On June 16, 1959, George Reeves, best known as Superman in the popular Adventures of Superman TV series, was found dead in his Benedict Canyon home with a bullet wound to his head. The ruling? Suicide. The reality? Still debated to this day.
Reeves was just 45. Though his career had stalled post-Superman, he was planning a comeback. He had upcoming projects, and those close to him claimed he was in good spirits. So when he was found naked, lying on his bed with his fiancée Leonore Lemmon and guests downstairs, suspicion naturally crept in.
Here is what we know:
On the night George Reeves allegedly died, he had reportedly been trying to sleep when his partner, Leonore Lemmon, switched on the porch light. At the time, this was a well-known signal that a home was open to visitors – but doing this at 1AM was unusual. Inside the house were four people besides Reeves:
Leonore Lemmon, partner
Carol Van Ronkel, neighbour
Robert Condon, neighbour and writer
Bill Bliss, a man who lived about 15 minutes away
One detail many find strange: Reeves didn’t know Bill Bliss at all, raising the question of why Bliss would show up uninvited to someone’s home in the middle of the night.
According to accounts from that evening, Reeves allegedly came downstairs, irritated that the group was making noise while he was trying to sleep. After confronting them, he went back upstairs. At that point, Leonore allegedly made a series of sarcastic comments, narrating his movements – things along the lines of: “He’s going to shoot himself,” “He’s going upstairs now,” and “He’s opening the drawer.” Moments later, a gunshot was heard.
The guests allegedly ran upstairs and found Reeves already dead – lying on the bed, with the gun on the floor between his feet.
What casts doubt on the idea that Reeves took his own life is that no fingerprints were found on the gun, which appeared to have been freshly oiled by the time police arrived. Gunshot residue tests were not standard procedure back then, leaving even more unanswered questions.
And then there’s the Hollywood power angle: Reeves had been romantically involved with Toni Mannix, the wife of MGM executive Eddie Mannix, a man with rumored connections to organized crime. Some believe Reeves’ death was a mob-style warning, staged to look like suicide.
Leonore Lemmon left Los Angeles for New York almost immediately after Reeves’ death. Around the same time, Toni Mannix reportedly called actor Phyllis Coates and said, “The boy is dead – he’s been murdered.” Before this, Toni had allegedly told Eddie Mannix to “sort out” George.
Toni also allegedly took George’s pet schnauzer out of revenge after he left her. Reeves had already survived a suspicious incident earlier that year – a car crash in which he went through the windshield. A mechanic later claimed the brake fluid had been drained.
In 1999, publicist Edward Lozzi, who was close to Toni in her later years, said she confessed – to him and to a priest – that she and Eddie had George killed.
Leonore Lemmon, known for her explosive temper, often told people she and George were getting married, despite no record of George ever saying the same. She was reportedly furious that he hadn’t proposed.
The bedroom where Reeves died had no windows, meaning anyone entering would have had to pass the four guests downstairs. Oddly, shell casings were found under George’s back while he was lying face-up.
There were two other bullet holes in the floor; Leonore claimed she made them days earlier while “fooling around” with the gun. There was also a bullet hole with blood spatter in the ceiling – but based on the angle, experts have argued it would have been impossible for that shot to occur if Reeves had truly killed himself as described.
Another issue: Reeves was found completely naked. If Leonore’s story were accurate, he would have had to come downstairs naked during the argument – a detail none of the guests ever mentioned.
Police later reported that one of the guests was trembling, sweating, and his teeth were chattering during questioning.
No one was ever charged. And though the LAPD reopened the case briefly in the 1990s, the official cause remains suicide. But for many, the truth behind the death of Superman is anything but heroic and far from resolved.