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By Christopher Moshier
July 23, 2006 - 12:55
June 1938.
No literary character is going to be remembered more in the 20th century than the alien from Krypton who crash landed on Earth and became her protector. The character of Superman was a unique creation for the time and built a foundation for “Super Hero” related creations for years to come. When we look through the origins of American Literature Superman was truly a breakthrough character during a time when our own future was uncertain in the aftermath of a depression and the beginnings of what could be a major war.
Initially, Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster created Superman in 1934 as a newspaper comic strip submitted to syndication and rejected. A man named M.C. Gaines bought the feature for a new comic he was packaging, the now famous Action Comics #1. The newspaper adventure strip was cut up and reassembled into comic book pages. Action Comics was a success. Through the years Superman has generated a wealth of sales for the comic book industry which generated the character into other media, namely, radio, television, and movies. The following is a dedication to those men and woman that captured our imaginations as the Man of Steel and his extended family.
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He was just seven months old when he played baby Kal-El, the younger version of Christopher Reeve's character, in Superman. His scenes were filmed at studios in Shepperton, UK. Lee tragically died in March 1991, at the age of fourteen, after inhaling solvents.
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He played baby Clark Kent in Superman: The Movie. He also returned in Superman II & Superman III in uncredited roles where he was used as an extra.
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Jeff East was born October 27, 1957. Jeff East has been playing legendary characters throughout his acting career. One of his first roles was "Huckleberry Finn" in the 1973 movie "Tom Sawyer,” a role which he reprised as the starring lead the next year in "Huckleberry Finn". Jeff has portrayed the adventurous author Jack London, in "Klondike Fever", and of course young Clark Kent in Superman: The Movie.
Helen Slater (Helen Schlacter)
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Helen Slater was born Helen Schlacter December 15, 1963 Massapequa, Long Island in New York. The attractive blond actress whose anticipated big break, the title role in 1984's Supergirl broke the producers' hearts (and wallets) when it flopped miserably, establishing Slater's name but not her talent. After mistakenly losing the Omegahedron, Argo City's life-sustaining power source, Kara takes off on a mission to Earth to retrieve it and save the city. Upon reaching Earth, she is transformed into Supergirl and carries the alias Linda Lee. She must deal with the evil ambitions of a wicked witch, Selina (Faye Dunaway), and her meddling ex-boyfriend Nigel, who plan on ruling the Earth with help from the power of the Omegahedron, which they found when it crashed landed on Earth. Assisted by Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane, Lois Lane's sister, Supergirl is off on an adventure to save the Earth and Argo City.
Slater went on to do the films: The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), Ruthless People (1986), Michael J. Fox's girlfriend in The Secret of My Success (1987), a thief in Sticky Fingers (1988), and a bashful trail rider in City Slickers (1991). She was also the voice of Talia in the 1992 series Batman: The Animated Series.
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Born in Oklahoma Beau Weaver started his career as a top forty radio personality in the 60s and 70s, at stations like KFRC, San Francisco, KHJ, Los Angeles, and KILT, Houston. Today his work consists of voicing program promos for the broadcast networks and syndicated television shows, and narrating trailers for feature films. Beau maintains a residence in Los Angeles, but spends most of his time in Ojai, California.
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Beginning in 1988, Ruby-Spears (later acquired by Hanna-Barbara) produced an all new Superman animated series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Superman character. This series, the first since the character's overhaul revision in the comics by John Byrne, shows the adventures of the Man of Steel as he fights villains like the evil head of the mega-corporation Lexcorp, Lex Luthor. In addition, we see the adventures of Clark as a boy in Smallville and all the mischief he causes with his powers. 13 episodes, along with the critically praised Superman Family Album segments aired for just one season on the CBS television network. Although purists praised it, the show disappeared after less than stellar ratings.
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John Haymes Newton was born on December 29, 1965 in Chapel Hill, NC. Newton graduated from Chapel Hill High School in June of 1984, and enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that fall, where he became active in the theater. He moved to NYC to study acting full time in January 1985. That same year, producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind began their plans to rekindle their franchise of Superman movies. Following the failure of Supergirl on the big screen, the Salkinds decided to try the small screen with a syndicated television show featuring a young Man of Steel. The show, called The Adventures of Superboy was scheduled to begin filming at Universal Studios in Florida in 1988.
When visiting family back in Wilmington, North Carolina while auditioning for Weekend at Bernies, John decided to audition for Superboy. He was 22 years old, stood six feet tall, had green eyes and brown hair and was exactly what they were looking for. Within days, he became their choice for the role of Clark Kent/Superboy and was told to darken his hair color to match that of the Christopher Reeve's Superman.
