In the pantheon of American culture, there’s no character more globally recognizable than Superman. After making his comic debut in 1938, Clark Kent quickly jumped to radio, television, the movies, and beyond, practically in a single bound. For almost 90 years, he’s been a symbol of goodness, and the prototype for the modern superhero. He’s also changed and evolved through decades of storytelling while a host of actors have portrayed the Man of Steel on screen, begging the question, who has played Superman best?
Superman first made it to the real world at the World’s Fair in 1940, when actor Ray Middleton became the first person to play him for a Superman Day celebration. For as long as there’s been a Superman, he’s had a simple formula: A cape, tights, boots, the iconic ‘S’ and those strongman trunks—which would eventually become optional. But more importantly, the character arrived fully formed and bloomed during World War II, as a paragon of truth and justice with a colorful supporting cast. As an alien raised by a kindly midwestern couple, Superman is all about going above and beyond to do the right thing, and the actors who’ve played him have captured that ethos to different degrees.
With apologies to Ray Middleton and in-person Supermen everywhere, for this ranking, we’re focusing on the lead actors of major live action movies and TV shows. We’re also limiting it to the character of SuperMAN, so that means no younger versions of the character, and no shows titled Superboy—sorry Joaquin Phoenix—and it also means no video games or cartoons either, otherwise we’d be here all day. We’re also limiting this list to official adaptations, so no unlicensed Turkish Superman Returns, or the many versions out of India, which could fill up their own piece. However, we will have a couple of honorable mentions along the way, who don’t quite fit the criteria, but we couldn’t have this conversation without ‘em.
The question of “What makes a great Man of Steel?” is a tough one, but the answer usually comes down to two broad categories: the actors themselves, and the story or adaptation they’re a part of. So, with that in mind, take our hand, and join us as we countdown from the actors we think missed the mark all the way to the definitive Superman.
9. Dean Cain
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997)
Superman has been played by a number of great performers, but we’d be lying if we said he was a hit every single time. Lois & Clark ran for four seasons in the early ‘90s, and while it combined romance and journalism with villains of the week, it was also entirely of its era: which is to say, the era of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. On the surface, it has all the elements of a Superman story, but it seemed far more interested in creating a new ‘90s heart throb than a Man of Steel, down to the character’s hairstyle.
As Superman, Dean Cain has an unfortunately limited range, with occasionally stilted delivery. He says all the right things — “I like your costume”/“Thank you, my mother made it for me”/“Who are you?”/“A friend” — but whether or not he’s convincing is another matter. A defining trait of a good Superman performance is the distinction between Superman and Clark Kent, and while Cain technically has that, it’s not exactly a performance concerned with fidelity. His Clark Kent is… suave, and fast-talking, and occasionally charming, while his Superman is… straightforward, and stern, but without much depth or authority, and there’s something awkward about his stature, like he’s never quite comfortable in the suit, almost like the two personas are flipped.
Cain’s version of Clark says he wants to fit in, but there’s really nothing stopping him from being a normal guy—at least by the standards of ‘90s TV dramas. In these moments of attempted emotion, the music tends to do the heavy lifting. Lois & Clark isn’t a terrible show by any stretch—in fact, Terri Hatcher makes for an ambitious and accomplished Lois Lane—but when it comes to portraying the Man of Steel, it doesn’t really live up to what came before it, despite Cain claiming to have based his version of Clark on our next entry…
8. George Reeves
Superman and the Mole Men (1951), Adventures of Superman (1952-1958)
The most famous of the early Supermen, George Reeves (no relation to Christopher Reeve) played the character for nearly a decade—across the B-movie Superman and the Mole Men, and the long-running TV series Adventures of Superman—but maybe Dean Cain should have sought inspiration for his Clark Kent elsewhere. Reeves was an accomplished actor, having appeared in Best Picture winner Gone With the Wind, but his version of Clark wasn’t particularly different from his Superman, despite the show’s opening narration. “Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.”
But when it comes to Superman, Reeves—who was 38 when he first played the part—was exactly what the series called for. He was an older, barrel-chested actor in the vein of Western superstar and American myth-maker John Wayne, and his iconic stature still remains a part of the character’s appearance today, like when he’s drawn by comic artist Alex Ross.
