Known as the ‘Serial King’ : Spencer G. Bennet, 94; Veteran Film Director

Spencer Gordon Bennet, a onetime stunt man and actor in the studios of Thomas Alva Edison who came to be known as Hollywood’s “Serial King,” has died at 94, relatives said Friday.

Bennet, who directed the first “Superman” and “Batman and Robin” series and scores of other short films that lured generations of children to Saturday matinees, died Thursday night at a nursing home in Santa Monica.

The director had been in the home about a year, his son-in-law, Erman Pessis, said.

In his more than 40-year career, which began in the early 1920s, Bennet directed more than 100 movies, most of them action-packed serials that featured a variety of cowboys, soldiers, aviators or superhumans.

Enduring Characters

With Thomas Carr, he co-directed the first “Superman” movies in 1948. Others of his enduring film characters include Capt. Video, Son of Zorro and Wild Bill Elliott.

Additionally, he directed the classic, 10-chapter “The Green Archer” in 1925, “The House Without a Key” in 1926, “The Secret Code” and “The Masked Marvel” in 1943, “Cody of the Pony Express” in 1950 and “Perils of the Wilderness” in 1956.

His last movie was the 1965 “Requiem for a Gunfighter.”

Bennet was born in Brooklyn and first broke into films as a stunt man and bit player, and got into directing after a stint as understudy to George B. Seitz. He was active until the age of 88, frequently playing squash, Pessis said.

Bennet got his first stunt job in New York in 1912, the son-in-law related:

“There was an advertisement in the New York paper for somebody to jump off the palisades of the Hudson River, and they dressed him in a full dress suit and paid him a dollar a foot for the jump. It was 68 feet, and he jumped and the film was not very good, and they said, ‘Would you like to do it over again?’

“He said, ‘Yes. Will you pay me again?’ and they said, ‘Sure,’ ” Pessis said.

Capsized Rowboat

After the second jump, Bennet had to save his brother, a non-swimmer who got so excited that he capsized the rowboat he was supposed to use to take Bennet back to shore.

In addition to the serials, Bennet directed low-budget, action-oriented feature films, including “Submarine Seahawk,” 1959; “They Raid by Night,” 1942, “The Fugitive Sheriff,” 1936, and “Rogue of the Rio Grande,” 1930.

“Unfortunately, he got typed as the guy who could bring it in at a low budget,” Pessis said. “He knew enough about the script and the production so he didn’t shoot from 10 different angles--he scripted it in his head.”