cemented in history. i'm ellee pai hong. and i'm kerry sayers. and i'm your host, bill kurtis. it's superheroes, "through the decades." as kids we all aspire be one of these. not bird or a plane but a superhero. with abilities far beyond those of mere humans and as we grow up our fascination with superheroes doesn't go away. in fact, by judging by the box office reciepts of the past several decades, it only grows bigger. today, we're taking the hour to look at some of our favorite superheroes "through the decades," from the caped crusader to wonder woman to your friendly neighborhood spiderman. but we begin with one of the most instantly recognizable superheros and the grand daddy of them all - superman. cloaked in blue and red and branded with a bold letter "s," an icon that helped shape all the superheroes to come. "up in the sky, look! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman!" superman. the preeminent superhero was born from the minds of two teenage boys living in cleveland, ohio; jerry siegel and joe shuster. they met at glenville high school in the early '30s and began collaborating almost immediately. jerry would write and joe would draw. their first rendition of superman came in 1933 as a bald villain. but a year later, siegel revised the character to be a hero and for the next four years siegel and shuster searched for a publisher eventually catching the eye of national allied publications who on june 1, 1938, chose superman as the cover feature for their action comics number one. siegel and shuster'sreation was an instant hit and in 1939, national allied publications decided to launch superman into its own self- titled comic book which at the time had never been done before. within a few years, superman was selling over a million copies a month becoming a certified phenomenon and an integral hallmark of american culture as the embodiment of moral fortitude and sheer, infinite strength. "well, i think it's actually interesting that this character was sort of a creation of the depression which is people's feeling of powerlessness and the notion of two kids creating a person that has all the abilities in the world is sort of indicative of the era that he was created in which was in the middle of the depression." but superman would far outlive the era of his creation. "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." those are fantasies that have stretched across all generations but while the character amassed a media dynasty, the creators wouldn't be so lucky. "this is a story of two men who dreamed up a super idea and then saw others race away with it faster than a speeding bullet." "we felt, at one time, during these long years that it was our american dream and our american dream then became an american tragedy." going back to superman's very first appearance in action comics number one, siegel and shuster sold the rights to their work to national allied publications. it's a decision that would haunt the two in the decades that followed. on several occasions, they fought to retain the rights but were largely unsuccessul until 1976 when they were finally granted a concession. "the final agreement was signed today. siegel and shuster, both 61, will each receive an annual twenty thousand dollar pension, full medical care and provisions for relatives. their by-line restored." that 20-thousand was later increased to 30-thousand. pennies compared to the empire they created. from young imaginations to the strips of a comic book page, the screens of hollywood and beyond. the same immortality that shuster and siegel empowered their character with has come to fruition in a society forever fascinated by the super human. "that's a wonderful story lois." "thanks, clark but i owe it all to superman." when it comes to looking back on the fictional heroes that have made a mark "through the decades," we've only just scratched the surface. still to come, the surprising origin of the one of a kind comic heroine -- wonder woman. then, we feature the caped crusader of the '60s, adam west we're also looking back on when a web-slinging crime-fighting character first busted into the spotlight. plus, we'll take you back to the '80s when hollywood first discovered the power of a cape. we sit down with television's original incredible hulk -- lou ferrigno and we delve into the history of the man who slashed his way intoollywood as the iconic x- men character - wolverine. it's all still ahead as we continue our journey of superheros "through the decades" superheros "through the decades" superman ruled television in the 1950's. batman in the 1960's but in the '70s, it was time for a female superhero to dominate the airwaves and she burst onto the scene wearing a tiara and wielding a lasso. wonder woman had arrived. "my main concern is that i wanted to project the image of wonder woman as a non-predatory female, that was smart and had it all going on. wasn't full of herself. was a champion of women, was a friend of women, and that women loved as much as the guys for other reasons loved her." wonder woman had been a powerhouse in comic books since the 1940's but she still hadn't made the transition from page to screen. in 1967, a t-v pilot, influenced by the high-camp "batman" series played the heroine for laughs. it didn't sell. in 