The series began when the U.S. had rising tensions with the USSR, so part of its mission was to instill a sense of patriotism in its viewers. It was the first version of the character to include the now iconic “the american way” part of Superman’s pledge to fight for “truth and justice,” and there was also a move by the U.S. Treasury Department to get Superman to convince people to invest in stamps and savings bonds. For better or worse, these government efforts weren’t usually reflected in the overall plot, except for one episode. The series mostly saw Superman tackling regular, everyday criminals—a far cry from the wacky, silver age antics in the comics at the time—while the movie, which was folded into the show, revolved around Superman trying to stop people from discriminating against subterranean beings with a calm sense of authority.
The show’s decade-long run happened at a significant time. It saw the character transition to color, and it helped cause an explosion in mainstream popularity, with the Man of Steel even crossing over with I Love Lucy. For several generations, Reeves was the definitive Superman, a role he played well into his forties, until his tragic demise… which brings us to our first honorable mention.
Honorable Mention: Ben Affleck
As George Reeves in Hollywoodland (2006)
To date, no actor has played both Batman and Superman, but Ben Affleck comes close, since he actually played George Reeves in the 2006 mystery movie Hollywoodland, which treats the actor’s possible suicide as a murder. Despite his unhappiness with the role at times, Reeves often stayed in character as the Man of Steel, especially around children, which is something Affleck’s version of the beloved actor gets absolutely right.
Something must have been in the water in 2006, because Hollywoodland wasn’t the only movie that year filled with nostalgia for an older Superman…
7. Brandon Routh
Superman Returns (2006), The CW’s Arrowverse (2019-2020)
Made as an homage to the Richard Donner original, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns sees the Man of Steel returning to the big screen after a 22 year absence, in a story where he comes back to Earth after 5 years away. Now, whether Brandon Routh is playing the same version as Christopher Reeve is up to your interpretation, but there’s no avoiding the comparisons, given Reeve’s influence on the character—more on that in a bit.
Routh has an incredible gentleness about him, and he embodies both the wistful farmboy and the “mild mannered reporter” part of Clark Kent to a tee, bumbling his way through scenes in a way that both feels like an act, and like he’s channeling who Clark truly is. As Superman, he has this otherworldly quality to him that makes him truly feel like an alien removed from humanity—but maybe that doesn’t quite suit this interpretation.
It’s wonderful to see him perform feats of strength, but his lumbering appearance might be a little too polished, between the sleek suit, his perfectly curled lock of hair, and the blue contacts that give Routh an uncanny appearance, like he’s a Superman action figure. It’s a movie that has nothing but nostalgia for Reeve, and just two years after the legendary actor died, you can feel the sense of yearning for a big-screen Superman, though Singer’s romantic version is usually a little too outstretched, with long periods of nothing really happening, and neither Lois Lane nor Lex Luthor actually coming face to face with the Man of Steel until past the hour mark and nearly two hours in, respectively. Routh would briefly reprise the role in The CW’s Infinite Crisis, a crossover between five of its ongoing shows, which made for a nice reminder of how well suited he could have been, in a better movie.
But, while Warner Brothers may not have had a hit with its new big screen Superman, there was actually another Superman flying around—well, running around—on TV at the same time.
6. Tom Welling
Smallville (2001-2011)
We’re sort of bending the rules a bit to include him, but Tom Welling played a younger version of the Man of Steel for ten years on Smallville, in the longest build up to a costume change in recorded history—and since he technically became Superman, it has to count. Like Lois & Clark, the show fit right into the TV landscape of its time, coming off teen dramas like Dawson’s Creek, but also genre shows like Buffy and Angel, which allowed it to embrace the more sci-fi and fantasy parts of the Superman mythos.
Despite being 24, Welling fit right in as a moody, sensitive highschooler trying to find his place in the world, while fearing how he might bring harm to those around him. He was slightly awkward, and kind of angry, but mostly well-meaning, as he became the secret vigilante The Blur, before his eventual transformation in the final episode. Also, it must be said that Smallville has what might be the best on-screen version of Lex Luthor, in the form of Michael Rosebaum. The show featured a number of recognizable Superman characters—Jimmy, Lana, Lois, and of course, a cloud version of Darkseid, as was the style at the time—but it’s actually Clark’s dynamic with Lex that forms the show’s emotional backbone, as a kind of yin and yang, who both save each other in the pilot episode—from certain death, and obvious Christ imagery, respectively.