In the introductory episode, Professor Lang and his assistant are heading to Shuster University to oversee an exhibition of artifacts from their latest archeological dig. Professor Lang's assistant believes one of the relics is cursed and as they arrive at the airport his theory seems correct when their landing gear collapses nearly killing them. Fortunately, Clark Kent also witnesses the disaster and appears as Superboy to rescue the plane. It isn't long before we meet Lana Lang who tries desperately to smooth out differences with her father until the curse strikes again, and Professor Lang dies from a massive heart attack. Everyone agrees that the cursed artifact must be returned to its place of origin or everyone at Shuster University will face the curse. Unfortunately, a ruthless upper-classman named Lex Luthor, with his henchman, Leo, has pilfered the artifact intending to sell it to the highest bidder. Again, Superboy arrives to foil the sale and return the artifact...and make Lana Lang suspicious as to who Superboy really was.
At the end of the first season, Newton tried to exploit his newfound popularity and went to the Salkinds to re-negotiate his contract, demanding an increased salary for the second season. The Salkinds were nothing if not pragmatic and made a decisive move based solely on the bottom line. The Salkinds chose to release Newton from his contract and quickly hired Gerard Christopher to replace him as Superboy for the second season assuming that it was the costume, and not the actor that wore the cape, that attracted viewers.
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Gerard Christopher was born as Jerry Dinome on 1958 in New York, New York. He began his career as a fashion model and a TV commercial actor as a means to finance his college education. He has appeared in over 60 television commercials for companies like Pepsi, Panasonic, Chrysler, Chevorolet, and many others. He graduated from The University of Southern California (USC) with a degree in business. Gerard has also studied screen writing, directing, cinematography, and many other subjects at UCLA.
The Adventures of Superboy was Gerard Christopher's first regular television role. Viacom, the distributors of The Adventures of Superboy also hired Gerard as a producer and contributing writer for the show. In addition to portraying Superboy on TV, Gerard was featured on the films Dangerously Close, Tomboy, and most recently, The First of May. His television appearances include the starring role in "Welcome to Paradise," a television pilot which was shot on location in New Zealand. His guest-star roles include the series "Murphy's Law," "True Confessions," "Melrose Place," and "Silk Stockings." Gerard has also had recurring roles in the soap operas "Days of Our Lives" and "Sunset Beach."
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Dean was born Dean Tanaka on July 31, 1966 in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. His parents, actress Sharon Thomas and Roger Tanaka divorced before Dean was born. When Dean was still a baby, his mother moved with him and his older brother Roger to California. She met and married film director Chris Cain, and later added a daughter, Krisinda, to the family. Though he grew up in Malibu and attended Santa Monica High School, his career plans favored professional football over acting. While at Princeton, he completed a history major, dated Brooke Shields for two years, and set an NCAA record for interceptions in a season. After signing with the Buffalo Bills, a knee injury ended his pro career before it began. Dean only turned to acting as a means to supplement his income while riding out a less than lucrative period in his young screen-writing career. The 35 commercials he had done led to guest appearances on shows like Grapevine, A Different World, and most notably Beverly Hills 90210. Dean played a handsome college student named Rick who fell hard for Brenda during her and Donna’s summer in Paris.
In 1993, Dean was cast as Clark Kent/Superman in a pilot for a show called "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman". Gerard Christopher auditioned for and was chosen to play Superman by the executive producer of Warner Brother Televisions Lois and Clark, but was dismissed from the meeting after the same producer read his acting resume and discovered that he had previously starred in The Adventures of Superboy. He said to Gerard, “you've done this already, I want someone who hasn’t acted before!” Then Gerard was dismissed from the room. Two weeks later Dean Cain was cast in the role.
Lois and Clark is based on Superman being a Generation X man. Somewhere in his twenties, Clark must experience life as a pre-thirties pupil. Lois, as always, is by his side at the Daily Planet, adding that oh-so-ever romantic side to his life. The relationship between Lois and Clark is, as always, platonic but on the edge of mad love. The show, a witty, 90’s update to the classic comic book story, also gave Dean a chance to showcase his writing talents with two episodes, "Seasons Greedings" and "Virtually Destroyed." The show ran from 1993-1997.
After Lois and Clark, Dean had a development deal with Columbia TriStar TV and formed his own production company, Angry Dragon Entertainment, with partner Mike Carr. The company's first series, a revamped version of "Ripley's Believe it or Not!" which Dean also hosts, premiered on the TBS Superstation in January to record-breaking ratings. Another, more important Dean Cain production premiered in June. A healthy baby boy, Christopher Dean Cain, was born to him and model Samantha Torres.
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Shaquille O'Neal was born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey, to Joe Toney and Lucille O'Neal. His first two names combined mean "Little Warrior" in Islam. He has two sisters and a brother: Lateefah, Ayesha and Jamal.
