‘Adventures of Superman’ Star Jack Larson Dead at 87

Larson took the role in 1951 believing the series would never go anywhere.

After his role on the Adventures of Superman ended, Larson moved mostly behind the scenes, as a writer.

The show of course became a hit, and Larson’s initial agreement of 26 episodes ultimately grew to more than 100, as he played Jimmy from 1952 until the cancellation of “The Adventures of Superman” in 1958.

Although Larson was pleased that Jimmy Olsen developed into a comic role, his fears of typecasting became reality.

Larson’s long term romantic partner was director James_Bridges. So Larson gave up acting and made a new career.

That new career saw Larson write librettos and plays, including The Candied House (1966) and Chuck (1968), as well as helping produce films such as ideal (1985) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988). It had its premiere in 1972 at the Juilliard Theater, and some critics compared Larson’s work unfavorably with that of Thomson’s previous collaborator, Gertrude Stein.

“The casting man and my agent talked to me very seriously about doing this”, he recalled in a 2003 interview with the Archive of American Television.

His contract kept him from doing much of anything else, and Larson would appear on Superman for six seasons. Larson was the first playwright to be awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Larson refused to do publicity for the series, hoping it would just go away. His father was an East Los Angeles milk-truck driver and his mother a Western Union clerk.

When Larson wrote and then appeared in a musical comedy about college kids on an Easter Week vacation, he was spotted by a Warner Bros. talent scout and given a screen test.

Born in 1928 in Los Angeles, Larson’s film debut was in the 1948 war movie “Fighter Squadron“.

He produced several films written and/or directed by his longtime partner, James Bridges, who he met on the set of Ethel Barrymore’s final film, “Johnny Trouble“, in 1957. They were together 35 years, until Bridges’ death in 1993.