Lou Lumenick reminds me today of the 50th anniversary of actor George Reeves’s untimely death, largely considered by his own hand but some would say there was foul play involved. The story was dramatized in Allen Coulter’s 2006 film “Hollywoodland,” which featured a top-notch portrayal by Ben Affleck as the doomed Reeves.
Lumenick also points out a lengthy blog post by John McElwee marking the occasion. I’m just stunned I missed this tid-bit today.
I wrote a story in the New York Times back in August of 2006 about “Hollywoodland” called “The (Tinsel) Town That Ate Superman.” It was one of my favorite assignments from my freelance days there. I especially enjoyed the two or three email exchanges I had with actor Jim Beaver (television’s “Deadwood,” “Supernatural”) who is actually a Reeves biographer and served as a technical adviser on the film.
Here is what Coulter had to say in that piece about how Reeves’s career direction may have plagued the actor:
The truth of Reeves’s death is likely to remain a mystery, but his life uncoiled in a way that Mr. Coulter could understand. ”George Reeves was a big success in terms of the public, but not in terms of his mind,” he said. ”Television was a new medium. It was considered to be the graveyard of failed movie careers. Those people interest me more than people who are the players. After all, most of us are not famous. Most of us are guys like us that just hope we have some successes.”
All around, it’s a sad story. I think Reeves had the chops to be something more. And I’ve always thought Affleck did a fine job conveying that paradoxical mixture of boyish charm and hidden angst. It wasn’t a knockout film, but it was solid.
Here’s a clip from a Reeves documentary I dug up on You Tube: