George Reeves

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. 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’ 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.

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’ 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’ 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’ 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’ 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’ sitting position on the edge of the bed when he allegedly shot himself, after which the bullet struck his head, his body fell back on the bed and the .30 caliber (7.65×21mm) Luger pistol fell between his feet.

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’ 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!'”‘

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’ friend and colleague from “Gone With The Wind,” put Leonore Lemmon either inside or in direct proximity to Reeves’ 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.”

Witness statements and the examination of the crime scene by the Los Angeles Police led to the official inquiry conclusion that Reeves’ death was a suicide.

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. For his contributions to the TV industry he was awarded a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 1960.