Superman's John Hamilton

[RoRo]

John Rummel Hamilton was born January 16, 1886 in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. In the 1950s he was cast as Editor, Perry White on the "Adventures of Superman" (1951-57) TV series and that became his best known role. Among his over 225 impressive film credits were: "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" (1940) a serial with Buster Crabbe; "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" (1940) with Edward G. Robinson, as Hirsch; "The Brute Man" (1946) with Rondo Hatton, as Prof. Cushman; "Sea of Grass" (1947) as Forrest Cochran; "That's My Gal" (1947); "The Fabulous Texan" (1947) as Pres. Ulysses S. Grant; "Walk a Crooked Mile" (1948); "Gallant Legion" (1948); "Canadian Pacific" (1949); "Law of the Golden West" (1949) as Isaac Cody, Bill's father; "The Magnificent Yankee" (1950) as Justice White; "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) as Ship Captain; "Davy Crockett, Indian Scout" (1950) as Col. Pollard; "The Great Caruso" (1951) uncredited, as Foster DeWitt; "Target" (1952) as Bailey; "The Rose Bowl Story" (1952) as Dr. Lansing; "Jack McCall Desperado" (1953) as Col. Cornish; "Run for the Hills" (1953) as Mr. Harvester; "Sitting Bull" (1954) as Pres. U.S. Grant; "The Miami Story" (1954) as Clifton Staley; "Chicago Confidential" (1957) as Emery Morgan and "Outcasts of the City" (1958) his last film. He died in Glendale, California of a heart attack on October 15, 1958.

[John Trim]

I loved him on Superman.

[JWest]

Great Caesar's ghost! There was a story about that phrase he used in Superman but damned if I can remember it.

[TheMysterian]

It's too bad you don't remember the story,I'll bet it was intresting! I grew up watching that show. "Don't call me Chief" was another one his sayings.Here is a pic of one of Georges costumes from the show

[Reecy]

All those movies he made and I remember him only in Superman. It's like Lucille Ball. She made hundreds of films and she's known for I love Lucy etc. RIP

[John Trim]

Seems that way with a lot of TV stars in the fifties. Television was fairly new but getting a job as a regular on a TV show meant a regular paycheck. A lot of these people were character actors in the 30's and 40's but rolls were starting to go to younger actors in the movies, so they opted for TV rolls to pay the bills. If you look back there were a lot of shows in the fifties that, even thought the leads were younger actors, a lot of the secondary rolls were middle aged actors. Also in some cases the leads were also middle aged.

[Jazbabee]

I always remember the "Great Caesers ghost" line too. If anyone knows the story behind it, I too would love to hear it !!

[Guest]

[Bessolo]

Thread back from the dead...

Great Caesar's Ghost is an exclamation of exasperation sorta like Good Grief! or Good God! And is along the lines of WC Fields' "Godfrey Daniels!" which was his self inflicted censorship of "Goddammit!"

While this phrase is probably best known for John Hamilton's Perry White, it predates him by many many years.

John's personal life isn't very well documented but he had been married (don't know if he got divorced or was a widower) and he had a son. Does anyone have any details on him or his son? RIP Chief, I mean John