Jack Larson, the playwright and librettist who, as he often predicted with good-natured resignation, will be remembered best as the actor who played the cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the television series “Adventures of Superman,” died on Sunday at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The death was confirmed by Alan Howard, a longtime friend.

Mr. Larson was 23 and an aspiring Broadway actor and playwright when, in 1951, he was offered the role of Olsen, an eager young reporter and photographer at The Daily Planet who idolizes his more mature, more experienced colleague Clark Kent (not knowing that Kent is secretly Superman) and constantly gets himself and his fellow reporter Lois Lane into perilous situations that require rescue by a superhero.

But he hesitated to accept the role, for fear of being typecast. After his agent told him the show had no sponsor and was unlikely to see the light of day, Mr. Larson agreed to film 26 episodes.

The series had its premiere in 1952 and ran until 1958. There were plans to bring the show back, but George Reeves, who played Superman, died in 1959 in what was ruled a suicide.