Jack Larson, playwright and actor, died at 87

  Dead Famous

Jack Edward Larson, born on February 8, 1928 and died September 20, 2015, he was an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer.

He is best known for his portrayal of photographer/cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the television series Adventures of Superman.

Jack was born in Los Angeles on February 8, 1928 of Swedish and Russian descent, and reared in Pasadena.

He graduated from Montebello High School in 1945, aged 17, and at times claimed 1933 as his birth year.

Jack found the role of cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on The Adventures of Superman to be a handicap, because he became typecast as a naive young man.

This caused him to do little acting after the show ended in 1958, and instead he focused on behind-the-scenes work, such as writing and production.

Jack was always willing to sit for interviews about the Superman series and his connection to it, and in recent years had a number of cameos that paid subtle tribute to his character and the series, including a 1991 episode of the TV series Superboy, alongside Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in Adventures of Superman, and an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as an aged Jimmy Olsen in the episode “Brutal Youth”, first telecast on October 20, 1996.

Jack had a cameo in a late-1990s American Express card commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman, directed by David Kellogg.

He and Neill provided commentary on several Adventures of Superman episodes for the January 2006 DVD release of the 1953 season, and in 2006, he appeared in Bryan Singer’s film Superman Returns in a cameo role as “Bo the Bartender”.

Jack and Neill appeared together at the premiere of Superman Returns.

Jack most recently appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which aired on the NBC network on January 6, 2010.

In this episode, titled “Quickie”, Jack portrayed “Dewey Butler”, grandfather to a young suspect who was allegedly having unprotected sexual relations with women.

Among his other work, Jack wrote the libretto to the opera Lord Byron to music by Virgil Thomson.

Jack was the life partner of director James Bridges from 1958 until Bridges’ death on June 6, 1993.

Prior to that, he was the companion of actor Montgomery Clift. He died on September 20, 2015 at the age of 87.

Jack owned and resided in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed George Sturges House in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, California until his death.

Jack Larson died at age 87 on September 20, 2015.