Jeff East is a former child star that is known for two iconic roles. Those two roles are Huckleberry
Finn and Superman, both of which he portrayed during the 1970s. As with so many others,
Jeff’s success as a child star didn’t last. Still, the actor doesn’t have any bad feelings about it.
Jeff retired from acting during the late 1980s and now lives in France with his current wife,
though he isn’t above sending out video messages to fans for $25 a pop! Join
Facts Verse as we explore what happened to Jeff East, the original Huckleberry Finn.
Jeff East Was the Original Huckleberry Finn Jeff East was born on the 27th of October,
1957, in Kansas City. Neither of Jeff's parents had connections to show business, but
the family ended up moving to California when Jeff was entering his teenage years,
and it was here that the boy entered the entertainment industry.
Jeff has three siblings, and one of them is his twin! Jeff and his twin sister are the youngest
of the four siblings, and Jeff is the only one that went on to become a Hollywood star.
Jeff East claims that it was a major transition for him when he first began working on the film
Tom Sawyer. The film was a United Artists production, and it became a
big hit for the studio. The success of the film yielded a sequel. In both films, Jeff
portrayed the character of Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer was released in 1973,
while Huckleberry Finn was released the next year. The first film was based upon the Mark
Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, while the second film was based upon the
author’s follow-up novel, appropriately titled The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Both novels
were released in the latter half of the 19th century, just under a century before the films.
In addition to Jeff East, Tom Sawyer also featured a young Jodie Foster
only years before her controversial appearance in the counter-culture classic Taxi Driver.
Though Jeff’s dual performances as Huckleberry Finn in the 1970s pair of
films marked the beginning of his career, it sadly also marked the peak. Jeff East wasn’t
able to find many significant roles in the entertainment industry after coming of age.
The last major role that Jeff East received came when the actor was 20 years old.
Several years after his performances as Huckleberry Finn in the pair of films, Jeff was
cast in the role of a teenage Clark Kent in the film Superman: The Movie.
Jeff East Played a Teenage Superman Superhero films were a relatively new phenomenon
when Superman: The Movie came around in the late 1970s. Superheroes had graced cinema screens for
years in the form of serials, but these serials weren’t seen as very serious fare in comparison
to what Hollywood was offering in the age of the blockbuster. Superman: The Movie was obviously
aiming to be something different, with the feature striving to be more of an event film than a piece
of serialized children’s entertainment. Director Richard Donner helmed the film,
and it had some fairly impressive names attached to it. The producers notably put down a good deal
of money to get prestigious actor Marlon Brando to play the small part of Superman’s father.
Meanwhile, Jeff East was the actor tasked with playing the role of Superman when he was young.
The role of Superman as an adult was memorably portrayed by actor Christopher Reeve. It was
merely a coincidence that Christopher had nearly the same last name as the man who had
portrayed Superman most famously on the screen previously. Jeff East had grown up watching
The Adventures of Superman on television, which featured actor George Reeves in the title role.
Given that Superman: The Movie was meant to be a legitimate film, director Richard Donner put a lot
of care into crafting it. Although Jeff’s role in the feature was incredibly small,
Richard had him learn a great deal about Superman’s lore in order to play the
younger iteration of the character. 20-year-old Jeff put all of his effort into the research,
knowing that his role in the feature could potentially pay off if the film
was a success. Sadly, although the film was successful, it didn’t do much for Jeff’s career.
