The Smallville Character Superman Actor Christopher Reeve Played

Now that James Gunn's charming crowd-pleaser "Superman" has debuted with David Corenswet in the lead role, we've had four big-screen Supermen (not counting the movie serials or 1951's "Superman and the Mole Men"). But while the character's darker DC counterpart, Batman, has flourished in a cinematic environment in which new actors and directors have put their spin on the source material, Superman has had a different experience. That is to say that the films arguably peaked with the very first blockbuster entry: 1978's "Superman: The Movie."

Richard Donner's seminal superhero outing established the blueprint for the modern blockbuster, but every attempt to follow that blueprint has simply existed in the shadow of the original. Donner treated Superman and his history with reverence and respect, crafting a movie that felt grand and spectacular but which also made Clark Kent, his alter-ego, and the people around him feel real. Ultimately, Donner's "Superman" felt like the Superman film, and it hasn't really been toppled in that regard since. It helped, of course, that the filmmaker had a leading man who was the perfect actor for the job.

For entire generations, Christopher Reeve just is Superman. Like Corenswet, Reeve was a Juilliard graduate whose big break came with playing the Man of Steel, and in much the same way as successive movies failed to match the monolith that was the first, Reeve never quite managed to outdo his role as Supes. But that's okay. Anyone who's seen "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story," which is one of the most powerful and inspiring documentaries ever made, will know that the actor achieved so much outside of his profession and became a real superhero for those with physical disabilities. After falling from his horse in 1995, Reeve became paralyzed from the neck down and spent the rest of his life not only pushing his body to one day walk again but also advocating for others like himself. What's more, he also found time to play the odd role, even returning to the world of Superman when he appeared in a couple episodes of "Smallville."

Perhaps the only actor who's made Clark Kent feel as human as Christopher Reeve is Tom Welling. The star of The WB's (later The CW's) "Smallville" portrayed Clark during his formative years in the titular Kansas town, and like Reeve, he was just starting out when he landed what would become the biggest role of his career — which is amusing considering the director of "Smallville" had to beg Welling to audition in the first place. Also like Reeve, Welling proved he was more than worthy of taking on such an iconic role and was a big part of why the series ran for a full 10 seasons.

As such, it was a historic moment to see Welling and Reeve come face to face when the latter played Dr. Virgil Swann in the season 2 episode "Rosetta" and season 3 episode "Legacy." A brilliant scientist, Swann is able to decipher the Kryptonian language and, in his debut appearance, reveals some important information to Welling's Clark Kent, including his birth name of Kal-El and the fact he comes from the planet Krypton. Reeve taking on a leadership role and guiding a young Clark felt very apt, but this wasn't the actor's only appearance. In the episode "Legacy," he returns when Lionel Luthor (John Glover), Lex's father, seeks out Swann to help him decipher messages written in Kryptonian on the Kawatchee cave walls. Swann doesn't translate the messages but does agree to help Lionel. However, this storyline ultimately didn't go too far following Reeve's passing.

"Legacy" aired in 2004, the same year that Reeve passed away at the age of 52. As such, in season 4 of "Smallville," it's revealed that Dr. Swann had also passed away, which makes the character Reeve's final role and his two appearances in the show his final two acting credits.

On the "TalkVille" podcast, Tom Welling recalled shooting his scenes with Christopher Reeve over one weekend. Having shot most of the episodes in Vancouver, Welling flew out to New York City to work with Reeve, but the veteran star was scheduled to leave after he'd delivered his lines so that Welling could film his own lines with another actor. However, it seems the former "Superman" star had other plans and was adamant that he stay and do the full scene. "Chris wouldn't leave," Welling remembered. "I think it was six or seven hours later that his nurse [...] she kept saying, 'You've got to leave, it's time for us to leave,' and I remember her saying, 'If you don't leave, I'm calling the police.'"

According to "Smallville" co-creator Alfred Gough, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for the outlet's oral history of the series in 2021, Reeve ended up shooting for eight or nine hours after initially being scheduled for a half-day shoot. "The fee he got for the guest star role went to his foundation as a donation," explained Gough. "We were able to use the 'Superman' theme, which was also great. That was a very big moment for the show."

Beyond giving everything he had to the scene, it seems Reeve also gave Welling his blessing to play the Man of Steel, with the Smallville star going on to say, "It was astounding, he said to me, 'I'm glad you're the next Superman,' and I said to him, 'Well, I'm not, I'm playing Clark Kent,' and he said to me, 'Well, you should be.' I still get chills." Welling also appeared alongside Reeve in a brief promotional video for The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, in which the two actors' rapport is obvious. By the end of the clip, they manage to crack each other up in an endearing moment that speaks to Reeves' indefatigable spirit.

Interestingly enough, the actor's appearance in "Smallville" was far from the only connection between the show and the "Superman" movies of the late 1970s and '80s. In the series, Annette O'Toole played Clark Kent's adoptive mother, Martha, for the first six seasons, but she'd also played Clark's childhood friend Lana Lang in 1983's "Superman III" (a film that isn't quite remembered as fondly as the first two, but which also isn't "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" — one of but a handful of superhero movies that major actors regret making). Other actors from the "Superman" movies who also appeared in "Smallville" include Terence Stamp, Margot Kidder, and Marc McClure.