"Smooth."
Michael Landes
was born on September 18, 1972 in
the Bronx, New York.
Michael's
first television appearance was in a recurring role on "The
Wonder Years" in 1988. He then appeared on various other
television sitcoms such as "Blossom," "Step by
Step" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."
In
1993, Michael was cast as Jimmy Olsen on "Lois & Clark:
The New Adventures of Superman." His version of Jimmy was
a casual, down to earth guy who was a friend to Lois and Clark,
a sidekick to "The Chief" (Perry White), and forever
in pursuit of Cat Grant or whatever other ladies happened to
catch his eye.
One
of the highlights of Landes's performance was his interaction
with Lane Smtih as Perry. "I loved working with Lane and
he and I became almost the "B" storyline," Landes
said in a 1999 TV Zone interview. "Naturally, it
was always about Lois and Clark; the program ultimately came
down to being just that, but they developed my character the
best they could. You learn to care about Jimmy as you se him
struggling to be better at his job. I think audiences would
rather watch someone who's on the road to making it as opposed
to someone who's got it all together."
Sadly,
Landes was only on board "L&C" for a single season.
In 1994, the producers replaced Landes with actor Justin Whalin.
Reasons for the cast change are sketchy, with most reports indicating
that Landes and Dean Cain were thought to look "too much
alike," which could have been confusing to viewers.
After
leaving "L&C," Landes did several guest appearances
on the series "Too Something" and "The Drew Carey
Show." He was also a lead member of the cast of the short-lived
series "Union Square" (a show which also starred Jim
Pirri, the actor who played DEA Agent Dan Scardino during the
second season of "Lois & Clark"). He was also
the star of the UPN series "Special Unit 2." One episode
of "SU2" features one of the first on-screen appearances
of Tom Welling, who of course became the next Superman in "Smallville."
Since
then, Michael produced as well as starred in the 1999 film "Getting
Personal," which also featured Lane Smith and John Shea.
Most recently, he can be seen in the 2002 movie "Hart's
War" and the 2003 teen horror film "Final Destination
2."
He
may have a British sitcom in his future.
Bio
written by Russ Dimino
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