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Jack Larson said that television fame was ''an awful experience.''
The actor couldn't escape his character.
After The Adventures of Superman ended, Jack Larson had a little difficulty readjusting to regular life. Though Larson was a librettist, producer, and screenwriter, he is remembered by comic fans as Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman.
“Ever since the show went off the air, I’ve walked side-by-side with Jimmy,” said Larson during an interview with the Journal Times. “I’ve tried to outrun him, and hide from him, but he’s always been there - my doppelganger, you might say.”
Though Larson took no issue with the character or the series he starred in, he felt that the role limited him as an actor in his career, and limited his freedom in his personal life.
“It was a wonderful experience making the show, but I had an awful experience being famous from it,” said the actor. “I was mobbed on the streets, I couldn’t take the subways anymore...I was so typecast as Jimmy that I just freaked out and never did any of the fan magazine stuff. I felt that anything I’d do like that would only type me further.”
Larson also took a break from acting, finding success in other arts like music. “For a long time, I felt like Chicken Little,” said Larson. “The sky would fall on me if anyone knew that the person writing and doing what I was doing had played Jimmy Olsen.”
Luckily, the actor was able to make peace with his time on Adventures of Superman. “I learned that unless you’re completely insane, you can only be happy when people have been so entertained by something you’ve been a part of and feel an affection for you,” said Larson. “You’re lucky in life to be a part of anything that people like through the years.”
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