Spider-Man: What Happened To Every Pre-1990s Actor?

If there's anything that the various Spider-Man movies throughout the 21st century have taught us, it's that across the Marvel multiverse, various versions of the comic book company's flagship superhero exist. "Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse," and "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse" have leaned into that concept heavily, giving us glimpses of characters who, despite looking and acting vastly different from one another, are undeniably Spider-Man in their own way. "No Way Home," in particular, delivered a thrilling experience to three generations of cinematic Spider-fans by uniting the three actors who have portrayed Peter Parker in their respective live-action film franchises: Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. But this famous trio are but a few of those who have portrayed our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Indeed, we live in a time where there's no shortage of answers to the question, "Who's your favorite Spider-Man actor?" Aside from the aforementioned MCU Spider-trio, there have been numerous portrayals of the amazing superhero across different media, including cartoon shows, animated movies, and even video games. With that said, before the 1990s rolled in, there were only a handful of actors who had the opportunity to lend their vocal — and in even fewer cases, live-action — talents to the spider-themed superhero and breathe life into his sprawling mythos.

From the perpetually silent web-slinger who helped kids learn how to read to the peculiar, alien-powered mech pilot with a penchant for dramatic poses, here's a look at the different pre-'90s adaptations of Spider-Man — and how the actors who put their unique spin on him are doing today.

In the early days of Spider-Man's popularity, adaptations of his story were rare. Perhaps that's why Donald F. Glut decided to bring his vision of the wallcrawler to life himself. In 1969, Glut directed a fan film starring the web-slinger; he also played the titular character. Many say that this was the first Spider-Man fan film ever made — and, technically, the first instance of the Marvel superhero ever being portrayed in live-action. In an interview published by Spider-Friends.com, Glut revealed that three years before the debut of his fan movie, he told Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee about his plans, and even showed the legendary scribe his costume. This also made him realize how little he understood about the industry at the time: "I'd had the naïve idea that I could get — for free — the rights to film a Spider-Man TV pilot. Stan graciously explained to me how that was impossible." 

Over the years, Glut built an impressive resume as a screenwriter, magazine editor, book author, musician, and director. In an interesting twist, he also wrote some episodes of the 1981 cartoon "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends." Nowadays, he still writes for comics, appears at conventions, and does volunteer work preparing dinosaur fossils for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Curiously, he did not like the 1970s live-action Spider-Man show. In a 2010 interview (via Straight 2 DVD), he had less-than-pleasant things to say about it: "I watched it and it looked pretty cheap to me."

The 1975 fan film "Spider-Man Versus Kraven the Hunter" is perhaps one of the most infamous pieces of "lost media" — videos, audio, or images that were known to exist, but are now inaccessible to the public — in Spider-Man history. This is mainly because it was the first Spider-Man fan film to explicitly get support (though not distribution rights) from Stan Lee himself, as confirmed in a 1970s issue of Marvel's FOOM fan magazine. Sadly, director Bruce Cardozo was reportedly against releasing his fan film to the public, and only showed it at conventions.

The role of Peter Parker went to Joe Ellison, who was reportedly praised by Marvel employees (including Lee and writer Roy Thomas) as a "dead ringer" for Spider-Man's civilian alter-ego. Curiously, Ellison seems to have pursued a different career path, as his portrayal of Peter Parker remains his only documented film credit. Meanwhile, Richard Eberhardt, who was part of the graphics team, portrayed Spider-Man in the suit. According to his IMDB page, Eberhardt continued working in the industry as a cinematographer and visual effects specialist, and was part of other superhero-themed productions like 1987's "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" and 2004's "The Punisher." He also worked with Cardozo on a documentary released in 2016, "The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille," for which they both served as associate producers.

As part of a three-year licensing agreement with Marvel Comics  in the '70s, the Japanese entertainment company Toei produced a wildly different live-action "Spider-Man" show that borrowed the character's name and costume, but threw everything else out the window. The series (which is sometimes referred to as "Supaidaman") ran for 41 episodes from 1978 to 1979, and starred Shinji Todō and Hirofumi Koga as Takuya Yamashiro (not Peter Parker) and Spider-Man, respectively. 

Todō, who also went by the name Kōsuke Kayama, enjoyed a long and successful career in the Japanese acting industry. His most noteworthy role post-"Spider-Man" was in the 1992 TV series "To Dear Ones," which he top-billed; his most recent credited work for Japanese TV was in 2018. Outside of his country, however, Todō never quite attained the height of popularity reached by other voice or live-action actors who brought the web-slinger to life. As for Koga, "Spider-Man" appears to be his last credited acting work. In 2020, both Todō and Koga were interviewed for the first episode of "Marvel 616" (a documentary series for the Disney+ streaming platform), which gave an in-depth look at the production of the Japanese "Spider-Man" show.

The year 1981 was an oddity in Spider-Man animated history, as it featured not one, but two animated series starring the web-slinger, running side by side. One of the cartoons, simply titled "Spider-Man," highlighted the superhero's solo adventures. The series ran for 26 episodes, and starred Theodore "Ted" Schwartz (who had previously acted in a number of TV series) as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. 

There is very little verifiable information about Schwartz available on the internet. An article published by the Chicago Tribune, prior to his Spider-Man gig, revolved around Schwartz's portrayal of the titular character in the Broadway play "Lenny." It described the Brooklyn-born actor as a person who "avoids the limelight, writes screenplays and plays when he can, portrays his ex-idol, and pays bills by being one of the most widely used 'voice men' in the field of commercials." 

After his work on "Spider-Man," Schwartz also lent his voice to other characters in TV shows such as 1985's "CBS Storybreak" and 1986's "The Transformers," as well as in the 1986 TV movie "GI Joe: Arise, Serpentor, Arise!"  In the 1990s, he remained active in the theater industry, directing plays such as "The Deal" (via the Los Angeles Times) and "Belmont Avenue Social Club," in which he also played one of the leads (via Playbill). Sadly, the Spring 2016 issue of the SAG-AFTRA newspaper confirmed that Schwartz passed away on September 4, 2014.

Anyone who owns a copy of "Amazing Spider-Man" Vol. 1 #262 will certainly recognize Scott Leva. Leva, who worked as a stuntman in Hollywood, appeared on the cover of the issue as an unmasked Spider-Man. At around the same time, Leva was heavily featured in promotional material for Cannon Films' "Spider-Man" movie, which did not pan out well. While many speculated that he had already been officially cast, the project was actually canned before it could even find its Spidey (via Comic Book Legends Revealed).

To date, Leva has been credited as a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and actor in more than 200 productions. Aside from appearing at Marvel events and on comic book photo covers as the wallcrawler, Leva did have an opportunity to play the web-slinger on camera, in a manner of speaking: In a sequence for the blooper reel of 2000's "X-Men," Leva (a stunt coordinator for the film) unexpectedly pops up in full Spidey garb during a serious scene, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

For nearly three decades, Leva has been running his own stunt coordinator and equipment company, Precision Stunt Safety Specialists. Following the stunt-related death of a close colleague in 1997, Leva developed an original airbag design with enhanced safety features that prevent performers from bouncing or sliding out of the bag if they fell on it off-center or at an odd angle. This won Leva an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2006, as well as a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award in 2008.