Welling’s withheld version of Clark worked, up to a point, in a story about a young man hiding from the world, and he also got to flex his dramatic chops on occasion. But apart from a few hints of developing the “mild mannered” reporter persona, Welling’s Clark doesn’t change all that much over the show’s 10 year period, which might usually work for a fully-formed Man of Steel, but makes him a little less interesting in an extended origin.
On the other hand, a more modern interpretation dived right in to Superman’s story just a few years later, and came achingly close to getting it right:
5. Henry Cavill
Man of Steel (2013), Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017)
You can debate endlessly about whether a dour adaptation of Superman is the way to go, but there was a lot riding on Henry Cavill as The Man of Steel in a post-Avengers world, with DC looking to set up its own Marvel-style universe. It didn’t exactly pan out, but Cavill himself flirted with being a great choice for the iconic character. There’s a lot of noise in Man of Steel—a lot of chaos and a lot of scowls, but in the midst of it all, Cavill’s Superman has hints of a calming presence, making him the kind of superhero that fits Zack Snyder’s “benevolent god” interpretation.
That interpretation gets a bit literal at times, and can lean a bit too heavily on the angry Greek deity side of things, as well as some overt Christ imagery, but there’s probably some version of Cavill’s Superman that works perfectly in a different take on the DC mythology that isn’t bogged down by nihilism.
The sequel, Batman v Superman, would double down on the misery, presenting a drone-strike version Superman who doesn’t seem particularly happy about helping people—that is, when he would help people at all—but the bigger problem is that his Superman ends up so full of rage that even the movie’s nightmare scenes, and the character’s eventual, mindless resurrection in Justice League, don’t end up all that different from his usually scowling default setting.
While we don’t ever really see a Clark Kent that’s any different from his Man of Steel, we do eventually get hints of what a bright, sunny Superman played by Cavill might have looked like. But by the time he shows up, three movies deep, it’s a little too late for this version, despite the last-minute attempt to go back to the character’s roots…
4. Kirk Alyn
Superman (1948), Atom Man vs. Superman (1950)
Most people might not have heard of Kirk Alyn, but his 1948 theatrical serial (and its 1950 sequel) were pivotal to getting Superman to the silver screen in live action form. The first flesh-and-blood actor to play him at the movies, Alyn nails the mild-mannered reporter aspect of Clark Kent right from his first scene with the character’s parents, and he even embodies Superman’s powers—like X-ray vision and super hearing—in delightfully silly ways.
Much like George Reeves, Alyn’s Superman usually goes up against more grounded villains, who he defeats by bonking their heads together. There’s also a clear difference between his Clark and his Superman—who’s often animated by hand when he flies—and while his pantomime physical performance may not be what we’d expect in the modern era, Alyn’s impishness, enthusiasm and graceful exaggerations create a Superman who delights in leaping out of windows, and in maintaining the ruse of a man with a double life—a man who changes in the Daily’s Planet’s filing room multiple times per episode.
But what’s especially fascinating about Alyn’s works is how perfectly he nails the character’s vocal transformation, even during a single line: “This looks like a job FOR SUPERMAN.”
It’s an underrated aspect of the character, and very few live-action actors actually nailed it to the degree that Alyn did. In fact, the only early Superman to outdo him is our next honorable mention:
Honorable Mention: Bud Collyer
The Adventures of Superman radio show (1940-1951), Fleischer Studios’ Superman (1941-1942), The New Adventures of Superman (1966-1970)
We’re sticking with live-action performers for the official list, but there’s no way to talk about early Superman without discussing voice actor Bud Collyer. He was the first actor to give Superman a voice, in his very first non-comic adaptation, the decade-long radio serial The Adventures of Superman (which began in 1941), and he also voiced the Man of Steel in not only the nine iconic cartoon episodes of Fleischer Studios’ Superman, produced between 1941 and ‘42, but the New Adventures of Superman, which ran for 4 seasons until 1970.