By the age of 13, O'Neal was an astonishing 6'6". Basketball scouts took notice of O'Neal at an early age, and he went to play for Louisiana State University. In 1991, O'Neal was named college Player of the Year. He was the first All-American in '91 and '92, and was taken first overall in the 1992 draft by the Orlando Magic.
In his rookie season in the NBA, Shaq became the first rookie in NBA history to win the Player of the Week honors. He was named the 1993 Rookie of the Year, averaging 23.4 points per game. In 1994, Shaq was chose to play for USA's world championship team, where he won a gold medal. At the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, O'Neal won another gold medal playing for his country.
The mid-'90s brought much success for O'Neal on and off the court. He and the Orlando Magic made it all the way to the NBA finals, only to lose to the Houston Rockets. He released the first of his many rap albums, titled Shaq Diesel, and took his talent to the big-screen in the film Blue Chips, opposite Nick Nolte, and Kazaam.
In 1997, Shaquille O'Neal, the producers Quincy Jones, David Salzman and Joel Simon brought to the silver screen the superhero created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove directly from Reign of the Supermen comics. Shaquille O'Neal, staring as John Henry Irons, designed weapons for the military. When his project to create weapons that harmlessly neutralize soldiers was sabotaged, he left in disgust. When he saw gangs were using his weapons on the street, he used his brains and his Uncle Joe's junkyard know-how to fight back, becoming a real man of "Steel."
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Tim Daly was born March 1, 1956 in New York, New York growing up in Suffern, New York. Both Tim and his sister Tyne (Cagney and Lacy) caught the acting bug at an early age, and after performing in numerous high school plays, Tim majored in Drama at Bennington College. He won his first professional role while still in school in a summer stock production of Equus, and headed for New York after graduation to study acting and singing. Only a year and a half later, in 1982, he was cast as Billy in Diner.
On television, Daly's was first cast with the recurring role of "Dr. Gillian" on the 1983 medical drama Ryan's Four. His television credits include: the miniseries I'll Take Manhattan, Wings, a portrayal of David Koresh in In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco, roles in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, in the ABC miniseries Stephen King's Storm of the Century, and the role of "Dr. Richard Kimble" in the CBS revival of The Fugitive.
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In September 1996, the Warner Brothers television network began a new animated series, Superman, with 13 episodes in the first season. It started as a 90-minute prime time movie special on September 6, 1996 showing the first 3 episodes. Tim Daly was the voices of Clark Kent/Superman through all 54 episodes including a 90-minute crossover with Batman (Kevin Conroy). Bruce Timm and Paul Dini from Batman: The Animated Series fame worked on character designs and stories. Timm acted as Animator, while Dini and Alan Burnett, story editor for the Super Friends in 1985, joined Timm as Producers.
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Christopher McDonald was born February 15, 1955 in New York, NY being one of seven children. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory in New York. He gained fame for his roles in Grease 2, Dutch, Thelma and Louise, and Quiz Show.
Christopher was Superman in the two-parter “The Call” on the Animated Batman Beyond. JLU member Micron is critically injured after responding to a phony distress signal and being trapped by a force field in a crashing train. In Gotham City, Superman meets with Batman and asks him to become a member. He needs Terry as he suspects someone within the JLU is a traitor. Batman is met with hostility by the other JLU members, and then rescues Aquagirl when she is trapped in a rapidly heating water tank. A series of attacks break out throughout Metropolis, and the JLU move into action. When Warhawk tries to intercept a missile, it is detonated while Batman watches on helplessly. When Batman and Bruce do a video replay, they see that Superman was the one who detonated the missile, and is apparently the traitor! Bruce takes out a piece of Kryptonite he had in storage and tells Terry to stop Superman "Any way you can."
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McDonald also provided the voice of Jor-El in the first episode of Superman the Animated Series.
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George Newbern was born December 10, 1964 Little Rock, Arkansas. He began acting as a child in community theater productions. By age 14, he had won a scholarship to the Minneapolis Children's Theater, where he worked for several summers. He attended Northwestern University where he met his future wife, actress Marietta DePrima and spent a summer at RADA. After graduating, he moved to L.A. to pursue an acting career. Newbern landed the occasional role of Payne, the son of Julia Sugarbaker, Dixie Carter, on the CBS sitcom "Designing Women.” At the same time, the actor was making inroads on the big screen. He debuted in supporting roles in the 1987 teen films "My Little Girl" and "Adventures in Babysitting". His first real notice came with the 1991 Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride,” as Kimberly Williams' fiance and the prospective son-in-law of Martin and Diane Keaton. He reprised the role in the sequel "Father of the Bride Part II" in 1995.