Jeff East was incredibly excited about the opportunity to play the character of Superman,
even if he was only being tasked with playing a younger version of the character for a short
amount of screen time. This excitement gave way to incredible disappointment
when Jeff realized that director Richard Donner had Christopher Reeve
dub over all of his lines for the film’s final cut. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be
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Superman: The Movie Didn’t Help Jeff’s Career Though Jeff East had been the titular star of his
own hit movie only years previously, the actor’s coming of age had made him a much different person
by the time 1978’s Superman: The Movie came around. Jeff understandably saw his role as a
young Clark Kent in the film as his opportunity to prove to the world that he had what it took
to make it in the acting world as an adult. Sadly, Jeff ended up being severely underutilized in
the feature, even though he gave the role his all. After all of the extra work that director
Richard Donner had Jeff do, the actor was barely featured in the movie. Not only that, but the
scenes that did feature the 20-year-old actor had his voice replaced with that of Christopher Reeve,
who portrayed the character as an adult in the rest of the film. Richard’s reason for replacing
Jeff’s voice was tonal consistency, and he had nothing against Jeff personally. Neither did
Christopher Reeve, who was simply doing his job. However, the fact of the matter was that Jeff was
incredibly hurt by having his voice dubbed over,
and he held a grudge against both Richard and Christopher for decades after the event occurred.
Superman: The Movie proved a major success, though Jeff didn’t see much of a boost in
popularity as a result. Few in the audience were aware that Jeff East was the same young
man that had portrayed Huckleberry Finn, even if they had watched the pair of pictures featuring
him only a few years prior. Jeff had grown up so much during that period of time that the
was essentially unrecognizable, and audiences were much more fixated on the adult Superman
than they were on the teenage version of him that could be seen early in the film. Superman:
The Movie’s success paved the way for three sequels,
all of which were slightly inferior to the ones that came before. None of these sequels
found room for Jeff East, who struggled for work over the course of the 1980s.
Jeff East continued to try his hand at acting during the early 1980s,
though he retired from acting later in the decade and went into real estate with his father.
Some of the films that Jeff appeared in over the course of the 80s included the cult-classic horror
film Pumpkinhead, which was the directorial debut of special-effects artist Stan Winston.
Jeff held a grudge against Christopher Reeve for dubbing over his Superman lines
for over two decades but finally managed to squash the beef with the actor before
Christopher’s 2004 death. Many will know that Christopher Reeve became paralyzed not all that
long after portraying the character of Superman for the fourth time in Superman IV: The Quest
for Peace. After his paralysis, Christopher Reeve started the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
In 2001, Jeff East attended an event to help the Christopher Reeve Foundation raise money.
This marked the point where Jeff and Christopher were finally able to put the past behind them.
Jeff Gave His All to the Role of Superman Jeff East certainly gave the role of Superman
his all, even if the results featured in the final product didn’t do much for his career. In addition
to researching the character's lore far more than he needed to,
Jeff was also forced to wear a prosthetic nose for the role that took several hours a day to put on.
It apparently took up to four hours each day for Jeff to get ready to film his scenes, even
though his scenes only represented a fraction of the final film. This goes to show just how much
work was put into Superman: The Movie in order to make it stand out from previous superhero fare.
Jeff East also had to wear a wig in the role of Superman, which didn’t help much when it
came to the actor being recognized for his part in the successful movie. At the end of the day,
Jeff gave his all to the production and few people even noticed that he was in it. However,
it’s undeniable that the work that Jeff contributed to the picture played a big
part in the film’s overall success in a subtle and underappreciated way. Jeff can perhaps be
seen as the unsung hero of Superman: The Movie, even if it’s Christopher Reeve who
gets to turn back time to save the girl in the end. Jeff East also did many of his
own stunts during the filming, which almost resulted in him getting injured and killed.
In the late 1980s, Jeff East retired from show business and got into real estate with his father.
In the 2000s, Jeff took over his father’s entire company. Nowadays,
Jeff is living in France with his current wife, though he loves reliving his glory
days by sending personalized video messages to his fans for $25 a pop via the website Cameo.
Jeff East is still around, though he’s no longer anywhere near the celebrity that he was during his
years as a child performer. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Huckleberry Finn actor
Jeff East also played the character of a young Clark Kent in 1978’s Superman: The Movie and that
he formed a grudge against star Christopher Reeve that lasted over two decades after the film’s
production? As always, like this video to show your support, subscribe, and hit the notification
bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!