Jack Larson, forever typecast as the overeager cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman, has died. He was 87.Larson was talked into the job by his agent, who argued that the job would make for easy money and would never amount to anything. Instead, it was an instant hit and Larson was contractually forbidden from doing much of anything else for the next six seasons. After the show ended, Larson found himself forever typecast as Jimmy Olson and rarely did any more acting work.
Larson, who later produced several films written and/or directed by his longtime companion, the late Oscar nominee James Bridges, died Sunday at his home in Brentwood, The New York Times reported. Further details of his death were not immediately available.
In 1951, Larson signed up to play the hapless Olsen for $250 an episode on Adventures of Superman, the first TV show to feature the Man of Steel from the comics. At the time, he wanted to go to New York to tackle Broadway and didn’t think the series — then one of the few to be filmed, not done live — would amount to anything.
As noted above, Jack Larson was a longtime companion to James Bridges. They met in 1957 and remained together as a couple until Bridges' death to cancer in June 1993.