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In 2001 it was revealed that Bruce Timm, along with several other members of the original creative team behind the Animated Batman and Superman shows, were going to produce a new series for Cartoon Network called Justice League. Currently, George Newbern voices the character of Superman on the cartoon. Superman and Batman would be joined by Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkgirl, and J’onn J’onzz—the Martian Manhunter—in their war on crime and injustice.
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Patrick Warburton was born November 14, 1964 in Paterson, New Jersey. The Southern California-raised actor dropped out of junior college and began pursuing an acting and modeling career at age 19. TV commercials and regional theater followed before Warburton landed his first film role opposite Oliver Reed in the low-budget period drama 1987 "Dragonard". After a string of guest appearances he first received notice as a friend of Harry Anderson's on the CBS sitcom "Dave's World" in 1993. Brought back in a recurring capacity, he finally was added to the regular cast for the last two seasons of that show's run. He is probably best known as Dave Puddy, the dim-witted mechanic boyfriend of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine Benes on the hit NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". For that show's final season, Warburton reprised the role in several episodes which also led to a voice-over gig as Superman for an American Express commercial with Jerry Seinfeld.
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The commercial starts with Seinfeld and Superman walking down a city street, casually conversing.
Superman: You sign a lot of autographs?
Seinfeld: Oh yeah. You?
Superman: Some. They ask me to bend stuff a lot.
The duo then spots Lois Lane in a grocery store, "in trouble" because she can't find her wallet. Of course, Superman's tight suit leaves him "powerless" because he can't carry a wallet. But Seinfeld comes to the rescue, spinning around in a superhero-like blur, then dramatically presenting an American Express card and swiping it at the register. Meanwhile, Superman saves face at the end of the spot by rescuing Earth from a giant meteor.
Patrick also played the Tick on the short-lived live action series of the same name.
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Tom Welling was born April 26, 1977 in New York, New York. He graduated in 1995 from Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan.
With no real acting experience, he headed out to L.A. to pursue an acting career. His rugged good looks landed him modeling gigs along the way. Soon, Tom got his first big break appearing on several episodes of "Judging Amy." He was chosen to portray Clark Kent after a nationwide search to find a fresh face for the role. Tom Welling made his series debut with Smallville.
“Before the legend...before the icon...there was a teenager named Clark Kent (newcomer Tom Welling). Someday, he'll master his powers and understand his true calling. For now, he just has to get through adolescence. This new interpretation of the enduring Superman mythology and its classic characters blends realism and adventure into an exciting action series.”
– Official Warner Brothers Website
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Born Oct. 9, 1979, in Des Moines, Iowa and raised in nearby Norwalk (about 100 miles south of Woolstock, the hometown of TV’s original “Superman,” George Reeves), the strapping 6'3" actor-known to his friends and family and sometimes professionally credited as “B.J.”- was a high school athlete who swam and played soccer, as well as starring in several theatrical productions. He attended the University of Iowa for a year before heading to Hollywood in search of his big break.
Routh got his first major role on a 1999 episode of the short-lived ABC sitcom “Odd Man Out,” followed by a four-episode stint on the third season of MTV’s sexually charged nighttime soap “Undressed” in 2000. He also was featured in pop star Christina Aguilera’s heavily rotated “What a Girl Wants” video. Along with an appearance on “Gilmore Girls” in 2000, the actor earned steady work on the ABC daytime drama “One Life to Live,” originating the role of Seth Anderson from 2001-2002. His subsequent primetime credits include guest stints on the CBS crime drama “Cold Case,” the hit NBC sitcom “Will & Grace” and Fox’s brief-lived “Oliver Beene.”
Prior to Routh’s casting as Superman, Warner Bros had spent over a decade developing a plan to relaunch the franchise, with possible stars including Nicolas Cage and planned helmers including Tim Burton, Wolfgang Peterson, McG and Brett Ratner. Initially the studio reportedly considered a roster of name actors for the iconic role, including Josh Hartnett, Ashton Kutcher, Jude Law, Brendan Fraser, Jim Caviezel and “Smallville” star Tom Welling. But when Singer came aboard to direct the film, he insisted that a fresh face be cast in the part in the tradition of film’s most famous Man of Steel, Christopher Reeve.
Routh, then 25 — who reportedly won a Hollywood Halloween costume contest in 2003 by dressing as Clark Kent with his shirt open to reveal the Superman “S” underneath — had previously auditioned for McG and was tapped by Singer after extensive casting calls in the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia. Impressed by his resemblance to the comic book icon and finding the actor’s humble Midwestern roots a perfect fit for the hero’s all-American persona, Singer anointed Routh as the next screen Superman. Within hours of the October 2004 casting announcement Routh’s name filled an endless array of Internet pages devoted to discussing his worthiness for the role. For his part, the actor kept a low profile to help build anticipation for the film.
I would like to thank the following sites for providing a wealth of information on Superman and the actors that portrayed the character and his super “friends”:
