Jerry Siegel

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 17 October 1914, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. A shy boy who devoured pulp science-fiction magazines and comics, he met the artist Joe Shuster in high school, and together, hand in hand, the two of them gave shape to a character that would change popular culture forever: Superman.

The birth of a myth

The division of labour was clear: Siegel imagined and wrote, Shuster drew. After years of knocking fruitlessly on every publisher's door, in 1938 they sold all the rights to Superman for a mere 130 dollars. That April, the character made his debut in Action Comics #1 and became an instant phenomenon that practically invented the figure of the superhero and set a whole industry in motion. Even his wife, Joanne, served as the model for Lois Lane. Two twenty-somethings from Cleveland had created a global icon.

The great injustice

But that 130-dollar contract turned into one of the greatest injustices in the history of comics. While Superman generated genuine fortunes in comics, radio, film and merchandising, its creators saw neither the money nor, for many years, the recognition. The publisher eventually let them go, and Siegel fell on hard times, ending up working as a mere typist. He fought in the courts for decades to reclaim the authorship of his creation, almost always in vain.

Late justice and legacy

Justice, at least in part, came late. In 1975, while Warner was preparing the blockbuster Superman (1978), starring Christopher Reeve, Siegel led a high-profile press campaign that finally secured recognition of their authorship, a lifetime pension and the commitment that every Superman production would credit its creators. At that film's premiere, moved to tears, Siegel summed up what he felt: it was exactly as he had imagined it.

Jerry Siegel died in Los Angeles on 28 January 1996, at the age of 81. Today his name still appears in the credits of every adaptation of the character, from that 1978 classic to the recent Superman (2025). Isn't it beautiful that the man who gave the world its greatest symbol of hope should, at last, have received some of his own?

The earliest credit MovieNCo has for Jerry Siegel is Superman (1978); in all, 17 films over 48 years. Their title most voted by MovieNCo readers is Man of Steel (2013), with 179 votes. Their busiest decade is the 2020s, with 6 titles. The person they have worked with most is Joe Shuster, on 18 films, among them Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.