Acclaimed actor and playwright Jack Larson will deliver the next University of Central Arkansas Centennial Lecture on Friday, May 4 at 1 p.m. at the Main Stage Theatre in the Snow Fine Arts Center on the UCA campus.
Larson first became famous as Jimmy Olsen in the television program “The Adventures of Superman.” His production credits include work with “Bright Lights-Big City,” “The Paper Chase” and “Urban Cowboy.” He also appears in the latest Superman film, “Superman Returns.”
UCA established the Centennial Lecture Series as part of the official celebration of the institution’s 100th anniversary. More information about the UCA’s Centennial Lecture Series and other UCA Centennial events is available at uca.edu/100
Larson’s speech, entitled “A Career in American Film,” is the second in the series, and it is presented by the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication.
Also on Friday, the UCA Board of Trustees will vote to rename the James Bridges Theatre as “James Bridges-Jack Larson Theatre,” in honor of Larson’s generous support of the UCA James Bridges Performing Arts Scholarship through the Bridges/Larson Foundation. Larson is the longtime friend and partner of Bridges, who attended UCA in the 1950’s before embarking upon an illustrious career in Hollywood as a writer and director of numerous motion pictures.
The rededication of the theater will take place at 11:30 a.m. on Friday in the lobby of the Snow Fine Arts Center, and a plaque bearing the new name will be unveiled at the ceremony.
At UCA’s Commencement exercises on Saturday, Larson will accept an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree conferred posthumously to Bridges.
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Biography for Jack Larson (From the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com)
Jack Larson was raised in Pasadena, California, and attended Pasadena Junior College (by coincidence, exactly like his “Adventures of Superman” (1952) co-star George Reeves). He was a contract player at Warner Bros. Typecast as Jimmy Olsen, Larson found it virtually impossible to get other acting roles after the series went off the air and retired from acting a few years later, concentrating on writing. His plays have been highly acclaimed and he has had works performed in theaters and opera houses around the world. He was the longtime companion of late director James Bridges, with whom he co-produced a number of popular films of the 1970s and 1980s. Larson is an erudite and charming man who seems to have been close friends with many of the more prominent figures of the arts in the latter half of the 20th century, including Virgil Thomson, John Houseman, Leslie Caron, Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, Salka Viertel, Christopher Isherwood and James Dean.
