When it comes to the various guises of Superman on the big and small screen, the evolution of the character and his alter ego, Clark Kent, mirrors the evolving relationship between television and film as media of mass communication.
Kirk Alyn was the first actor to portray Superman on screen in a filmed serial in 1948.
It was originally screened at movie matinees and after the first three scene-setting chapters every episode ended on a cliffhanger.
The 15-part black-and-white film serial never credited Alyn, with the Colombia advertising claiming that since they couldn’t find an actor to play Superman they “hired Superman himself” and Alyn was just playing Clark Kent.
Alyn also starred in a 1950 sequel, Atom Man vs Superman, but it is the 1950s TV series, Adventures of Superman, which is for many the start of Superman’s on-screen appearances.
George Reeves was initially reluctant to take the role because he thought TV was unimportant and fewer people would see his work.
Now, how many people remember that he was one of Scarlet’s suitors in Gone With the Wind or also starred in From Here to Eternity? His death by gunshot in 1959 remains a mystery and formed the basis of a critically acclaimed movie, Hollywoodland, in 2006.
Reeves may have worn a padded suit for the TV series which ran between 1952 and 1958, but he was also very athletic and did many of his own stunts in Adventures of Superman, including often swinging in through a window, clearing his own height, landing neatly on his feet and immediately delivering his lines.
Reeves was an enthusiastic actor who played Clark Kent as competent and strong willed, even if he was still officially being described as mild-mannered.
The 1960s and ’70s saw two different animated TV series surface, but in the early 1980s Christopher Reeve took over the Superman cape on the film circuit. Richard Donner directed Reeve in the 1978 blockbuster and there were three sequels.
Though 1.9m, Reeve still had to go on quite an extensive weight-lifting regime to pick up the bulk required to play the role. He brought a certain gentleness and vulnerability to the role, reflecting the change in the portrayal of the masculine image on screen by the late 1970s.
Reeve made a guest appearance in TV series, Smallville, as Dr Swann, who brought information to Clark Kent (Tom Welling) about where he came from. The episode featured musical cues from the 1978 Superman movie and it was met with rave reviews and subsequent praise that it was the series’ best episode ever.
He was not the only ex-Superman to guest on Smallville, with Dean Cain also putting in an appearance as Dr Curtis Knox in the seventh series.
Cain got his turn to play Clark Kent in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which ran from 1993 to 1997. As the name suggested, the series concentrated more on making the human the dominant character and Superman the alter ego.
There was also a four-year-long half-an-hour live-action TV series based on Kal El’s early years as Superboy, renamed the Adventures of Superboy at the start of the third season in the late 1980s. Here John Haymes Newton played Superboy (that’s Ryan McBride from Melrose Place, if that means anything to you), but Smallville is still the most successful of the TV series.
Tom Welling initially turned down the role, twice, but accepted after reading the script, and he tried not to read any of the Superman comics while he was working on what turned into a 10 year-long project.
At 10 series, Smallville is the longest-running North American science fiction series to date, as well as the longest-running comic book-based series in TV history.
Oh, and who remembers Brandon Routh in Superman Returns? Despite overall positive reviews from critics and raking in millions at the global box office, bean counters at Warner Brothers declined to make a sequel with Routh because they were disappointed the film didn’t pass the $500 million mark.