George Reeves former residence is rather small, especially by Hollywood standards. The death of the original Superman is one of those American mysteries that may never fully add up. No scandals were too big to be neutralised by Eddie, from covering-up Clark Gable accidently killing actress Tosca Roulien, to tracking down and buying up every copy of a porn film starring Joan Crawford. [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. September6, 1892 was the daughter of George Christian Lescher and Eliza Jane McKenzie, she died in a Pasadena hospital on June 18, 1964. Nevertheless, the end of his iconic role reportedly hit him hard and at 45, typecast, unemployed and overweight, he found himself reduced to appearing in commercials and celebrity boxing matches. Worst of all occurred on April 8th, when Reeves lost control of his Jaguar and careered into a cement pillar near his home in Benedict Canyon. Toni, a former showgirl and starlet in the early talkies, married MGM studios enforcer Eddie Mannix in 1951. To the right is the den and through the living room to the left you find the stairs leading to the guest room and adjoining bathroom which overlook the street. However, Superman producers offered him a salary increase, and he returned to the series. No one is entirely certain who was even at the house that night. The same cast was very quickly taken on for a television series, The Adventures of Superman, sponsored by Kellogg's cereal, which began airing late in 1952. The home is currently a private residence but photos can be easily taken from the street. When the police did arrive, they found no sign . The following is taken from the official autopsy report: Exactly what happened that night was never fully resolved, due to varying drunken accounts. Reeves was apparently scheduled to marry Lemmon on June 19 and then spend their honeymoon in Tijuana. 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. Talking to friend Millicent Trent, Bliss said Lemmon had actually rushed down the stairs after the gunshot and urged them to Tell them I was down here! When his mother moved to California to be with her sister, it was said Reeves never saw his father again. Reeves returned to Hollywood in 1951 for a role in a Fritz Lang film, Rancho Notorious. Hes been murdered. This kind of phone call would not have been out of the ordinary for Lois Lane, the character Coates famously played on TV. Catalog; For You; Globe. Reeves was extremely intoxicated when he died, and also pumped full of painkillers to treat the injuries he received in his recent car accident. 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. George Reeves was depressed and whilst entertaining guests at his home he he inexplicably left the room, placed a pistol to his right temple and pulled the trigger. On June 16, 1959, actress Phyllis Coates was woken up around 4:30 a.m. by a very strange phone call. [33] Reeves had been made a "Kentucky Colonel" during a publicity trip in the South, and the sign on his dressing room door was replaced with a new one that read "Honest George, also known as Col. Reeves", created by the show's prop department. 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. The issue was that Reeves eventually broke Tonis heart when he called it off to begin a relationship with the woman who would become his fiancee, Lenore Lemmon. Carol lived in the neighborhood. Lemmon and Reeves had a stormy relationship but, at least according to her, were engaged to be married. Faster than a speeding bullet! The police ruled the death a suicide, but by the time Reevesobituary was published in the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper already noted there was an element of mystery.. 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). While studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, Reeves met his future wife, Ellanora Needles. 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. Upon hearing of George's demise, he went to the house and the . He was dead from a single gunshot wound to his right temple. Reeves death was the first in what would come to be a string of tragedies surrounding the role, in what would come to be known as the Superman curse. 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. Conspiracy theories abound and Reeves death has remained the stuff of Hollywood legend for over five decades since. The second half of the show was Reeves out of costume as himself, singing and accompanying himself on the guitar. The issues wasnt just career frustration. He performed on live television anthology programs, as well as on radio, and then returned to Hollywood in 1951 for a role in a Fritz Lang film, Rancho Notorious.[22]. TV legend George Reeves was killed by older lover he jilted for a sex kitten 2018-11-16 - . [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. Separated from his wife (their divorce became final in 1950), Reeves moved to New York City in 1949. In reality, George Reeves life was a far cry from that of his heroic television counterpart. The official verdict was that Reeves had committed suicide, the weight of his troubles having become too much for him to bear. 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. George Reeves as Superman CASE DETAILS The gun had no fingerprints on it Early one morning in June of 1959, Los Angeles police raced to a high priced Hollywood Hills home. She died alone in her apartment over New Year 1989, her body not found for four days. However, a number of suspicious details about the case have long piqued the interest of gossip mongers and armchair detective alike. When George Reeves, who had achieved international fame by playing Superman for five years on TV, was found dead by gunshot in 1959, the death was officially recorded as a suicide. The first photo above looks into the living room from the backyard. So I figured this was the perfect time to do so and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend. Lemmon had called them after she and her party guests had found Reeves dead in his bedroom. Although the power of the studios was waning by the 1950s, its possible Eddie Mannix still wielded enough influence to fix George Reeves at his wifes behest. 