As the voice behind Superman and Clark Kent for 30 years, he’s a vital part of the character’s history, even though we can’t technically give him a slot here. But his influence can be felt all across our top 3 entries…
3. David Corenswet
Superman (2025)
As the newest Superman on our list, there’s still plenty of time for David Corenswet to rise or fall in our rankings, but we feel pretty confident with what we’ve seen. James Gunn’s Superman flies by a little too quickly to really dive into the character, but in every single scene, Corenswet gives us hints of a fully-formed Clark-slash-Superman three years into his public career.
He’s a fast-talking, “aw, shucks” kind of guy who exudes a lovable energy, and while we haven’t spent enough time with his awkward, good-natured Clark Kent just yet, the actor slips effortlessly into both modes: mild-mannered, and Man of Steel.
He’s vulnerable, and he has a sense of humor and one of his defining traits is that he’s a dog person. Very few adaptations outside of the cartoons have really touched on this part of him, but it makes perfect sense, since Superman is kind of what you’d get if you turned a golden retriever into a person, at least earlier in his career.
But there’s really only one live-action version that’s explored what Superman’s life would be if he’d stuck around for a long time…
2. Tyler Hoechlin
The CW’s Arrowverse (2016-2020), Superman & Lois (2021-2024)
Right from his first scenes in The CW’s Supergirl, Tyler Hoechlin nails the mood and mannerisms of both sides of the Man of Steel, but it’s really his own series, Superman & Lois—a show full of gumshoe journalism—that allows him to truly shine.
The series doesn’t cross over with the others in the Arrow-verse, but it uses the classic iconography of Superman to present a new take on Smallville, as a contemporary American town suffering a post-recession economic downturn, making it the perfect modern update. Superman and Lois Lane have teenage sons, and when they move from Metropolis back to Kansas, Clark starts bearing the brunt of living a double life, and gradually reveals himself to his neighbors over the course of four seasons.
All the while, the show tells the story of Superman learning and at times struggling to be a good father, something the comics have focused on a lot in recent years. Along the way, the character is shown to be worldly, a protector of the vulnerable and innocent, and someone trustworthy on the surface, but he struggles with living up to this ideal, since his secret identity involves lying to those around him.
Despite its villain-of-the-week structure, what makes Superman & Lois work is its focus on friends and family, which it frames as Superman’s biggest strength. Well, that and punching of course. Hoechlin has a righteous anger, and as a father, he’s stern, but never cruel. Ultimately, he’s a jovial, loving and forgiving person who struggles with what it means to love, and to be mortal—but without losing sight of his humanity in the process.
This humanity is what makes Superman who he is, and the various actors who’ve played him across the decades have all understood that to varying degrees. But there’s one person who stands head and shoulders above them all, as history’s definitive Superman, and the gold standard for the big-screen superhero…
1. Christopher Reeve
Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1984)
Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie added a lot to what we think of as Superman’s story, from his iconicthe ‘S’ logo being the crest ofof the House of El, to the ice crystal versiony of fortress of solitude seen in nearly every adaptation since. But more than any of that, it was the perfect balance that Reeve struck between a bumbling, warmhearted, vulnerable Clark Kent, and a firm but welcoming—and slightly flirtatious—Man of Steel. Even the way he differentiates Clark and Superman’s postures ended up becoming part of some of the character’s most iconic comic moments.
Reeve was an incredible actor, but a huge part of the film’s success also rests on Margot Kidder as the ideal Lois Lane. She’s the perfect, strong-headed foil to Reeve’s timid Clark. People may be nostalgic about the film today, but Superman: The Movie was already filled with nostalgia by the time it came out in 1978. The Lois-Clark dynamic is a perfect throwback to screwball comedies from Hollywood’s golden age, and its folksy, Norman Rockwell Smallville was a fantasy of some lost American virtue that—whether or not it truly existed—was fully captured by Superman himself, even in the series later, goofy entries.
Reeve embodied the character both on and off-screen, with his disability activism in later years, but his performance is arguably the reason there are still superhero movies today, with each one of them trying to live up to the unquantifiable magic he brought to the screen—the kind that could make you believe a man can fly. Which is why he takes the top spot in our search for the definitive Superman. He was one of a kind.
But what do you think? Vote in our poll and let's discuss in the comments! And be sure to check out our ranking of the Superman movies too.
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