[1][2], His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains controversial. A classically trained actor who already had some impressive credits to his name, including the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind, Reeves was reluctant to take on the role because in televisions early days, it was considered to be a rather undignified medium that was far inferior to film. Reeves wrote the pilot script himself. Many photos shown in various magazines in the past indicated that George's bedroom windows could be seen from the street. A noise was heard upstairs. It all seemed so simple. The ex-girlfriend who couldn't let go Beginning in 1948, Reeves had a 10-year. Reeves death was quickly ruled a suicide, but some facts of the case appear to be murky at best. and im so curious to know,is it true or not?cause if it is true..wow it is the scariest thing ive ever heard. They decided that he was fooling around, not realizing the gun was loaded. Kent then rushed offstage to return as Superman, who came to the rescue and fought with the bad guy. George Reeves mother Helen Bessolo never accepted the official verdict and hired private investigators to to reopen the investigation into his death. Superman actor George Reeves is beloved for his portrayal of the character, and this is an in-depth look back at his life and tragic death. SUPERMAN MURDER SOLVED! [17] He was drafted in early 1943. While many of Reeves friends doubted the suicide verdict, Jack Larson, who played cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in the show, always accepted that his friend took his own life. In the documentary Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, Jack Larson said that when he first met Reeves, he told him that he enjoyed his performance in So Proudly We Hail! He starred in a number of two-reel short subjects and appeared in several B-pictures, including two with future president of the United States Ronald Reagan and three with James Cagney (Torrid Zone, The Fighting 69th, and The Strawberry Blonde). . Everyone involved decided that it had been a suicide. Si no quieres que nosotros ni nuestros socios utilicemos cookies y datos personales para estos propsitos adicionales, haz clic en Rechazar todo. Copyright (c) 2023 Groundspeak, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newspapers and wire-service reports quoted LAPD Sergeant V.A. The long Broadway run was followed by a national tour and a movie version. Around 1, two friends came by for a visit. Is there any truth in the persistent rumours that Reeves was murdered? Wikimedia CommonsReeves played opposite Vivien Leigh as one of the Tarleton twins in Gone With the Wind. But the scandalous and suspicious way he met his death in 1959 could not have been further removed from his role as the Man of Steel. Reeves himself was also severely under the influence, with a blood alcohol level of .27 and, because the actor had long enjoyed playing with unloaded weapons, it was thought possible he accidentally shot himself while doing so. What raised eyebrows regarding Reeves' death is that he was found naked in his bedroom by his guests during a small gathering at 1:59 a.m.; his guests waited 45 minutes to call police; detectives found additional bullet holes in the floor of his bedroom; bruises were found on Reeves' body; shell casings were discovered in strange locations; and a On June 16, 1959, Reeves was found dead in his bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. She was absolutely terrified of going to hell", Lozzi told the LA Times. According to the autopsy report, Reeves had taken his .30 caliber German Luger pistol, placed it near his right temple and pulled the trigger. It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane were in the film's opening scene. Sprawled naked on his bed, Reeves had been shot in the head after a late night party at his house. The windows above the living room are the windows to George's bedroom. Character actor Ben Welden had acted with Reeves in the Warner Bros. days and frequently guest-starred on Superman. If you are lucky enough, the homeowners may allow you to tour the home's grounds and possibly the interior as well. Father George Thomas Reeves. However, many studios were slowing down their production schedules, and some production units had shut down completely. To this day, there are three possible scenarios that explain the death of George Reeves. This theory goes that Lemmon was drunk and unhappy that night and shot her soon-to-be-husband. The issues wasnt just career frustration. Reeves returned to Hollywood in 1951 for a role in a Fritz Lang film, Rancho Notorious. On the night of his death, George had several friends over. Just over a year after the war started, Reeves was called up. : The Return of Black Adam. . I know he enjoyed the role, but he used to say, 'Here I am, wasting my life. . The Day Superman Died, George Reeves Death House 6,369 views Feb 16, 2019 159 Dislike Share Save Michael Thompson's Hidden In Plain Sight 688 subscribers In this video I visit the house where. So I figured this was the perfect time to do so and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend. However, many of his friends and colleagues believe the actor was murdered, his death the stormy culmination of a tangled love life. Years later, William Bliss, one of the party guests who had originally told police Leonore Lemmon was downstairs with them when the shot was heard, changed