Jack Larson born 8 February 1928Jack Edward Larson, born in Los Angeles is an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer. He was raised in Pasadena, California. He is best known for his portrayal of Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman.
He has said that he found the role of the cub reporter to be a handicap due to its typecasting of him. He has not done much acting since then, mostly behind-the-scenes work — writing and production.
He was a guest actor on the series Lois and Clark as an aged Jimmy Olsen in the episode 'Brutal Youth', first broadcast in 1996. He had also appeared in an early episode of the TV series, Superboy.He also had a quick cameo in an American Express Card commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman, (directed by David Kellogg).
He was the life-partner of director James Bridges. Their relationship lasted over thirty years until Bridges' death on 6 June 1993. Prior to that he was a lover of Montgomery Clift.
He and his co-star Noel Neill (Lois Lane) provided commentary on several Superman episodes for the January 2006 DVD release of the 1953 season.
Also in 2006, he appeared in Bryan Singer's film Superman Returns in a cameo role. In one of Larson's Superman Returns scenes, where characters celebrate Superman's rescue of a plane, his character is shown wearing a bow tie in the style of Jimmy Olsen and hugging the film's incarnation of Jimmy Olsen (played by Sam Huntington).
Larson's most recently appeared in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, which aired in January 2010. In this episode, entitled 'Quickie', Larson portrayed 'Dewey Butler', grandfather to a young suspect allegedly having unprotected sex with women. In the episode's final scene, Larson's character ingests an overdose of sleeping pills, disinherits his grandson and sets up a trust fund to take care of the women whom the grandson may have infected with HIV/AIDS.