Who is The Faces of Comic Book Sidekick Perry White

Pierre Watkin was the first tv face for the comic book sidekick Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet in Superman. From 1930 to 1960, Watkin played in 400 different movies and tv series, mostly character roles such as political leaders, army officers, wealthy businessmen etc, some roles were uncredited but some of his credits include Perry White in Superman in 1948, Atom Man vs Superman in 1950 both with Kirk Alyn, from 1952 - 1958 in Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. Watkin played in 4 different shows during that time but he was 4 different characters, none of which was Perry White. Watkin was all set to do the role of Perry White again in 1959 when they were going to start the series again since Hamilton had passed away except George Reeves died that summer putting the end to the new series at all. Watkin also played in a lot of westerns. However not much else is known about him. Watkin was from the era where their personal lives were kept personal.

After attending Dickinson College and Pennsylvania State Teacher's College, John Hamilton decided teaching wasn't what he wanted to do, he decided that the stage was calling him instead. He started off on Broadway and in touring theatrical companies. Hamilton was in the original Broadway company that played Seventh Heaven in 1922 and then appeared in the film remake of it in 1937. He first started in short mystery series from 1931 - 1932. Over the next 20 - 30 years, Hamilton played many different roles in small parts. Most times he was stereotyped as character like prison wardens, police chief and judges. Before he was introduced to the Comic Book Superhero, Superman however, Hamilton played in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe in 1940 and in he also appeared alongside George Reeves in Tear Gas Squad the same year. A few of his other notable movies thru the years would be were in The Roaring Twenties (1939) with James Cagney, The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart and The Men (1950) with Marlon Brando. From 1952 - 1958 he ran The Daily Planet in The Adventures of Superman once again with George Reeves. Even with failing health tho, Hamilton still stuck with the show until the end of it, sadly he passed away in 1958 from a heart attack. John Hamilton has also been inducted into the George Reeves Hall of Fame.

John "Jackie" Cooper was born into a movie family so it was no surprise when he became a child star at the age of 7. His mother, Mabel Leonard Bigelow was a stage pianist and child star and his stepfather C. J. Bigelow was a studio production manager. Cooper's uncle Jack Leonard was a screenwriter and his aunt Julie married director Norman Taurog.

Like so many other child stars of that era, Jackie Cooper started out in Our Gang of which he became a major part of by 1930. In 1931 his uncle Norman decided to hire him to play the lead role in Skippy which was the role that got him nominated for
Academy Award for Best Actor, the youngest actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor. At this time Hal Roach sold Cooper's contract to MGM since he figured it was in the best interest of Cooper's career. At this time Jackie Cooper started playing in films such as The Champ (1931), The Bowery (1933) ,The Choices of Andy Purcell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) opposite Wallace Beery. Not a person Cooper was too fond of since he was very abusive and cruel to the young Jackie Cooper. As he got older the acting jobs became harder to get since he wasn't one of the "hollywood hotties" so in 1943, Cooper decided to join the army instead. When he left the army, Hollywood was even harder for him. After getting a couple of good roles in series like The People's Choice and Hennesy, Cooper became vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures Screen Gems TV division from '64 - '69. In '69 Cooper decided to change careers yet again and concentrate more on directing with the occasional role thrown in such as Mobile One. During this time Cooper also directed MASH and The White Shadow which he earned an Emmy award for. During the '70s and '80s Cooper played in small parts such as Operation Petticoat, The Rockford Files, St Elsewhere and Murder, She Wrote in addition to playing in all 4 of the Superman Movies with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. In 1989, Cooper retired from show business and currently raises horses on his farm in San Diego.

Cooper's first marriage was in 1944 to June Horn which lasted until 1949 and they had one child, John "Jack" Cooper (1946). His second marriage was to Hildy Park in 1950 which lasted only a year. He married his current wife Barbra Krause in 1954 and they've had 3 children together, Russell (born 1956), Julie (1957) and Crissy (born 1959).

From 1993 - 1997 Lane Smith was the face for the comic book sidekick, Perry White opposite Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher in Lois and Clark and while he was editor of The Daily Planet, Smith was also Coach Reilly in The Mighty Ducks with Emilio Estevez (1995) and before that he was Pauly Shores' father-in-law in the movie Son-In-Law (1993) and in 1992 he was a small town D.A. Jim Trotter opposite Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny.

Smith graduated from prep school, The Leelanau School then while attending Carnegie Tech, he got the acting bug, however after one year Lane joined the army. When he returned he decided to enrolled at the University of North Carolina after a year there tho, he decided to head to New York City and try his hand at acting there. 3 years later (late 50s and early 60s) Smith was accepted into Actor's Studio along with Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino. During the '70s, Smith got a few small bits in films such as Rooster Cogburn (1975) and Network (1976), along with shows like The Bad News Bears and The Rockford Files. But it was the mid '80s when Lane Smith got his big breaks in Red Dawn and Places In The Heart both in '84 and tv show V from '84 - '85. Which then led him into small parts in some weekly tv shows like Heat of the Night and Murder, She Wrote before heading to the Daily Planet. Smith's last performance was in 2000 in The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon.

In 2005, Smith died from Lou Gehrig's disease.

Who knew that Lenny from Laverne and Shirley fame in the mid '70s would play in not one but two different Superman series. Michael McKean played Perry White, future boss for Clark Kent, in an episode of Smallville in 2003, while his real life wife, Annette O'Toole, played mom to Clark Kent but before that he played Dr Fabian Leek in Lois and Clark in 1994 along with Dean Cain and Terry Hatcher.

Over the years McKean has had many small parts in many different shows such as Murder, She Wrote, Law and Order, Family Guy and the X-Files among others. And he's done many roles in movies like Clue (1985), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Coneheads (1993), Radioland Murders (1994), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) and Little Nicky (2000). McKean has done far more then just acting tho, he's a musician as well. In 1994, McKean joined the cast of Saturday Night Live after already being on it as a musical guest and a host. He's also done voice over work in Batman Beyond, The Animaniacs, The Simpsons and Dr. Dolittle.

Frank Langella got his first Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer in Diary of a Mad Housewife in 1970. But Langella's first love was the live stage which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Seascape in '75. In '77 Langella started his 3 year on stage run as Dracula and when the TV version of Dracula came along in 1979, Langella was perfect for the role. Before playing Dracula tho, Langella played in different tv shows over the years such as Mannix (1973), Marcus Welby M.D.(1973), The Mark of Zorro (1974) and The Swiss Family Robinson (1976). After playing Dracula, Langella went on to play Sherlock Holmes in 1981 on HBO and then again on stage in 1987. Langella stuck mostly with the live stage for a number of years after this but in 1993, he did a short stint on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and he also appeared in an episode of Law and Order SVU 2003). In 2005, Langella appeared in Good Night and Good Luck which was directed by none other then Batman, George Clooney. In 2006 Langella moved on to bring the comic book sidekick Perry White, Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet to life and boss to Superman, Lois Lane and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. In 2007, Langella won his third "Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play" for Frost/Nixon (his second Tony award was Best Featured Actor in a Play for Fortune's Fool) and then he revised the role of Nixon in the film version of it which he won his first Academy Award nomination. Langella not only has the role of Perry White in common with Lane Smith but both actors also played the role of Richard Nixon as well. Smith also played Nixon in The Final Days (1989).

From 1977 - 1995 Langella and his wife Ruth had two children. In 1996, after his divorce, Langella had an ongoing relationship with Whoopi Goldberg which lasted until 2006.