George Reeves may not be the first actor that springs to mind when you think of Superman, but the star’s untimely death put him at the centre of a conspiracy theory malestrom.
Reeves was actually the first Superman on TV, bursting onto screens in 1952 in the Adventures of Superman wearing the superhero’s now famous blue leotard and red cape.
However, in a case that shocked Hollywood, the actor was found dead in his bedroom in California in 1959 with a single gunshot wound to his head while his fiancee, Leonore Lemmon, sat downstairs with a house guest and two neighbours.
The police concluded the death was suicide, but rumours have been rife ever since that foul play was involved.
For the Los Angeles Police Department, it was a foregone conclusion, but both the newspapers and Reeves’ family were convinced that murder was a possibility.
After all, there was no shortage of suspects or motives.
Reeves died days before he was due to marry his fiancee Leonore, who he was said to have been arguing with the night of the incident when the couple went out to dinner with house guest Robert Condon.
Later that evening an impromptu party broke out at the couple’s home with a number of guests, who Reeves was said to have been annoyed by.
Shortly after, the group heard a gunshot, but there was an unexplained delay between the discovery of the body and calling the police.
While Reeves was said to be depressed at the time of his death, there are parts to the story that just don’t seem to add up. Three shots were fired in Reeves’ room – two on the floor and one in the actor’s head.
Even the actor’s mother refused to believe her son had committed suicide, hiring a lawyer to get the case reopened, which found bruising on the head and body of her son during a second autopsy.
In what is perhaps some of the most compelling evidence of all, there were people who wanted the first ever TV Superman dead. His jilted lover Toni Mannix being one.
Married Mannix and Reeves had an affair before he left her for Lemmon, which reportedly left his ex smarting.
One theory suggests that she had her cuckolded husband MGM studio ‘fixer’ Eddie Mannix deal with Reeves once and for all.
Another rumour that has been doing the rounds for years is that it was actually Reeves’ fiancee Lemmon who pulled the trigger.
According to the actor’s friend Fred Crane, Lemmon was upstairs when she heard the shot and allegedly ran downstairs screaming, “Tell them I was down here! Tell them I was down here!”
All three theories were put to the test in the film Hollywoodland, starring Ben Affleck as Reeves, which explores the likelihood of each one, however we’ll probably never know what happened for sure.
What we do know is that Reeves’ suspicious death started the Superman Curse, which relates to a series of tragedies, which have seemed to plague the smash-hit franchise.
Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who portrayed the superhero in four films from 1978 to 1987, was paralysed in a 1995 horse riding accident, before dying nine years later at age 52 from heart failure.
(Image: Getty Images)
His on-screen love interest Margot Kidder, who played journalist Lois Lane, had bipolar disorder and died of a drink and drug overdose in 2018. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Lee Quigley, who played Superman as a baby in the 1978 film, died in 1991 at age 14 of solvent abuse.