1974, another pilot was tried -- but featured a super- heroine who was nothing like her comic-book counterpart. "the pilot stars cathy lee crosby who was a professional tennis player turned actor and then ricardo montalbon as sort of a james bond blofeldian villian. and was more of a super spy 1960s james bond kind of a feel than it was wonder woman." "but in '75 we got another pilot. this is the lynda carter pilot. the pilot that people traditionally think about. " lynda carter was a former singer and miss world usa, who was trying to break into t-v. "there were very few jobs available for women. i went in for the reading, to read for wonder woman, and doug cramer who was the executive producer had seen film on me. and i walked in and he said, 'oh we don't want you to read. because we've already seen you on film. we just want you to do the screen test.' (gasps) really? oh my god! that was like the closest i'd ever got to anything really big." carter's wonder woman debuted on november 7, in an explosion of starbursts and spandex and was an instant hit. "i think the secret formula that the producers were missing when trying to adapt wonder woman in those previous attempts, the '67 and '74 attempt was sex appeal. and that is what they ended up finding in the 1975 version. when you watch the 1974 feature/pilot adaptation, she's fully dressed with long sleeves, pants. she's 100 percent clothed. she's a james bond character, you know, ready for action, ready to fight anywhere. when we move into the '75 adaptation, lynda carter was far less dressed than cathy lee crosby was, she was filmed running in slow motion with very little to support her, and this clearly had a broad appeal. not only could this show tell young female viewers that you are capable of being the action star, you can be the hero now but it also had a lot for the boys as well. and, in that way it did very clearly pave the way for charlie's angels and all these female-led series." lynda carter's wonder woman wasn't just about sex appeal and action. she was a stranger in a strange land. "well, the island that she comes from, paradise island, is a matriarchal society run by cloris leachman as it happens and on this island, they know nothing of man's ways, except that man's ways are wrong. and the way this translates throughout the series is we find wonder woman constantly coming into conflict with the male order of things, the patriarchal order." "and so i played her for real, with a real humanity, and kind of 'i don't really get what the big deal is' kind of feeling and initially with a lot of naivete because it was all new to her." "she doesn't understand clothing. she doesn't understand money. she doesn't really want to have a part in it other than she realizes she should dress a little bit differently than she did on paradise island. "her major vulnerability was unrequited love and loneliness. there weren't a lot of moments where i could play that. but there are a few, in a few places, where i was able to throw that in a little bit. and they didn't want me to do that -- to show any vulnerability. so i had to sneak it in." "one of the most iconic elements of the show is of course wonder woman's transformation. right? her transformation from diana prince into wonder woman, which she does by twirling. and the producers of the show managed to achieve this effect by doing a lockdown shot and filming her in her diana prince clothes spinning and then filming her in her wonder woman clothes spinning." the show continued through 1979, switching networks abc to cbs and time periods the 1940s to the 1970s midway through its run. after it ended, the world would wait a long time for another wonder woman until 2016. in fact in the new series of d-c superhero movies. today's superheros have jumped from the pages of the comic book to the screens in our living rooms and beyond and some actors will always been remembered for their roles as our favorite characters. when we return, we remember the man who brought us batman in the '60s, adam west plus, we're turning back the lens of time for a look back on the life and career of the man behind the heroes -- stan lee. this is "through the decades." the caped crusader, "batman" has been played by a number of actors going back to the fictional hero's first appearance in movies and on radio in the 1940s. but to many, the quinessential "batman" is adam west who played the "caped crusader" in the popular 1960s t-v show. not long after "batman" debuted as a new "d-c" comics character in 1939, the "caped crusader" was a choice role for actors in movies and on t-v. in the '40s, lewis wilson played "batman" in a popular 15- part movie serial. "who are you?" "i'm batman." over 40 years later, michael keaton laid claim to the cape in two high-budget "batman" movies. followed by actors val kilmer, george clooney, christian bale in christopher nolan's "dark knight" trilogy and ben affleck. but to many, there is one batman who stands out among all others. "your probably wondering why i have this here. it's always handy in case there's a crime." that's adam west. the man who played "the caped crusader" and his alter ego bruce wayne on the highly popular "batman" t-v series of the 1960s. "ringside table, batman?" "just looking, thanks. i'll just stand at the bar. i