Lucy " ( Episode # 165 , Lucy Meets Superman " ) in 1956 as Superman . Character actor Ben Welden had acted with Reeves in the Warner Bros . days and frequently guest - starred on " Superman " . He said , " After the " I Love Lucy " show , Superman was no longer a challenge to him . . . I know he enjoyed the role , but he used to say , ' Here I am , wasting my life . ' " His good friend Bill Walsh , a producer at Disney Studios , gave Reeves a prominent role in " Westward Ho , the Wagons ! " ( 1956 ) , in which Reeves wore a beard and mustache . It was to be his final feature film appearance . Reeves , Noel Neill , Natividad Vacío , Gene LeBell , and a trio of musicians toured with a public appearance show from 1957 onward . The stage show was a gigantic hit for the excited children who got to see their hero in person , though apparently not a huge moneymaker for Reeves . The first half of the show was a " Superman " sketch in which Reeves and Neill performed with LeBell as a villain called " Mr . Kryptonite " who captured Lois Lane . Kent then rushed offstage to return as Superman , who came to the rescue and fought with the bad guy . The second half of the show was Reeves out of costume and as himself , singing and accompanying himself on the guitar . Vacio and Neill accompanied him in duets . Reeves and Toni Mannix split in 1958 and Reeves announced his engagement to society playgirl Leonore Lemmon . He complained to friends , columnists , and his mother of his financial problems . He received royalties from syndication of the Superman show , but these were insubstantial , particularly in view of his lifestyle . Under these circumstances , the planned revival of " Superman " was apparently a small lifeline . Reeves had also hoped to direct a low - budget science - fiction film written by a friend from his Pasadena Playhouse days , and he had discussed the project with his first Lois Lane , Phyllis Coates , the previous year . However , Reeves and his partner failed to find financing and the film was never made . There was another Superman stage show scheduled for July and a planned stage tour of Australia . Reeves had options for making a living , but those options apparently all involved playing Superman again . Jack Larson and Noel Neill both remembered Reeves as a noble Southern gentleman ( even though he was from Iowa ) with a sign on his dressing room door that said " " Honest George , the people ' s friend . " " After Reeves had been made a " Kentucky Colonel " during a publicity trip in the South , the sign on his dressing room door was replaced with a new one that read " Honest George , also known as Col . Reeves " created by the show ' s prop department . A photo of a smiling Reeves and the sign appear in Gary Grossman ' s book about the show . Death . According to the Los Angeles Police Department report , between approximately 1 : 30 and 2 : 00 a . m . on June 16 , 1959 , George Reeves died of a gunshot wound to his head in the upstairs bedroom at his home in Benedict Canyon . The police arrived within the hour . Present in the house at the time of the incident were Leonore Lemmon ( who had been Reeves ' s fiancee at the time ) , William Bliss , writer Richard Condon , and Carol Van Ronkel , who lived a few blocks away with her husband , screenwriter Rip Van Ronkel . According to these witnesses , Lemmon and Reeves had been dining and drinking earlier in the evening in the company of writer Condon , who was ghostwriting an autobiography of prizefighter Archie Moore . Reeves and Lemmon had had an argument at the restaurant in front of Condon , and the three of them returned home . However , Lemmon stated in news interviews with Reeves ' s biographer Jim Beaver that she and Reeves had not accompanied friends to the restaurant but rather to wrestling matches . Contemporaneous news items indicate that Reeves ' s friend Gene LeBell was wrestling that night — yet LeBell ' s own recollections are that he did not see Reeves after a workout session earlier in the day . In any event , Reeves went to bed , but sometime near midnight an impromptu party began when Bliss and Carol Van Ronkel arrived . Reeves angrily came downstairs and complained about the noise . After blowing off steam , he stayed with the guests for a while , had a drink , and then retired upstairs again in a bad mood . The guests later heard a single gunshot from upstairs . Bliss ran upstairs into Reeves ' s bedroom and found him lying across the bed dead , his naked body facing upward and his feet on the floor . It is believed that this corroborated Reeves ' s sitting position on the edge of the bed when he allegedly shot himself , after which his body fell back on the bed and the 9 mm Luger pistol fell between his feet . Dubious statements from the witnesses that were made to the police and the press essentially agree . Neither Leonore Lemmon nor even other guests who were at the scene made any apology for their delay in calling the police after hearing the fatal gunshot that killed Reeves ; the shock of the death , the lateness of the hour , and their state of intoxication were given as reasons for the delay . Police said that all of the witnesses present were extremely inebriated and that coherent stories were very difficult to obtain from them . In contemporary news articles , Lemmon attributed Reeves ' s alleged suicide to depression caused by his " failed career " and inability to find more work . The report made by the Los Angeles Police states , " [ Reeves was ] . . . depressed because he couldn ' t get the sort of parts he wanted . " Newspapers and wire - service reports possibly misquoted LAPD Sergeant V . A . Peterson as saying : " Miss Lemmon blurted , ' He ' s probably going to go shoot himself . ' A noise was heard upstairs . She continued , ' He ' s opening a drawer to get the gun . ' A shot was heard . ' See there — I told you so ! ' " ' However , this statement may have been embellished by journalists . Lemmon and her friends were downstairs at the time the shot was fired , with music playing downstairs . It would have been nearly impossible to hear a drawer opening in the upstairs bedroom through the music . Lemmon later claimed that she had never said anything so specific but rather had made an offhand remark along the lines of " Oh , he ' ll probably go shoot himself now . " While the official story given by Lemmon to the police placed her in the living room with party guests at the time of the shooting , statements from Fred Crane , who was Reeves ' s friend and colleague from " Gone With The Wind , " put Leonore Lemmon either inside or in direct proximity to Reeves ' s bedroom — minimally as a witness to the shooting . According to Crane , Bill Bliss had told