Other Actors Who Played Superman. Other actors have played the role -- Ray Middleton, Bud Collyer, Lee Quigley, Kirk Alyn, Brandon Routh and Bob Holliday, and Tom Welling, in Smallville -- though none gained the fame nor consistency in the role of the previous three.he Original Superman. George Reeves was perhaps the first enduring figure of Superman on the big screen. Others had played the role, but after his 1951 debut in Superman and the Mole Men, Reeves went on to an extended run with Superman on the small screen in the TV series The Adventures of Superman.