shouldn't wish to attract attention." it was west who helped set the tongue-in-cheek tone for the pop culture phenomenon which premiered on a-b-c in 1966 he was born as william west anderson on september 19, 1928. and changed his name to adam west in the '50s after starting his acting career on a children's television show in hawaii. as an up-and-coming actor, he supported everyone from paul newman in "the young philadelphians" to the three stooges in "the outlaws is coming." but it was a commercial which led the producers of the "batman" t-v series at 20th century fox to west. "incidentally, one of those torpedos you fired at me was circling and ... you're sunk." "i had done a series of commercials for nestle's quik, kind of a spoof on james bond, before i went overseas to do spaghetti wesrns and a few other things and they were seen by people at abc and fox and when i came back for a visit, they asked to see me and i wondered why and they told me about 'batman.' i asked to read the script, of course. and after about 18 pages of falling down laughing, i said yeah, this is something very fresh and i want to try this." west was paired with actor burt ward who played robin in the show and "batman" became a major hit on a-b-c where two new shows ran every week on back-to-back nights featuring batman and robin defending gotham city from a variety of colorful villains. children loved the action where fight scenes were enhanced with comic book exclamations like "pow!" "bam!" and "zonk!" adults fell in love with the campy humor from the parody narration to the cliff hanger endings to the witty performances from west and company. and the entire family appreciated the vibrant pop colors and the cool gadgets like the batmobile and the bat- phone. west said that batman's element of fun was felt behind the scenes as well. "what you've got to do is make it fun. i think that's part of the trick, you know and keep ... keep that kind of feeling on the set." that fun included west and ward encountering any number of scenery-chewing guest stars from frank gorshin as the riddler to burgess meredith as the penguin. "everything right for tonight's caper?" "of course." to unlikely villains like liberace. "the caped crusader and what a magnificent cape it is too." legendary stage actress tallulah bankhead and a trio of catwomen - julie newmar, lee meriwether and eartha kitt. the show became so popular that there was also a "batman" movie in theaters in 1966 starring west. but in 1968 after 120 episodes, the t-v show was cancelled. it lives on in syndication airing throughout the world. due to the "batman" reruns west became a pop culture icon by the 1990s. "adam, there it is, the batmobile! and the key's still in." he often returned to the "batman" character for personal appearances often paired up with ward as robin. the two even starred together in a made-for-tv movie called "return to the batcave" in 2003. but west has found a new set of fans for his non-batman related appearances on any number of t- v comedies. from live action shows like "george lopez" and "30 rock." "hey kids, batman!" "that's not the real batman." "of course, i'm batman. see, here's a picture of me with robin." "who the hell's robin?" to animated shows like "the simpsons." "and well prize pumpkin from the county fair, that's why i'm naming you my chief of police!" his most notable recurring role is on the irreverent adult animated comedy "family guy" where he plays the role of adam west, the clueless mayor of quahog rhode island but west realizes that much of his success is due to the "batman" character. "people love batman and i've noticed from my mail and the response in the last few years, that people want to see the actor who created a part do the part." still to come as we continue our look back on superheroes "through the decades." we'll go back in time to remember the comic book debut of a friendly neighborhood wall crawler. plus, we're sitting down with the iron pumping actor -- lou ferrigno to talk about his time as the incredible hulk. stick around its still ahead right here on "through the this wallcrawler first appeared in a marvel comic book in 1962 and has become the center-piece of what has grown into a multi- media empire. and despite being around for over five decades, he's still a young man. peter parker is a part time photographer, part time student and full time amazing spiderman. by the early 1960s, there was already a gluttony of comic book superheroes but a lot of them lacked an important trait - relatability. so when marvel comics' head writer, stan lee, was coming up with ideas for a new character, creating someone teens could identify with took precedent and on august 10, 1962, that creation made its first appearance on the cover of "amazing fantasty number 15." his name - spiderman. "i thought what will i call him? and it seemed to me that fly-man wasn't good, insect-man didn't sound good. mosquito-man was awful and then it hit me spider-man and it was an epiphany." *laughs spider-man was an immediate hit and less than a year after being introduced, became a series all its own. spider-man's alter-ego, peter parker, struck a chord with comic books fans everywhere. "it's easy for people to emphathize with spider-man. i mean he has the same worries as most people. how