The real Superman

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
The headlines read: "Superman Kills Self."
Even after his death on June 16, 1959, actor George Reeves could not escape the shadow of his most famous character.
Reeves' lonesome demise inspired the new mystery Hollywoodland, opening Friday, which examines the apparent suicide of the 1950s TV star (played by Ben Affleck) through the eyes of a fictional private investigator (The Pianist Oscar winner Adrien Brody).
Reeves, who had small roles in Gone With the Wind and From Here to Eternity, was found in a bedroom at his Benedict Canyon home, shot in the head.
The Los Angeles county coroner determined it was a suicide. But rumors began to circulate when Reeves' mother hired criminal attorney Jerry Geisler to investigate whether her son was murdered.
The investigation never produced anything except speculation, according to author Gary Grossman's book Superman: Serial to Cereal, about the early screen incarnations of the DC Comics icon.
Hollywoodland delves into whether Reeves' affair with a studio exec's wife led to foul play. But the film probes deeper, exploring whether simple unhappiness led the hero to millions of children to take his own life.
"How did he manage to impact a generation of kids and still not be happy about it? It ate him up as opposed to satisfying him," says screenwriter Paul Bernbaum, who was a childhood fan of the show.
Grossman's book quotes friends of Reeves saying that, after the cancellation of the Superman TV show, the actor felt that he was hopelessly typecast and would never again find work.
In the years after Reeves' death at age 45, outrageous (and untrue) stories circulated — that he went insane, thought he really was Superman and jumped out of a window, or that he was shot by someone who thought the bullet would bounce off.
But Bernbaum believes Reeves died by his own hand, because of his own insecurities.
"He was a huge, huge star," Bernbaum says. "But it wasn't the right kind of stardom for him."