Although he had relatively few professional credits to his name, handsome and clean-cut actor Brandon Routh soared into the media limelight when he was cast as the Man of Steel in director Bryan Singer’s highly anticipated revival of the original superhero film franchise “Superman Returns” (2006).

Born Oct. 9, 1979, in Des Moines, Iowa and raised in nearby Norwalk (about 100 miles south of Woolstock, the hometown of TV's original “Superman,” George Reeves), the strapping 6’ 2 ½ ” actor—known to his friends and family and sometimes professionally credited as “B.J.”—was a high school athlete who