does he make a living?" "he worries about his health. he's as apt to get an allergy attack or sinus attack, an in- grown toenail as anybody else." spider-man had the benefit of being intensely ordinary. a teen navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence while at the same time, having a unique spark of super-human power. it's a formula that would lead spider-man straight to the top of the marvel empire. "people knew that spider-man would be a popular character and great at the movies but they didn't know how great." "spider-man's web isn't just snaring bad guys." "i want to go see it because it looks really cool." "or comic book junkies." "he does a lot of things that i like to do." "but a new army of arachnid afficionados. it's all about peter parker and it's about a movie that could make a billion dollars, a first." "spidey and friends have given marvel enterprises a story book ending." spider-man's role in popular culture remains prominent. a symbol of the ordinary capable of doing something extraordinary. something that never seems to lose its luster in a society obsessed by such an attribute. his popularity just seems to endure. i guess nobody really knows the actual reason why but uh it certainly is very gratifying to us." when our journey continues, we'll take a look back at how decade after decade, superheroes have proven to be bigger than the pages of the comics. from the man who brought a powerful green hero into living rooms across the country to the man who created that character and many more. plus, we bring you an interview with the actor known for his role as the most popular of the x-men mutants. hugh jackman discusses being wolverine. it's all still ahead. it seems crazy to think about now but there was a time when superhero movies were a big risk for studios to take. in 1989, the odds were against filmmakers who wanted to take their favorite comic characters and put them on the screen. "batman" proved it could be the smartest decision they ever made. "i'm batman." "i could see the event. because this is more than a film, it's an event." in 1989, it was "the" movie event. "batman" not only blew away expectations that year, it provided a road map for nearly every massive summer blockbuster to follow for decades to come. from merchandise - to casting. marketing - to the future of how the media covers movies. batman's dna is erywhere in hollywood and the phenomenon began june 23, 1989. "batman was something completely new and completely mind blowing for a 13-year-old boy in detroit, michigan. it was an event." to that point, the only live- action batman the world had seen was adam west. his campy portrayal of the caped crusader was successful in its own way, bringing tv episodes to movie theaters at points during the 1960s "i'm a big batman comic fan. i always was as a kid and i loved the show." but 11 years after "superman: the movie" brought a comic book character to a feature length film, the timing was right for the dark knight to rise again. "there was a sense that while your parents may think of batman as adam west, the generation we're trying to hit does not. they think of it as something darker, and something new, and something crazier and creepier." those darker ideas of the batman story came from graphic novels like "the killing joke" and frank miller's "the dark knight returns." both came out in the years leading up to batman's theatrical release and had given warner brothers reason to think it would be bringing in a crucial audience. "we can take what's considered a kid's franchise, it's certainly darker than superman, take a kid franchise and make it a little more towards teens which is the sweet spot of who buys tickets now a days - forever." once the studio decided to greenlight the project, it needed a cast and crew to pull it off. the keys to the new, darker, batman would be handed to tim burton. an artistic director in the prime of his career who had just turned beetlejuice into a hit. "the thing about batman that's really unique and really strange is that gave an auteur a chance to make a blockbuster." "they gave a guy who doodled things in his notebooks, that would later have turned into 'nightmare before christmas and 'corpse bride', the keys to what they knew would be their biggest film of the year." "tim burton is one of the most innovative directors around. so i'm looking at a brand new, fresh view of batman." that move alone was strange at the time but so was putting an oscar-winner in a superhero movie. "jack is dead my friend, you can call me joker!" jack nicholson brought critical acclaim notching a golden globe nomination for his role as "the joker" "you can't underestimate how important that was to the success of batman. if it had been unknowns or teenagers or young kids, adults wouldn't have cared and it wouldn't have made nearly as much money." while it seems normal today to question the casting of a superhero when burton chose beetlejuice partner michael keaton to dawn the cape comic book fans couldn't see it. "the comic book is based, it's one of the few characters that's a human being and i just found it was a much more interesting way to go." "i knew i had tim and by that time jack was in. so i really believed that i could only fall below x if the whole bottom fell out of