Who is the best actor to play Clark Kent?
- Thread starter skytardis
- Start date
Reeve.
I know people look at the bungling Clark persona as hammy and old hat now, but at the time it was a relatively new idea and Reeve executes the roles perfectly as a complete contrast to his confident Superman persona.He didn't just make you believe a man could fly, he made yuou believe the disguise, which was more than just a pair of glasses.
*sigh* Such a great loss to lose Chris so early. I was with Margot Kidder the weekend he died. It was gutting.
I know people look at the bungling Clark persona as hammy and old hat now, but at the time it was a relatively new idea and Reeve executes the roles perfectly as a complete contrast to his confident Superman persona.He didn't just make you believe a man could fly, he made yuou believe the disguise, which was more than just a pair of glasses.
*sigh* Such a great loss to lose Chris so early. I was with Margot Kidder the weekend he died. It was gutting.
Christopher Reeve is, in my opinion, the best. He got the "bumbling Clark" routine better then any of them. I'd rank the others like this:
Tyler Hoechlin>Dean Cain>Brandon Routh>Kirk Alyn>George Reeves>Tom Welling>>>Henry Cavill
I know this is kind of a weird order, especially putting Hoechlin as #2 when he's made two appearances. But, when I think of Clark Kent, I think of two versions. The bumbling one, and the one that's not really clumsy, but more of an "everyman" (like the Superman: The Animated Series version of Superman). Hoechlin does the second version well, while still feeling like Clark Kent. Dean Cain did it decently, but I haven't seen much of L&C and what I did didn't impress me, especially since Clark Kent is barely a supporting character on a show that's basically just a Teri Hatcher vehicle with some superman stuff sprinkled around.
Brandon Routh, while he didn't do much as Clark, was still ok as a Reeve copy. He gets some more points because I honestly think, based off seeing him act in the CW DC shows, that as an actor he could have been a legitimately great Clark/Superman if the Superman Returns script wasn't terrible. Kirk Alyn didn't get a lot, and his Clark wasn't really much of anything, but he had enough likeability and he definitely felt a bit different as Clark then he did as superman. George Reeves never felt like Clark to me, he felt like Superman wearing Clark's suit, which in my opinion kind of makes him a failure when it comes to playing Clark. I like Welling better then him, but honestly Welling's Clark was never really superman and was such a completely different Clark that, while I like his character better then the Clark's played by Routh and George Reeves, as a Clark Kent Welling is near the bottom.
Henry Cavil isn't just at the bottom because I loathe Snyder and his murderous Superman. Cavil's Clark is also boring, depressing, and moody. I know Cavil only has terrible material to work with, and maybe he could play a decent Clark if he had a script that wasn't written by complete hacks. But, as it is, the character (even ignoring all of the Murderman baggage) is boring, unpleasant, a bit pretentious and just a bad character.
Tyler Hoechlin>Dean Cain>Brandon Routh>Kirk Alyn>George Reeves>Tom Welling>>>Henry Cavill
I know this is kind of a weird order, especially putting Hoechlin as #2 when he's made two appearances. But, when I think of Clark Kent, I think of two versions. The bumbling one, and the one that's not really clumsy, but more of an "everyman" (like the Superman: The Animated Series version of Superman). Hoechlin does the second version well, while still feeling like Clark Kent. Dean Cain did it decently, but I haven't seen much of L&C and what I did didn't impress me, especially since Clark Kent is barely a supporting character on a show that's basically just a Teri Hatcher vehicle with some superman stuff sprinkled around.
Brandon Routh, while he didn't do much as Clark, was still ok as a Reeve copy. He gets some more points because I honestly think, based off seeing him act in the CW DC shows, that as an actor he could have been a legitimately great Clark/Superman if the Superman Returns script wasn't terrible. Kirk Alyn didn't get a lot, and his Clark wasn't really much of anything, but he had enough likeability and he definitely felt a bit different as Clark then he did as superman. George Reeves never felt like Clark to me, he felt like Superman wearing Clark's suit, which in my opinion kind of makes him a failure when it comes to playing Clark. I like Welling better then him, but honestly Welling's Clark was never really superman and was such a completely different Clark that, while I like his character better then the Clark's played by Routh and George Reeves, as a Clark Kent Welling is near the bottom.
