Jack Larson, TVs Jimmy Olsen And PCC Alumnus, Passes Away

Jack Larson, a Pasadena City College alumnus and actor best known for his portrayal of cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman, died this Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.

Raised in Montebello, Calif., Larson enrolled at Pasadena Junior College in the fall of 1945. The budding thespian soon developed a passion for poetry and a knack for writing for the stage.

“My instructors discovered that I had a gift for writing and motivated me to write plays, and to be in plays as well,” Larson said in an interview with The Courier in 1993.

While at PJC, he made his presence known on stage as well as with the pen, starring in various theater productions – some of which he wrote. In 1948, Larson headlined Balguna del Mar, a musical comedy he penned about college students vacationing in Laguna and Balboa beach during spring break.

After one of his performances, a Warner Brothers agent who happened to be in the audience in PJC’s Sexson Auditorium offered Larson an audition for a part in the movie Fighter Squadron. He got the role, and would star alongside another Hollywood newcomer, Rock Hudson.

The movie would launch a long and fulfilling career in films and television, including his iconic role as Jimmy Olsen during Adventures of Superman’s 1952 to 1958 run. His last television appearance was in a 2010 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

“You just have to work your hardest, do your very best and never blow an opportunity because you never know what you might be remembered for,” Larson said. “Take my example: I was given an opportunity in Sexson Auditorium and that was enough for me to succeed.”