this movie" "there's a shift at the end of the '80s from the arnold, sly stallone, big muscle-bound action hereos to bruce willis in die hard to michael keaton in batman to nicholas cage evenutally in the early '90s, where you go from the big muscle-bound here to the intellectual hero. and going that way with batman was a risk, for sure at the time." besides putting an award- winning cast in a superhero movie, batman also proved that a story with a built-in audience could be hyped to another level. billboards with only the iconic batman logo popped up, sparking intrigue. "if they had put michael keaton's face up on a billboard people might have been like 'okay what was that?' but we knew what the logo meant." americans were also blasted with tv ads, marking one of the first all-out cross-promotion campaigns. "now you can get a batman car in a mcdonald's happy meal." "yes, we seem to be down to our last diet coke." "something big is coming to gotham city and it's bringing money and prizes to choice hotels." and by the time the trailer was released, fans packed theaters showing other movies just to watch it. it was a brilliant marketing blitz with the aim of getting as many people as possible to watch the film in its first few weekends before any reviews came out. critics like roger ebert praised batman for its immersive sets but ultimately said the film lacked an intriguing story. but that hardly mattered in then end. movie audiences packed theaters over and over again netting "batman" 40 million in its opening weekend. overall, the film netted 410 million worldwide on a 35- million dollar budget. "it may be batman's biggest influence, negative influence. in that the box office trend." "warner bros was tooting its own horn, that's why the numbers got out there. the numbers wouldn't have gotten out there if it had been a bomb." "so when it becomes about breaking records more than being quality. when it becomes more about that than art, the balance get a little skewed. the scales get a little off." "we can't necessarily blame batman for that, there were products designed to make money before that, but it certainly was where we started to notice it." batman could be blamed for giving birth to the box-office money grab and that terrible sequel with george clooney. "hi freeze. i'm batman" but tim burton's re-birth of the dark knight also helped convince warner brothers that a third batman franchise could be both a financial and critical home run. "kill the batman." *laughs. explosion "nolan's batman doesn't look like it does without burton's batman, to a certain extent, and you can argue nolan's batman doesn't exist without burton's batman" batman proved superhero movies could become international phenomenons by blending a perfect combination of stars, story and a sales pitch. "they didn't just cast it with nobodies, and go on the commodity. they gave it to an auteur and they cast an oscar-winner in it. and i think that's what really elevated batman and made it influential. they didn't take the easy cash grab route. it's a good film." still ahead as we continue our journey of super heroes "through the decades," lou ferrigno sits down with us to discuss his role as the musclebound reluctant hero -- the incredible hulk.plus, we reo helped make the superheroes of marvel comics a media behemoth. marvel comics a media behemoth. many kids grow up idolizing superheroes. lou ferrigno was one of them reading marvel comic books and imagining he was someone different. then one day, in 1976, he became a superhero himself playing the powerful, green, sensitive creature we came to know and love. the incredible hulk. when you think of the incredible hulk, a monstrous, muscle bound image comes to mind. something that lou ferrigno could only dream of being as a child. "when i was very young, i was very introverted." born in 1951, he soon lost 75 percent of his hearing due to a series of undiagnosed ear infections as an infant. "i have a hard time hearing, i had to learn to speak phonetically by the feel of my tongue, i had to learn to socialize, talk to people. i actually had to grow up again." as a teenager he discovered body building. he became the youngest person to ever win the mr. universe competition taking home the title in back to back years in 1973 at age 23 and 1974. and a short time later, came the opportunity of a lifetime. "i moved to california in 1976 to train for the mr. olympia competition and about six weeks before the competition i received a phone call and they said we have an audition for the hulk and i was like wow. i have to play the hulk. nobody else. i went down for the audition and 24 hours, the rest is history." ferrigno had never taken acting lessons and had a lot to learn but credits bill bixby, who played the hulk's mild mannered alter ego, dr. david banner, for teaching him the ropes. "brilliant guy. he's a great actor, producer and director. i learned a lot from him." "bill took me under his wing. like father and son so i spent five years with him. a dear friend of mine." the tv series ran from 1978 to 1982, with 82 episodes over five seasons. but the hulk lived on thanks to a trio of made-for-tv movies allowing ferrigno to play the character for 12 years and setting the stage for the success of future comic book superheroes. "the