Henry Cavil isn't just at the bottom because I loathe Snyder and his murderous Superman. Cavil's Clark is also boring, depressing, and moody. I know Cavil only has terrible material to work with, and maybe he could play a decent Clark if he had a script that wasn't written by complete hacks. But, as it is, the character (even ignoring all of the Murderman baggage) is boring, unpleasant, a bit pretentious and just a bad character.
On screen, perhaps. But the idea goes back to the earliest Superman comics and is derived from the even earlier tradition of disguised-hero literature going back to Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, in which the title hero adopted the persona of a dissolute, useless fop to conceal his heroic manliness. In the comics and on radio, Clark Kent would adopt a meek, timid persona to explain why he retreated from danger when there was a job for Superman, and on occasions where he got into danger as Clark with Lois or others present, he would sometimes use the pretense of clumsiness to "accidentally" knock out a bad guy or push Lois out of a bullet's path or the like. Reeve and Donner may have played the bumbling persona up more heavily for the sake of physical comedy, but the roots were always there.
Agreed. People have different ideas about what Clark Kent should be like.
For me it's Reeve because it seems impossible to connect Superman and his Clark Kent together so different are their personalities. I think the other actors to play Clark Kent excluding Routh have played him as Superman on his day off.
For me it's Reeve because it seems impossible to connect Superman and his Clark Kent together so different are their personalities. I think the other actors to play Clark Kent excluding Routh have played him as Superman on his day off.
How many of these threads are there ? 
Anyway, Dean Cain. Hands down.
Anyway, Dean Cain. Hands down.
Christopher Reeve was perhaps best at showing the differences between Clark and Superman, so he takes the cake for me.
Brandon Routh does an excellent Christopher Reeve, and thus Clark Kent, but his Superman persona isn't quite as heroic.
Dean Cain, I always felt, was kinda cheesy but pretty earnest, in a very modern way.
Henry Cavill makes for a great Superman and a pretty generic Clark, but of all the actors, it makes you wonder how very few people in the DCCU actually figure out that Clark and Superman are the same person. He is, by far, the biggest guy to play the role. I mean, how many incredibly jacked, bodybuilding, 2% body fat, mild mannered reporters are out there?
(on a side note, I'm convinced that Cavill can play a more natural Clark and a more charismatic Superman, it's just that Zack Snyder won't let him)
Tom Welling is the oldest 15 year old I've ever seen.
Brandon Routh does an excellent Christopher Reeve, and thus Clark Kent, but his Superman persona isn't quite as heroic.
Dean Cain, I always felt, was kinda cheesy but pretty earnest, in a very modern way.
Henry Cavill makes for a great Superman and a pretty generic Clark, but of all the actors, it makes you wonder how very few people in the DCCU actually figure out that Clark and Superman are the same person. He is, by far, the biggest guy to play the role. I mean, how many incredibly jacked, bodybuilding, 2% body fat, mild mannered reporters are out there?
(on a side note, I'm convinced that Cavill can play a more natural Clark and a more charismatic Superman, it's just that Zack Snyder won't let him)
Tom Welling is the oldest 15 year old I've ever seen.
Oh look... A new week, a new Skytardis/Superman thread!
It'll get worse when they both come back from the dead at the same time.
The "Death of Superman" arc in the comics covered that part better than his actual death.
"Has anyone seen Clark? Oh, where could he be?"
Best of the live-action actors. Of the voice actors, Bud Collyer did it best.
You mean "biggest" in terms of bulk rather than height, I take it? Since at 6'1", he's actually of middling height among Superman/boy portrayers -- tied with George Reeves and Kirk Alyn, taller than John Newton, Gerard Christopher, Dean Cain, and Tyler Hoechlin, shorter than Brandon Routh, Tom Welling, and Christopher Reeve (who's the tallest at 6'4").
Oh, I most definitely meant bulk/mass. I get the feeling that he could lift two of the other Supermen simultaneously if he wanted (maybe an exaggeration, but maybe not).
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