Perry White Superman Character: Actors and Film History

Perry White is the editor of the Daily Planet in Metropolis, the newspaper where Clark Kent and Lois Lane report the news while Superman deals with the threats that make the headlines. Seven films carry the character, and three actors have played him: Jackie Cooper, Frank Langella and Laurence Fishburne.

Who played Perry White in each film? Here is the answer in release order, with the director and the actor's billing position.

Perry is a supporting role, and the billing shows it: his name falls anywhere from fifth to twelfth in the credits, and no film in the series is built around him. The role has passed between Jackie Cooper (1978 to 1987), Frank Langella (2006) and Laurence Fishburne (2013 and 2016).

This profile follows his screen history. For the wider cast, see Superman characters and Superman cast.

Perry White's story across the films is a run of supporting beats at the Daily Planet, peaking when he loses and then regains the paper in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The clearest way to follow him is by era, starting with the four films that feature Jackie Cooper.

In Superman (1978), directed by Richard Donner, the Daily Planet is where Clark takes a reporter's job and meets Lois Lane, so Perry's newsroom is the base for the whole civilian half of the story. In Superman II, Lois and Clark travel to Niagara Falls on assignment, and that trip is where Lois begins to suspect Clark is Superman. Superman III ends with Lana Lang becoming Perry White's secretary while Lois returns to Metropolis with a news story of her own.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace gives Perry his biggest plot beat. Tabloid publisher David Warfield buys the Daily Planet and puts his daughter Lacy in charge in place of Perry. Late in the film Perry gets a loan and wins back control of the paper, leaving Warfield with a minority stake. It is the only film where his job is itself at stake.

Frank Langella's Perry White runs the Daily Planet in Superman Returns (2006), where Clark returns after five years away to find Lois holding a Pulitzer Prize for "Why the World Does Not Need Superman." The paper is again the place where the hero's absence is argued over in public.

Man of Steel (2013) is the origin story, so Clark drifts from job to job until the final scenes, where he joins the Daily Planet as a reporter with Lois and Perry White as colleagues. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice follows eighteen months later, with Clark writing Daily Planet pieces that criticize Batman's brutal methods, and Laurence Fishburne's Perry is back in the cast.

Perry White's key relationships are with Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang and the Warfields, and all of them play out in the Daily Planet newsroom.

Clark Kent / Superman. Clark is Perry's reporter in every version of the story, and in Man of Steel he is hired at the very end of the film. Does Perry White know Clark is Superman? No film shows him learning the secret. In Man of Steel it is Lois who works it out and chooses to protect his identity, which keeps the newsroom in the dark.

Lois Lane. Lois is the star reporter on his staff, and she is the one who moves the paper's stories forward, from the Pulitzer-winning essay in Superman Returns to the news story she brings back at the end of Superman III.

Jimmy Olsen. Marc McClure plays Jimmy in Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, while Sam Huntington takes the role in Superman Returns. Jimmy and Perry share the same newsroom through every one of those films.

Lana Lang. Annette O'Toole's Lana becomes Perry's secretary at the close of Superman III, which turns an old Smallville friend of Clark's into a Daily Planet colleague.

David and Lacy Warfield. Sam Wanamaker plays David Warfield and Mariel Hemingway plays Lacy in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. They are the only rivals Perry faces for the paper itself, and Lacy takes his chair before he wins it back.

Perry White is never killed in any of the seven films, and each version leaves him alive and at the Daily Planet.

The Jackie Cooper version has the most complete ending. After Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, he is back in control of the paper, with Warfield reduced to a minority stake. That film was the last of the original series, so it also closes the book on this version of the character. Frank Langella's Perry in Superman Returns (2006) is still editor of the Daily Planet when the film ends, and no scene removes him from the paper.

Laurence Fishburne's version is left in the newsroom as well. The ending of Man of Steel sets Clark at the Daily Planet with Lois and Perry as colleagues, and Fishburne's Perry is back in the cast of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. None of the plot summaries has Perry written out for good, so his status across the films is alive and in charge of the Daily Planet.

Perry's best scenes are the ones where the newspaper itself becomes the story, and the strongest of them is the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace storyline.

In my opinion, the Warfield takeover is the most interesting use of Perry in any film, because it gives him something to fight for. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a modest film in other ways (it runs 90 minutes on a $17 million budget), but the idea of a tabloid owner putting his daughter in Perry's chair makes the Daily Planet feel like a real business instead of a backdrop. Perry's loan and his return to control is a small win that suits a character who is never the hero.

A second moment is the end of Man of Steel. After the destruction of Metropolis, the film closes on Clark joining a newsroom with Lois and Perry White in it. The end of Man of Steel is the best modern use of Perry, because it frames the Daily Planet as the place where Superman's double life begins. Fishburne's Perry then returns in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where the paper's criticism of Batman shows the newsroom taking positions in the public argument.

The Lana Lang secretary beat in Superman III is smaller still, but it is a good reminder of how the series uses Perry's office as the place where old characters land. If you want to see Perry at his most active, start with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and then move on to Man of Steel.