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. In the early hours of June 16, Mannix called Coates; she was hysterical and told her friend that Reeves had been murdered. A month later, having uncovered no evidence contradicting the official finding, Giesler announced that he was satisfied that the gunshot wound had been self-inflicted and withdrew.[41][39]. Your definitive source to filming locations and all things Hollywood! A noise echoed: See, hes opening the drawer to get the gun. Then a shot: I told you, hes shot himself.. It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane were in the film's opening scene. [13] His Gone with the Wind screen credit reflects the change. Leonore Lemmon was, by all accounts, a bit of a hell-raiser. Hard drinking and hard partying, she gave as good as she got, and had the dubious distinction of been the first woman to be thrown out of New Yorks famous Stork club for fist fighting. Embattled New York Rep. George Santos said Thursday that he is "fully cooperating" with the House Ethics Committee, which is . Since a 9mm Luger generally ejects its shells to the right, it's hard to conceive what position the actor must have been in when he fired for it to have ended up underneath him. Reeves was dressed in one of his characters Clark Kent suits for the funeral, which took place two weeks later, on June 30th, 1959. As portrayed in films such as Hollywoodland and Hail Ceasar, Eddie had an array of thugs, bent cops, private eyes and mobsters on the payroll. But his business manager and mother, among others, said that while it was true he was disappointed in the way things were going, his feelings werent strong enough to explain a suicide. Inexplicably, the shell casing was found underneath Reeves body. Was he responsible, on behalf of his wronged wife, for the misfortunes that had befallen Reeves in the run up to his death? 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. And did that scandal involve one of the most powerful men in the movie business, Toni Maddoxs husband Eddie? Reeves had options for making a living, but those options apparently all involved playing Superman againa role that he was not eager to reprise at age 45. The Superman cast members had restrictive contracts preventing them from taking other work that might interfere with the series. In 1953, Reeves played a minor character, Sergeant Maylon Stark, in From Here to Eternity. Others suggested that Eddie Mannix, rumored to have Mafia ties, ordered Reeves killed.[43]. : The Return of Black Adam. But this had no official status and could not overrule the coroner's verdict of suicide. (1942), a war drama for Paramount Pictures. [27], His good friend Bill Walsh, a producer at Disney Studios, gave Reeves a prominent role in Westward Ho the Wagons! The recent feature film, "Hollywoodland" is about this questionable death of a popular celebrity. He was lucky to escape with head injuries that required him to take powerful painkillers right up until the night he died. [26] He was reportedly making $5,000 (about $50,000 in today's dollars) per week, but only while the show was in production (about eight weeks each year). Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. Even outside of the world of comic books, bullets sometimes do funny things, and that was certainly the case in the death of George Reeves. 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 However, Reeves mother, Helen Bessolo, was convinced that her son had been murdered. [17] He avoided smoking cigarettes where children could see him and eventually quit smoking. Si no quieres que nosotros ni nuestros socios utilicemos cookies y datos personales para estos propsitos adicionales, haz clic en Rechazar todo. She died in 1989. However, many studios were slowing down their production schedules, and some production units had shut down completely. '"[29], Reeves, Noel Neill, Natividad Vaco, Gene LeBell, and a trio of musicians toured with a public-appearance show from 1957 onward. He was also engaged to Leonore Lemmon, a New York showgirl. 'See thereI told you so! As more and more time passed between acting jobs paying less and less, Reeves was reduced to appearing in a low-budget serial produced by Sam Katzman, The Adventures of Sir Galahad, and taking a second job digging cesspools. THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (1951-1957) - unknown actor (left) with George Reeves as "Superman." He was able to play against type and starred as a villainous gold hunter in a Johnny Weismuller Jungle Jim film. In a wild turn of events, the alleged problem with this situation was not the affair itselfjilted husband Eddie had his own liaisons outside of the marriage and allegedly had no problem with his wifes relationship with Reeves. 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. 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. Reeves new girlfriend, who had since moved in, was a New York socialite named Leonore Lemmon, with whom he was rumored to be engaged. This is the house, and home, that Superman actor George Reeves lived and died in. Show more. She had talked to him days before, and, according to her, he was in a splendid state of mind. She had the body exhumed, and a second autopsy was performed. The police also appeared to be behaving in a careless manner. The Mysterious Death of Superman George Reeves It wasn't Kryptonite that killed Superman. There were 104 episodes of The Adventures of Superman before the cancellation ax fell in 1958. Their relationship was full of booze and bickering. The sinister true story behind the death of George Reeves By Gaby Wood 13 March 2016 12:18pm Reeves, star of the Fifties TV show The Adventures of Superman, was shot in 1959. However, many of his friends and colleagues believe the actor was murdered, his