It’ll lead to Russell Crowe – I promise.
While U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt was throwing out the first ball at a season opener between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics, a little something unrelated was also happening.
On April 18th – although the official cover date would be for June of that year – a character called Superman debuted as the cover feature of the anthology Action Comics number one. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high school students living in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933.
Superman has gone on to become one of the greatest superheroes of all time and has been played by – per Empire magazine – FIFTY actors including:
- Bud Collyer (radio and animated shorts)
- George Reeves (television)
- Adam Baldwin (of Firefly and Chuck – animation)
- Patrick Warburton (of Family Guy and Seinfeld – did Superman’s voice in commercials with Jerry Seinfeld. Remember that Seinfeld’s TV character is an avid Superman fan)
- Tim Daly (of Wings – animation)
- Alan Tudyk (of Firefly – animation straight to DVD)
- Channing Tatum (The Lego Movie‘s version of Superman)
- Mark Harmon (animation – Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths)
- Dean Cain (the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman)
- Brandon Routh (Superman Returns – and who has seen his Legends of Tomorrow character receive a bit of Superman-related joking on that series, as well as when he made his guest star appearance on Chuck)
- Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League)
- Tom Welling (Smallville)
- Tyler Hoechlin (better known for Teen Wolf, he’s played Clark Kent/Superman on several episodes of the CW’s Supergirl)
- Christopher Reeve (Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace). Reeve remains The Keeper’s favorite Superman.
Therefore, we return full circle to Russell. Because all this talk of Superman and his first appearance on the cover of Action Comics is just an excuse to squeeze in Crowe’s portrayal as Jor-El in Man of Steel. So here are some images from said movie!
