George Reeves committed suicide 50 years ago today, inadvertently setting in motion what became known as the Superman Curse. Reeves had a troubled life beset with failed marriages, but his biggest problem was his inability to shed the Superman image, a stereotype that destroyed his acting career.

Wired has a solid write-up on the life of George Reeves that is worth your time.

From Wired:

Some hope glimmered when he landed a part in the war drama So Proudly We Hail! in 1943. Director Mark Sandrich promised to make him a star, but Sandrich died shortly after of heart failure.

When Reeves became the Man of Steel in 1951, television was in its infancy and regarded as cinema’s red-headed stepchild. But as a real stepchild who played a redhead in Gone With the Wind, Reeves — like television itself — was about to take off.

The reality behind the scenes was that he worked for meager pay under punitive contracts that forbade him from acting in other series or films. Although he became a national celebrity due to his role in the film Superman and the Mole Men and the popular television series Adventures of Superman, he was still a B-lister in the glitzy clique of Hollywood.