death the stormy culmination of a tangled love life. All was not well behind the scenes in Metropolis. In 1959, however, negotiations began for a renewal of the series, with 26episodes scheduled to go into production. If you are lucky enough, the homeowners may allow you to tour the home's grounds and possibly the interior as well. The Great Mystery Of George Reeves' Death On June 16, 1959, the actor died in his own bedroom when he was only 45 years old from a shot to the head. He had a string of B-list movies after that, and was slowly working his way up to leading man status when bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor. He starred in a number of two-reel short subjects and appeared in several B-pictures, including two with Ronald Reagan and three with James Cagney (Torrid Zone, The Fighting 69th, and The Strawberry Blonde). The actors were poorly paid, and even after Reeves received a raise after trying and failing to leave the show after three seasons, he found himself struggling for money, unable to get the roles he really wanted, and taxed for time given the all-consuming nature of his Superman commitments. Televisions beloved Superman was dead at the tender age of 45. 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 film suggests three possible scenarios: accidental shooting by Lemmon, murder by an unnamed hitman under orders from Eddie Mannix, and suicide. A long Broadway run followed, before a national tour and a movie version. Reeves was transferred to the Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, where he made training films. It is sometimes easy to get caught up in the mystery of George Reeves demise, the different theories and suspects. [15] They married on September 22, 1940, in San Gabriel, California, at the Church of Our Savior. Reeves wrote the pilot script himself. Reeves also enjoyed playing with an unloaded gun. The coroner ruled it suicide. 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. When he returned, his mother told him his stepfather had committed suicide. He got angry at them for being very loud. The death of the original Superman is one of those American mysteries that may never fully add up. Reeves's film career began in 1939 when he was cast as Stuart Tarleton (albeit incorrectly listed in the film's credits as Brent Tarleton), one of Vivien Leigh's suitors in Gone with the Wind. Advertisement. Upstairs, they found the homeowner naked and sprawled across his bed. Was the coroner's verdict right after all? After Gone with the Wind was filmed, Reeves returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and was given the lead role in the play Pancho. George Reeves from "Superman" had a mysterious death that saw him die from a single gunshot wound to the head. (1956), in which Reeves wore a beard and mustache. [1][2][3][4][5][6], Reeves was born January 5, 1914,[7][8] as George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, the son of Donald Carl Brewer and Helen Lescher. Lemmon says George Reeves committed suicide. Reeves mother refused to believe her son had killed himself and hired famous Hollywood lawyer Jerry Giesler to investigate further. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman (1952-1958). After two seasons, Reeves was dissatisfied with his salary and the show's one-dimensional role. Was the star of 50s TV show The Adventures of Superman murdered? Robert (Bobby) was writing a book about boxer Archie Moore. Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point. Reeves himself was convinced it was Mannix behind a string of strange incidents that had befallen him in the aftermath of their breakup. After all, it was she who had made the early morning phone call to Coates, before anyone outside of Reeves home could have known about his death. It was to be his final feature film appearance. Whatever the case may be, no charges were ever filed and Reeves death remains one of the most talked about Hollywood scandals to this day. Multiple gunshot suicides are rare, so if these shots were contemporary to Reeves death, it seems unlikely he was the shooter. Was Lemmon with Reeves when he shot himself? First, Reeves was found naked. By midnight on the night of June 16, 1959, only Lenore and writer Robert Condon were still at his house with him. Many photos shown in various magazines in the past indicated that George's bedroom windows could be seen from the street. We have always known that house guest Robert Condon, Carol Van Ronkel and William Bliss were there. One, Reeves committed suicide. [1] [2] His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains controversial. At 45 and craving more serious work, the prospect of yet again trudging around the country in tights and cape, as children threw stones at him and teenagers challenged him to fights, may have become too much bare. I don't know what happened to George. The characters involved range from colorful to drunk to suspicious, having by now taken any secrets . Last edited on 17 February 2023, at 06:25, Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Death of George Reeves The Original Superman", "The Life and Tragic Death of 'Superman' Star George Reeves Plus the Actor in his Own Words", "7 super things you might not know about George Reeves", "11 Homes That Are Haunted by Dead Celebrities", "Was Superman star George Reeves a suicide or murder victim? As TVs original Superman, George Reeves was the ultimate hero to millions of children. Had Reeves really shot himself three times? Mannix was devastated by the rejection, made all the more humiliating for the fact Reeves had moved Lemmon into a house in Los Angeles she owned. Includes the ability to log visits, view logs, save and filter offline Waymarks and use beautiful offline maps! Many felt that Reeves was tired of being known as Superman, and that he killed himself out of anguish. Amazingly, George Reeves shot part of a Kelloggs Corn Flakes commercial (the cereal company was the sponsor of Adventures of Superman) inside of his actual Benedict Canyon home. Twentieth Century-Fox loaned him to producer Alexander Korda to co-star with Merle Oberon in Lydia,[17] a box-office failure, after which he freelanced, looking to find work in westerns. Look! 