Otis, played by Ned Beatty, is the short henchman of Lex Luthor who appears in the 1978 film Superman and its sequel, Superman II. Lacking any real intelligence or physical strength, Otis is used by Luthor primarily as a gofer. He was inspired by Houseroy, a bumbling servant of another DC Comics supervillain Funky Flashman. According to producer Pierre Spengler in the DVD commentary for Superman II, before Beatty got the part, Peter Boyle tested for and was offered the role.
Superman
The character of Otis is introduced in the first film being sent out to get a newspaper for his boss, and returns to Luthor's underground lair in the Metropolis subways unaware that he is being tailed by a detective. Luthor remedies the situation by killing the luckless law-enforcement officer with a moving wall that pushes him into the path of an oncoming train. In a nod to 007's villain Blofeld, Luthor's face remains unseen as he remarks about Otis, "It's amazing that brain can generate enough power to keep those legs moving." Otis remains oblivious to the fact he was even being followed until Luthor tells him so when he actually arrives in the lair, which made him turn around panickly and knocked nearby lamp. Later, he assists Luthor in redirecting a missile to fire at the San Andreas fault, but he messes up the coordinates as it was written in his arm which wasn't "long enough". In an example of how little Luthor thinks of or appreciates Otis, he denies Otis' request to name a town on the "new" North American coastline (after California falls into the sea) "Otisburg" after himself. Otis whines that Miss Teschmacher gets her own town and it was "a little bitty place" (perhaps like Smallville), but Luthor says nothing. At the end of the film, when Superman captures Luthor and takes him to prison, he also takes Otis.
Superman II
In Superman II, Otis returns, again played by Ned Beatty, but has a much smaller role. Although he remains Luthor's henchman in prison, when Luthor escapes, he leaves Otis behind, electing not to take his incompetent minion along. In a deleted sequence (included as an extra feature on the DVD release of Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut), Otis was at one point to have appeared in a sequence at the end of the film showing Luthor once again escaping from prison -- but again leaving Otis behind.
Superfriends
He appears sorpresively in a episode talking with Luthor about his new plains against the team hero, in the same underground lair in the Metropolis subways of the said first Superman movie.