his story. (The punchline: Ricardo, do you mean to say that youve been married to her for 15 years? But the strange death of Superman is not a parlour game. According to Condon, Lemmon was in an combative mood that night, and had made somewhat of a scene in the restaurant. [36] According to Crane (who was not present), Bill Bliss had told Millicent Trent after the shot rang out, while Bliss was having a drink, that Leonore Lemmon came downstairs and said, Tell them I was down here, tell them I was down here![37], A number of questionable physical findings were reported by investigators and others: No fingerprints were recovered from the gun. George Reeves had a reasonably successful film career (including a small part in Gone with the Wind) when he took the role of Superman in Superman and the Mole Men, a feature film. Para obtener ms informacin sobre cmo utilizamos tus datos personales, consulta nuestra Poltica de privacidad y Poltica de cookies. Witnesses in the house who behaved a little oddly but heard the whole thing. Around one in the morning they were joined by two of the neighbors, at which point Reeves, who had already been in bed, stomped downstairs to yell at his guests. Reeves, who took his acting career seriously and had parts in Gone with the Wind and From here to Eternity, always had mixed feelings about his fame as Superman. (Some sources contend that it may not have been looked for, as gunshot residue testing was not routinely performed in 1959). His relatives believed he was murdered, and disputed the official ruling of suicide. Cuando utilizas nuestros sitios y aplicaciones, usamos. Director Allen Coulter Writer Paul Bernbaum Stars Adrien Brody Ben Affleck Diane Lane See production, box office & company info Watch on STARZ with Prime Video Channels More watch options Add to Watchlist Added by 25.7K users Another location that has long been woven into the fabric of Hollywood lore is George Reeves former Benedict Canyon bungalow, where in the early morning hours of June 16th, 1958 the Adventures of Superman star was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. While he and Lemmon were supposed to get married only a few days after his death, Lemmon allegedly had soured on him after she realized the older Superman wasnt quite the loaded Hollywood player she thought he was. (1956), in which Reeves wore a beard and mustache. Reeves blood alcohol content that night was .27 percent. In 1960, Reeves was awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the TV industry. On June 16, 1959, actress Phyllis Coates was woken up around 4:30 a.m. by a very strange phone call. She and Eddie had used his underworld connections to have Reeves killed. It was an open secret in the business that Reeves had been conducting a long term affair with Toni Mannix, the wife of notorious Hollywood fixer and MGM vice president Eddie Mannix. The Suspicious Death of George Reeves. Many believe that the ghostly appearances by the actor lend credence to the idea that he was murdered. Its a bird! He was contracted to Warner Brothers at the time, and the actor's professional name became "George Reeves" and his GWTW screen credit reflects the change. However, these were never investigated and Giesler strangely refused to work on the case any longer. At the beginning of his life, George Reeves was a Midwesterner by birth but, as he grew older, he made his way out to California with his mother. She continued, 'He's opening a drawer to get the gun.' There she had met and married Frank Joseph Bessolo by 1927, according to that year's federal census. The people in the house were quite intoxicated and weren't much help to the investigation even waiting over 30 minutes before calling the police. however to this day there is an air of mystery surrounding Reeves' death. The actor had no burn marks on his hands or face - how had he shot himself in the head with a pistol without leaving powder burns? Character: . According to publicist Edward Lozzi, who had befriended Toni during her last years as a widow in Beverly Hills, what she had done weighed heavily on the now elderly Mannix. The home has not changed much since the mid-fifties. In the early morning hours of June 16, 1959, George Reeves, who was the first to make the superhero an icon when he played the titular role in the inaugural TV series, was found dead in his bedroom, naked with a bullet through his head. 1. A long Broadway run followed, before a national tour and a movie version. A few minutes later a shot was heard and the foursome ran upstairs. In June 2021, an episode of the internet series BuzzFeed Unsolved discussed the death of Reeves and possible theories. His work on the show would earn him fame as the Original Superman, even though that wasnt technically true. Following the path so many women have taken throughout Hollywood history, Reeves turned to directing, producing, and writing when he couldnt get the roles he wanted. The death of the original Superman is one of those American mysteries that may never fully add up. No gunpowder residue was found on Reeves' hands. November 5, 2022. in Arts, Culture, News. The subsequent police report seem to accept the whole story at face value. He was 40 years old and wanted to quit and move on with his career. Finally, theres the fiancee. Reeves usually had an open door policy, but not after midnight. All of the conspiracy theories surrounding Reevess death would eventually be played out on the big screen