Supersexy Supermen

08 October 2008

Rate this article

Over the years there have been many incarnations of caped crusader Superman with a string of actors taking on the role on the big screen and on television.

Superman is arguably the most recognised character from the world of superhero characters, appearing in DC Comics in 1938, and has gone on to become a cultural icon.

So to celebrate the release of Smallville Season 7 on DVD FemaleFirst has taken a look at some of the actors that have donned the blue and red of this most famous character.

Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve is the most famous actor to take on the character of Superman fronting all four of the big screen movies.

The first of these movies came in 1978 and the film is widely credited with establishing the superhero film genre that now dominates cinema.

A further three movies were made with film two finding just as much success as the first but it was film four that did not do well critically or commercially and the franchise would not be seen again on the big screen until 2006.

Brandon Routh

Like Reeve actor former model Brandon Routh was an unknown, beating off the likes of Brendan Fraser, Paul Walker, Josh Hartnett and Nicholas Cage, when he stepped into the role of Superman for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in 2006.

The franchise had been off the big screen for almost twenty years but it was a project that director Singer had always wanted to pursue.

The film was met well overall by the critics and went on to gross $391 million at the global box office. This was seen as a disappointment especially when Pirates of the Caribbean Dead man's Chest, which was released around the same time, grossed $1 billion.

Dean Cain

But as well as success on the big screen the all American hero has also been a massive hit on television with Dean Cain taking on the role in the New Adventures of Superman which aired between 1993-1997.

Based on the Superman comic books the series focused as much on the relationship between Lois and Clark as on the adventures of Clark's alter ego.

Tom Welling

But it's tom Welling's version of the hero in Smallville that really has been a longstanding success as the show is now in it's eighth season and takes a different spin on the story.

Instead of looking at Clark Kent as an adult juggling two lives it instead goes back to his teenage years before he came Superman in the fictional town of Smallville in Kansas.

The first four seasons focused on Clark and his friends' high school years. Since season five, the show has ventured into more adult settings, with some characters attending college.

In the role of Clark unknown actor, when he was cast, has enjoyed a rise to stardom and heart-throb status.

George Reeves

However there is a fifth actor who had taken on the role of Superman, an actor that is quite often forgotten, and that is George Reeves who starred in the television series in the fifties.

But after two seasons, Reeves expressed dissatisfaction with the one-dimensional role and the low salary. Now 40 years old, he wished to quit the show and move on with his career. However, Superman producers offered him a salary increase and he returned to the role.

But in 1959 Reeves was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head although many saw it as suicide or accidental death there are still question marks over how he died.