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. A shot was heard. His dad left the family shortly after and his mother moved with her infant son to California. Leonore Lemmon fled to New York right after Reeves died--but first emptied his house of liquor bottles and $4,000 in traveler's checks. Lenore was allegedly upset at the way he was handling the situation. It may have seemed like an open and shut case: Man found upstairs, gun on the floor, a single bullet wound in his head. 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. Mother Victoria Alice Mason. No charges were ever brought against anyone in connection to the case. Tall and chisel jawed, Reeves was the perfect choice to play the all American hero in the syndicated television show the Adventures of Superman. Reeves would later recall the impact Sandrich's death had on his career. Besides, she was married to the most dangerous man in Hollywood, who had a formidable reputation for been able to make problems disappear. Jim Beaver is just as convinced that George's death was a suicide, as was reported in the newspapers of the day. Firstly, TV had just become ubiquitous in households across the country, but television as a medium was still seen as the lowbrow younger sibling to films high art. A gentle man in real life, given to moods, he was despondent because "everyone thought of him as Superman, not as an actor" and now that the show was no longer shooting, he couldn't get a job. The ballistics looked all wrong too. A script was commissioned from David Chantler, who had written many of the TV scripts. Noel Neill was quoted as saying that the cast of Superman was ready to do a new series of the still-popular show. The areas which appeared in the commercial include the den; the master bedroom (where the actor died); and the backyard. 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. Loved the commercial..how cool! George Reeves' Ghost. She and Eddie had used his underworld connections to have Reeves killed. Bessolo actually died March 4, 1944, at age 51, when his adopted son was well into his movie career. (Reeves and Crane both dyed their hair red to portray the Tarleton twins.) Reeves had been having an affair with his wife Toni Mannix. And that was the scene that was set on June 15, 1959. 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. Peterson as saying: "Miss Lemmon blurted, 'He's probably going to go shoot himself.' George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer; January 5, 1914 June 16, 1959) was an American actor. On June 15, George and Leonore had gone out to a rather boozy dinner, to celebrate the upcoming marriage. 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. According to biographer Jim Beaver, Reeves did not know for several years that Bessolo was still alive. Had Reeves, drunk, unhappy and smarting at another argument with his new girlfriend Leonore Lemmon, pulled the trigger on his Luger whilst plumbing some dark trough of self pity? Meanwhile, DC Comics was planning a television adaptation of its most famous character. Did the 45-year-old actor commit suicide (as was the official finding), was his death accidental, or was he murdered by his vengeful ex-lover or her jealous husband? Reeves found himself unemployable. Whilst its true the actor had a habit of playing dangerous games with his gun, naked in bed at 1am does not seem a very likely time for macabre party tricks. Just over a year after the war started, Reeves was called up. They had even planned to marry if Eddie were to die. George Reeves' death was ruled a suicide, . The findings of a second autopsy, conducted at Giesler's request, were the same as the first, except for a series of bruises of unknown origin about the head and body. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results George Azer Reeves (1914 - 1945) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. [13] The Bessolo marriage lasted 15 years, ending in divorce, with the couple separating while Reeves was away visiting relatives. Actors Alan Ladd and Gig Young were reportedly skeptical of the official determination. [39] Despite the unanswered questions, Reeves' death was officially ruled a suicide, based on witness statements, physical evidence at the scene, and the autopsy report. Another rumor was that a car was heard speeding away from the house as well. According to the statements given to the police (statements that were no doubt slurred), Reeves came down to ask them to be quiet, they convinced him to stay for a drink, and then he stomped his way back upstairs. She continued, 'He's opening a drawer to get the gun.' 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. The death was quickly ruled a suicide, but several of those near and dear to the actor believed there was no way he would have killed himself. Two neighbors stopped by, hoping to join the party. In 1927, Frank Bessolo adopted George at aged 13, as his own son, and the boy took on his stepfather's last name, becoming George Bessolo. His fears were not unfounded, as he had been out of work for two years by the time of his death in 1959. If the Hollywood stories are to be believed, any death involving a girl and a gun is suspicious. Giesler called for a second autopsy. Para obtener ms informacin sobre cmo utilizamos tus datos personales, consulta nuestra Poltica de privacidad y Poltica de cookies. 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. Reeves and Leonore Lemmon. Quick Description: The actor George Reeves house where TV's "Superman," was found dead of a head gunshot wound on June 16, 1959. The show was a smashing success, drawing huge audiences each episode. At around1 am, William Bliss and Carol Van Ronkel came by for an impromptu meeting.
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