in 2006s Hollywoodland, but they boil down to three scenarios. To unravel the murky fate of TVs first superhero we must return to the early hours of June 16, 1959. Miss Lemmon then made the statement, He is going to shoot himself. Shortly, they heard a dresser drawer being opened upstairs, and Miss Lemmon commented, He is getting the gun out now, and he is going to shoot himself. Moments later, a shot was heard, and they ran upstairs to see what happened. Coates was amongst many of Reeves friends and co-stars who did not believe he would have killed himself. For whatever reason, though, in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, I had yet to stalk the former Supermans home. He had recently been involved in a serious affair with a married woman, Toni Mannix, before dumping her for his high-society fiancee, leaving Mannix devastated. When the police did arrive, they found no sign . Advertisement. Perhaps he came a little too close to the truth. He kept his private life discreet, including a romantic relationship with Toni Mannix, wife of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer general manager Eddie Mannix. Reeves would frequently bemoan the role he felt so trapped in, with particular disdain reserved for the crude and repetitive scripts that often required little more of him than to turn up at the end and have the villains bullets bounce off his chest. And they call me Superman!). But from another, the death of George Reeves looks a lot like murder. Reeves himself was convinced it was Mannix behind a string of strange incidents that had befallen him in the aftermath of their breakup. Reeves was extremely intoxicated when he died, and also pumped full of painkillers to treat the injuries he received in his recent car accident. The police arrived within the hour. Reeves, however, earned additional income from personal appearances. When his mother moved to California to be with her sister, it was said Reeves never saw his father again. Three bullet holes were found in the bedroom, all caused by the Luger that was found resting between the victim's legs. Mannixs wife Toni Lanier, whom the actor had broken up with shorty before his death. Her devastation at been rejected by her boy had pushed her to the ultimate reprisal. Mannix died in 1983 at the age of 77--her husband Eddie had died in 1963. It is located in a fairly modest area, even though the asking price in 1995 was $625,000. The . But even more importantly, The Adventures of Superman was marketed mostly towards a younger audience. Its Superman! The iconic intro blazed into American households on Sept. 19, 1952. George Reeves former residence is rather small, especially by Hollywood standards. [27], His good friend Bill Walsh, a producer at Disney Studios, gave Reeves a prominent role in Westward Ho the Wagons! As Reeves returned to his room, Lemmon bizarrely began providing some morbid commentary. (Reeves and Crane both dyed their hair red to portray the Tarleton twins.) The woman on the other end of the line was a woman named Toni Mannix. U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records 19381946, dated March24, 1943, Speeding Bullet, 2nd Ed, by Jan Alan Henderson, p. 151. She also had a reputation as a gold digger, having married twice before for money. The gun fell to his feet and the shell was found underneath him. . Reeves was born five months into their marriage (the reason Reeves's mother subsequently claimed a false April birth date for her son, something he was unaware of until . Bud Collyer had voiced the Man of Steel on the radio from 1940 to 1951, and Kirk Alyn played the role in two 15-part movie serials that ended in 1950. (1942), a war drama for Paramount Pictures. Some after his death said it was a profound depression and frustration with his career that led to the night in question. All was not well behind the scenes in Metropolis. Reeves worried he would be typecast as a childrens actor. Reeves head and hands showed no signs of gunshot residue or powder burns. [42] 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. Reeves worked tirelessly with Toni Mannix to raise money to fight myasthenia gravis. Over six years and 104 episodes, the actor smiled broadly in pictures, fists planted on hips in the famous Superman power pose, and made appearances to promote the hit television show, including a guest spot in costume on I Love Lucy. The accident was rendered in a more sinister light when Reeves mechanic discovered the brake fluid in the car had been drained. Another Superman stage show was scheduled for July[32] with a planned stage tour of Australia. The second half of the show was Reeves out of costume as himself, singing and accompanying himself on the guitar. There's a general belief that Toni Mannix bought the house, but his name Reeves established his own production company and conceived a TV adventure series called Port of Entry, which would be shot on location in Hawaii and Mexico. Next, read about the gruesome and unsolved murder of the Black Dahlia. What happened next is mired in controversy, but according to the police interviews with the witnesses, a short moment later a shot was heard and the man who had become famous for been impervious to gunfire had, ironically, ended his life with a bullet to the head. Released from his Warners contract, he signed a contract at Twentieth Century-Fox but was released after only a handful of films. According to partygoers, one of the guests raced upstairs to find Reeves lying across his bed, the life snuffed out of him by a bullet in the head. Separated from his wife (their divorce became final in 1950), Reeves moved to New York City in 1949. The coroner had ruled the forty-five year old actor's death a suicide, brought about by despondency over a failing career and too much alcohol. In 1959, however, negotiations began for a renewal of the series, with 26episodes scheduled to go into production. Born George Keefer Brewer in 1914 in Woolstock, Iowa to Helen Lescher and Don C. Brewer, young George would grow up in Ashland, Kentucky and later in Pasadena California where his sister also lived. