0/5

Vale: Jack Larson

Jack Larson, best known as TV's original Jimmy Olsen, has died.

2015-09-22_0019

Jack Larson, best known as TV’s original Jimmy Olsen in The Adventures of Superman, has died, aged 87.

He died at home in California.

He played the role of the young Daily Planet reporter from 1952 – 1958, with the series ending in 1959 after the death of star George Reeves.

Aspiring to be a Broadway actor and playwright, and he hesitated to accept the role.

Although he was pleased that Jimmy Olsen developed into a comic role, his fears of being typecast were realised. Actor Montgomery Clift advised him to making bad casting situations, resulting in him largely giving up acting and forging a writing career.

But other credits included Gomer Pyle: USMC, Law and Order: SVU, and as “Old Jimmy Olsen” in 1996’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and as a bartender in the 2006 film Superman Returns.

His writing credits included He wrote the libretto for Virgil Thomson’s third and last opera, “Lord Byron,” commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a play “Chuck” (1968), “The Astronaut’s Tale,” “The Hyacinth From Apollo” (1997), and “Lélio” (also 1997).

He was the first playwright to be awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Source: NY Times

4 Responses

  1. One of my ealiest tv heroes. Loved Jack’s portrayal of Jimmy Olsen. To me he’s the one and only Jimmy Olsen. I grew up watching Adventures of Superman, in 70s reruns. It will forever be one of my favorites and I still watch episodes I have on dvd.

  2. One of the first tv shows i recall watching (it was in repeats!) but it was the late 1960’s and it was very impressionable. When I saw the headline, i first thought he must have been 100 years old! But time is an odd element with tv shows and actors. He left his mark….

Leave a Reply