MILD-MANNERED
Kirk Alyn played the first live-action Superman, donning the cape for a pair of movie serials in 1948 and 1950. Starring opposite him as Clark Kent's Daily Planet colleague Lois Lane was Noel Neill, who would later reprise the role on the 1950s TV series. Alyn may not have been the most graceful flyer, but he delivered the action goods in Atom Man vs. Superman, the second serial, which pitted him against comics nemesis Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot). Alyn (who died in 1999) and Neill cameoed as Lois' parents in the first of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies in 1978. And Neill has a walk-on in Superman Returns as dowager Gertrude Vanderworth, a target of a Lex Luthor get-rich-quick scheme.