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman (1952-1958). [19][20][21], Discharged at the war's end, Reeves returned to Hollywood. Robert (Bobby) was writing a book about boxer Archie Moore. The official verdict was that Reeves had committed suicide, the weight of his troubles having become too much for him to bear. The argument had carried over back to the house, Lemmon apparently upset by the suspicion that Reeves had been talking to previous girlfriend Toni Mannix. While the authorities officially declared Reeves' death to be a suicide, not everyone was willing to accept that conclusion. proporcionarte nuestros sitios y aplicaciones; autenticar usuarios, aplicar medidas de seguridad y evitar el spam y los abusos, y. medir el uso que haces de nuestros sitios y aplicaciones. Mobster Mickey Cohen once described Toni Mannix as the only person in Hollywood who had any balls. Entering the house from the street side, you walk into the living room. [31] However, Reeves and his partner failed to find financing, and the film was never made. Your definitive source to filming locations and all things Hollywood! Honorary pallbearers included Alan Ladd and Gig Young. If the Hollywood stories are to be believed, any death involving a girl and a gun is suspicious. More sinister still, did Eddie Mannix, a man whose job it was to make Hollywood scandals go away, pull some of his underworld strings and hire a hitman to erase the man who had so grievously upset his wife? At around 2am that morning, two police officers arrived at 1579 Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, the house Reeves had been living at with his new fiance Leonore Lemmon during the previous few months. Two people who might have had strong motives were Toni and Eddie Mannix. The home has not changed much since the mid-fifties. According to biographer Jim Beaver, Reeves did not know for several years that Bessolo was still alive. While Reeves was depressed at the time of his death, there were oddities at the crime scene. Faster than a speeding bullet! mostrar anuncios y contenido personalizados basados en perfiles de inters; medir la efectividad de los anuncios y el contenido personalizados, y. desarrollar y mejorar nuestros productos y servicios. It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane, both in brightly dyed red hair as "the Tarleton Twins," were in the film's opening scenes. He won critical acclaim for the role and garnered considerable publicity. Its impossible to ever know whats truly going on in someones head, especially on a night of heavy drinking, but it did seem that Reeves was taking steps to fix his situation. George Reeves' Former Home Another location that has long been woven into the fabric of Hollywood lore is George Reeves' former Benedict Canyon bungalow, where in the early morning hours of June 16th, 1958 the Adventures of Superman star was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. Larson had suffered a similar career downturn to Reeves after series was cancelled, and like his Superman co-star had struggled to break free of the typecasting associated with such an iconic role. It is located in a fairly modest area, even though the asking price in 1995 was $625,000. Clearly she had the motive, and through her ruthless and well connected husband she certainly had the means. The husband of Reeves jilted lover was the infamous Eddie Mannix, a fixer at MGM during the golden age of studios, when his job was to make stars problems vanish. And that was the scene that was set on June 15, 1959. According to legend, the house at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Los Angeles where actor George Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head early in the morning of June 16, 1959 is haunted. Reeves began acting and singing in high school and continued performing on stage as a student at Pasadena Junior College. Lemmon had called them after she and her party guests had found Reeves dead in his bedroom. Later in life, she become a somewhat tragic figure, bloated and consumed by alcoholism, Leonore would give many different accounts of the events of that night, often contradicting herself and denying things she was commonly reported to have said and done. After Gone with the Wind was filmed, Reeves returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and was given the lead role in the play Pancho. However, Superman producers offered him a salary increase, and he returned to the series. I remember watching Superman on tv, George Reeves Kelloggs Corn Flakes CommercialFilmed in his Home, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), I blogged about during my Haunted Hollywood theme last year, 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills. 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.