Peter Hoskin marks the 50th anniversary of the death of George Reeves, TV’s original Superman
Uncork the champagne, put on your best frock, and grin like the good times are never going to end. After all, it’s 1959, and Hollywood is the place to be. Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot has just left movie theaters; that great John Wayne film, Rio Bravo, is still doing the rounds; and the whole town — no, the whole world — is gearing up for the release of some Biblical epic they’re producing over at MGM. What’s it called? Oh, yes: Ben-Hur. So much glamour, money and talent that you can’t help but enjoy it all.
Or maybe not. Looking back from 2009 on that fertile patch of Hollywood history, there’s one moment which resonates dolorously above the clink of so many cocktail glasses. On 16 June 1959, only a few kilometres away from the famous Hollywood sign, the 45-year-old George Reeves was found sprawled across the bed in his home; a bullet wound to his temple; and blood, brain and bone fragments sprayed across the sheets.
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