hulk was the first successful marvel hero. if it wasn't for the hulk you wouldn't see the superheroes today. because even still today, 40 years later, the hulk is still the biggest franchise." "so the hulk broke all barriers when it came out like an explosion. the first show it was amazing that every nationality, every country in the world embraced the hulk." it was a life changing role for ferrigno but just getting into character was a challenge. ferrigno endured 2-3 hours of makeup every day to get the hulk that shade of green in addition to 12 hour shooting days. "i was the hulk my whole life. i loved the hulk. he's my favorite character because he's a very sensitive creature." "today when i see the hulk, i relate to the hulk because the hulk is the same way. he is a good guy but people think he's a menacing creature but when they get to know him they know he doesn't mean any harm." arthur conan doyle is eternally famous for creating sherlock holmes. as is edgar rice burroughs for creating tarzan. and j.k. rowling for creating harry potter. and then there's stan lee. the world would have far fewer superheroes without him. he created spider-man and the hulk. iron man and doctor strange. the avengers, the x- men and many, many more. "i started with marvel comics when i was about 16 and a half. it was known as timely comics in those days. in fact, we didn't change the name to marvel comics until the very early 1960s because at that time we had started an entire new type of stories of superheroes. and we thought, well, now that we're doing everything differently, we might as well get a different name." stan lee reinvented superhero comics by making them more relatable. "one day my publisher came to me -- i was the editor at the time -- " " -- and he said, 'you know, stan, one of our competitors has a superhero team which is selling very well. why don't we do a superhero team.' i figured okay, but i had been in comics so long doing the same old thing, i didn't want to continue dong the same old thing, and i figured, well, if we do a superhero team, maybe we can do it differently. so we came up with the fantastic four. and one of the differences was, they didn't always work harmoniously as people had in comics before. there were jealousies amongst the four of them, one of them wanted to quit because he wasn't getting paid enough, another one thought the other was grabbing all the headlines and all the glory. oine of the members of the team was actually engaged to the girl -- to the heroine -- the girl -- female member which hadn't happened in comics before. they even got married in a future issue. and we tried to make it as realistic as possible." the fantastic four was a sales smash so lee went on to create a whole universe of equally complex heroes. "the whole formula, if there was one, i think was to say, 'let's assume that somebody really could walk on walls, like spider-man or turn green and become a monster like the hulk. that's a given. we'll accept that. but accepting that, what would that person be like in the real world, if he existed? wouldn't he still have to worry about making a living or people distrusting him or having acne or dandruff or his girlfriend jilting him or -- what are the real problems people would have? " stan lee became not just the voice, but the face of marvel comics, known for his famous catch phrases, "excelsior" and "'nuff said." and marvel's readership quickly shifted from children to young adults. "at the end of the '60s, after marvel had been going well for a while, little by little i started getting invitations to speak at colleges. by the 1970s, i was speaking at a different college once a week, 52-weeks a year, all over the country and canada and sometimes even in england." by the 21st century, lee was a cultural icon and he continues to provide memorable cameo appearances in every marvel movie. "i am so fired." "i feel guilty about getting paid for what i do; because as you can imagine, working with comic strip characters, working with artists, with writers, with people in movies, being able to use your imagination and see see the things you think of actually come to life in various ways... what could be more gratifying? " the comics writer who didn't want to do the same old thing, can now take pride in a legacy that dominates the pop culture landscape. "my parting word is of course -- -- excelsior!" from the pages of the comic books to the big screen, he's an iconic character at the center of a multi-billion dollar franchise. still ahead, we dig through the archives to bring you hugh jackman on his long-running role as wolverine. you're watching "through the decades." hugh jackman's versatility as an actor, dancer and singer has served him well in hollywood and turned him into a fan favorite. but fans know the australian actor best for portraying one particular superhero who cannot be killed. he slices and dices his way through enemies and box office competitors alike. wolverine. hugh jackman has been called a lot of things in his life - actor, singer, dancer, father and husband but there's one title he'll never be comfortable with -- sex symbol. . "i mean i used to be quite skinny when i was growing up. so, i was 'worm,' 'stick,' any nickname of the moment. if you had a pimple you were put up on a