The Superman Curse

Posted on June 22, 2006

It has long been known in Hollywood that playing Superman has led to a cursed career. But is there really a Superman curse? Or is it all a coincidence? ABC News examines the phenomenon that they call Career Kryptonite. The latest to face the curse is Superman Returns star Brandon Routh.

"Superman is unlike any other superhero. It's kind of like playing God," says movie historian Bob Madison, president of Dinoship publishing. "It's a role the public never forgets, and they may not ever accept you as anything else."
Like Routh, Christopher Reeve was largely unknown when he was selected to play the Man of Steel, and the 1978 blockbuster turned him into a major star. Reeve was well regarded as an actor. But he was so closely identified with his iconic role that it hampered his efforts to be a leading man in a big-budget film. He was largely relegated to "Superman" sequels and work as a supporting player, most notably with Anthony Hopkins in "The Remains of the Day."
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Kirk Alyn, the first big-screen Superman, was a rising Broadway star in the early 1940s when he donned the famous blue cape. After "Atom Man vs. Superman" in 1950 - his second turn as the superhero - he found himself out of work, simply because the world wouldn't accept him as anything else.

From George Reevess, who killed himself after he couldn't get another job after playing Superman on TV, to Dean Cain who is still struggling for a comeback in acting, the Superman role really seems to be a dead-end for most actors. Still, let's hope that Brandon Routh -- who takes flight in Superman Returns -- will have a better post-cape career.

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