Jack Grimes (actor)
American actor (1926–2009)

Jack Grimes (April 1, 1926 – March 10, 2009) was an American voice and radio actor who played Jimmy Olsen in the last three years of The Adventures of Superman radio program, and the 1966 Filmation TV series The New Adventures of Superman. He is also known for his performance as the mechanic Sparky, and the pet chimp Chim-Chim in the 1967 anime Speed Racer.
Early years
Grimes was born April 1, 1926, in New York City. His acting career began at age seven during the Great Depression, when he helped earn money for his family. He completed grammar school at the Professional Children's School and went on to complete four years at Columbia University.
Career
Stage
Grimes appeared as Jackie Grimes in the Broadway play The Old Maid, which won a Pulitzer Prize and ran for 10 months in New York. It then went on tour for another 11 months. His other Broadway credits include Stork Mad (1936), Excursion (1937), and Western Waters (1937–1938).
Radio
Grimes worked on radio, beginning with the CBS program Let's Pretend. By age 12, he was appearing on 35 to 40 radio shows a week.
The public source identifies “Jack Grimes (actor)” as american actor (1926–2009). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jack, Grimes and actor.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2610744. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2009, 1966 and 1967.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Grimes (actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.