Millicent Trent that after the shot rang out and while Bliss was having a drink , Leonore Lemmon came downstairs and said , “ Tell them I was down here , tell them I was down here ! ” In an interview with Carl Glass , Crane expanded on this : " It needed to be said and that is the way I heard it from Millie as it was told to her by Bill Bliss . Janet Bliss and Millie were very close friends . I met Millie at Bill and Janet ’ s house up in Benedict Canyon on Easton Drive . We lived on the same street . " Dubious witness statements and the examination of the crime scene by the Los Angeles Police led to the official inquiry conclusion that Reeves ' s death was a suicide . Reeves ' will , dated 1956 , bequeathed his entire estate to Toni Mannix , much to Lemmon ' s surprise and devastation . Her statement to the press read , " Toni got a house for charity , and I got a broken heart , " referring to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation . Reeves is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena , California . In 1985 , he was posthumously named one of the honorees by DC Comics in the company ' s 50th anniversary publication " Fifty Who Made DC Great " . Controversy . Many people have refused to believe that George Reeves would kill himself and have pointed out that no gunpowder from the gun ' s discharge was found on the actor ' s skin , leading them to believe that the weapon would therefore have to have been held several inches away from his head when it was fired ; however , forensic professionals say that gunpowder tattooing is left only when the weapon is not in contact with the skin , while Reeves ' s skull fracture pattern shows that it was a contact wound . Followers of the case also point to the absence of fingerprints on the gun and of gunshot - residue testing on the actor ' s hands as evidence in support of one theory or another . Police , however , found the gun too thickly coated in oil to hold fingerprints , and gunshot - residue testing was not commonly performed by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1959 . Reeves ' s incredulous mother , Helen Bessolo , employed attorney Jerry Giesler and the Nick Harris Detective Agency . Their operatives included a fledgling detective named Milo Speriglio , who would later falsely claim to have been the primary investigator . A cremation of Reeves ' s body was postponed . No substantial new evidence was ever uncovered , but Reeves ' s mother never accepted the conclusion that her son had committed suicide . She also publicly denied that her son planned to marry Leonore Lemmon because he had never told her . However , he had allegedly announced the engagement to his friends and occasionally called her " my wife . " A later article quoted " pallbearers " at Reeves ' s funeral ( actors Alan Ladd and Gig Young ) as saying that Reeves was not the type to commit suicide . However , neither of these men actually served as a pallbearer , and only one , Young , was a friend of Reeves . " Anti - suicide " proponents argue that Reeves would have no desire to end his life with so many prospects in sight . In the partially fictional Reeves biography " Hollywood Kryptonite " , Reeves is murdered by order of Toni Mannix as punishment for their breakup . This is illustrated as a potential scenario in " Hollywoodland " , with the blame more clearly leveled at Eddie Mannix than at Toni , although the film ultimately suggests the death was a suicide . However , the authors of " Hollywood Kryptonite " were forced to create a " hit man " to make the plot of their book work , though there was no proof of such a hit man . In the Grossman book , Jack Larson was quoted as having accepted that it was suicide . Although he suggested in a 1982 " Entertainment Tonight / This Weekend " interview that he had momentarily questioned the verdict based on a friend ' s comment , he has stated publicly on several occasions that he always believed that Reeves had killed himself and that quotations implying that he ever believed otherwise were either in error or falsified . " Jack and I never really tried to get anyone to re - open George ' s death , " Noel Neill said . " I am not aware of anyone who wanted George dead . I never said I thought George was murdered . I just don ' t know what happened . All I know is that George always seemed happy to me , and I saw him two days before he died and he was still happy then . " " Hollywoodland " dramatizes the investigation of Reeves ' s death . The movie stars Ben Affleck as Reeves and Adrien Brody as fictional investigator Louis Simo , suggested by real - life detective Milo Speriglio . The movie shows three possible scenarios for Reeves ' s death : being killed semi - accidentally by Lemmon , being murdered by an unnamed hitman under orders from Eddie Mannix , and , finally , committing suicide . Toni Mannix suffered from Alzheimer ' s disease for years and died in 1983 . In 1999 , following the resurrection of the Reeves case by TV shows " Unsolved Mysteries " and " Mysteries and Scandals " , Los Angeles publicist Edward Lozzi claimed that Toni Mannix had confessed to a Catholic priest in Lozzi ' s presence that she was responsible for having George Reeves killed . Lozzi made the claim on TV tabloid shows , including " Extra " , " Inside Edition " , and " Court TV " . In the wake of " Hollywoodland " ' s publicity in 2006 , Mr . Lozzi repeated his story to the tabloid " The Globe " and to the " LA Times " , where the statement was disputed by Jack Larson . Larson stated that facts he knew from his close friendship with Toni Mannix precluded Lozzi ' s story from being true . According to Lozzi , he lived with and then visited the elderly Mannix from 1979 to 1982 and on at least a half - dozen occasions he called a priest when Mrs . Mannix feared death and wanted to confess her sins . Mannix suffered from Alzheimer ' s disease and senile dementia , but Lozzi insists that her " confession " was made during a period of lucidity in Mannix ' s home before she was moved from her house to a hospital . Mannix lived in a hospital suite for the last several years of her life , having donated a large portion of her estate " a priori " to the hospital in exchange for perpetual care . Lozzi also told of Tuesday night prayer sessions that Toni Mannix conducted with him and others at an altar shrine to George Reeves that she had built in her home . Lozzi stated , " During these prayer sessions she prayed loudly and trance - like to Reeves and God , and without confessing yet , asked them for forgiveness . " Lozzi ' s claim , however , is unsupported by independent evidence . Cultural references . The song " Superman ' s Ghost " by Don McLean was written about George Reeves .