pedestal look at him! it's not really a culture of nurturing sexiness within somebody." while he doesn't see it, everyone around him certainly does. he was named people magazine's sexiest man alive in 2008 and had even the most professional of journalists swooning over his good looks. "at this point in the interview, based on what i saw in the movie, i think it's time for you to remove your shirt." "right, yeah? i'm surprised it took us this long gayle but you know my rule." "what's your rule?" "i don't do it on my own." "listen, i would give it a go." his world famous physique can largely be attributed to the intense training involved after being cast as wolverine in the x-men series for the first time in 1999. "i had no idea what it was. i'd never read it. i'd read some comics you know, garfield and that growing up but i was not a comic book fan." "ao it's not like you thought, gosh i'd love to play wolverine because in the book he looks drastically different from yourself." "very. that was what freaked me out as soon as i got a copy i was like aah better get to the gym." the gym became jackman's second home and he's reprised the role of wolverine seven more times since his debut. insisting on doing many of his own stunts along the way, a decision that hasn't necessarily been kind to some of his co-stars. "i have a double for some of it but not for a lot of it. the double is really required for the other actress. not her, but me fighting with her because i have this uncanny ability of hurting people." "i'm telling you now because i've basically given her a concussion and kicked her in the stomach. i punched her the other day." while there aren't many who would describe wolverine as a friendly character, jackman's son disagreed. "he has this toy of wolverine that someone gave him from the first one which is voice activated so when he hugs it he goes, 'aww dada!' and in response wolverine says, 'i'll slice you in half!' and he goes, 'aww dada' and he kisses it. it's really quite sickening you know, tormented and bizarre, i'm sure we'll be paying for it in therapy later on but for the moment he quite enjoys having his dad as wolverine." while jackman has gained international recognition for playing the superhero, he's garnered plenty of praise for his ability to adapt to many different roles throughout his career. his roots are in musical theater and his career began on stage in melbourne in the mid '90s. he started to make a name for himself outside of australia in 1998 when he played the lead role of curly in the royal national theatre's stage production of oklahoma! *singing "oh what a beautiful morning! oh what a beautiful day!" his range has been incredible from comedy and period dramas to gracing the stage in broadway musicals and hosting the academy and tony award shows. but the role of a lifetime for jackman came in the opportunity to play jean valjean in les miserables in 2012 for which he won a golden globe award for best actor - motion picture musical or comedy. "i was just standing up there on top of an elephant. it's about four stories high above the barricade singing 'do you hear the people sing?' which is the famous kind of refrain from les mis and anne hathaway turned to me. she said, 'this is one of those moments when you want to be present in your life and it kind of is." "it's one of the most famous musicals and playing these big parts, i'm pinching myself all the time." jackman received a star on hollywood's walk of fame for his remarkable career achievements. but despite his worldwide fame and sex symbol status, it hasn't gone to his head. in fact, jackman is known as one of the nicest guys in show business. "what people say is being nice, is what my dad would say respectful or have good manners. you know, show people respect. i still feel my father like uh uh uh you know, don't think because you're famous. no don't take this for granted." "i feel that 99 percent is upbringing and that's what i really concentrate on as a parent too. i remind my kids and i tell 'em you guys are gonna get a free pass because of me sometimes. but you're not gonna get one from me." gonna get one from me." that'll do it for us today. i'm bill kurtis. as we leave, one last look back at super heroes, "through the decades." ok, so with the award-winning our customers have 24/7 access, digital id cards, they can even pay their bill- (beep) bill has joined the call. hey bill, we're just- phone: hi guys, bill here. do we have julia on the line too? 'k, well we'll just- phone: hey sorry. i had you muted. well yea let's just- phone: so what i was thinking- ok well we'll- phone: yeah- let's just go ahead- phone: oh alright- the award-winning geico app. download it today. >> ♪ >> live from the cbs broadcast center in philadelphia, this is cbs3 "eyewitness news". >> ♪ >> right now at 6 o'clock a memorial marking the loss of a fallen firefighter. this scene outside the springfield fire department memorializes lieutenant matthew let one letourneau one of two lives lost. the philadelphia fire department also a north philadelphia family are in mourning. lieutenant letourneau and is civilian died. alycia nieves is live at temple university hospital with this very tragic story. alycia. >> reporter: that civilian who hasn't been identified was pronounced dead at