‘lOiS lANE’ diES
RIP Superman star Margot, 69
MARGOT Kidder, who starred as Lois Lane in the Superman film franchise of the late 1970s and early 80s, has died aged 69.
Franzen-Davis Funeral Home in Livingston, Montana, posted a notice saying Margot died on Sunday at her home there.
Her agent Camilla Fluxman Pines said: “I can confirm Margot passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, May 13.”
Superman was a superhero blockbuster decades before comic book movies became the norm at the top of the box office.
Both Margot and co-star Christopher Reeve, who played Superman, were relative unknowns when they got their leading roles. Reeve died in 2004.
Canadian-born Kidder also appeared in 1975’s The Great Waldo Pepper with Robert Redford and 1978’s The Amityville Horror.
Scots comic book tycoon Mark Millar was among those paying tribute last night.
He said: “My Lois Lane has passed away. RIP Margot Kidder. Thank you for my favourite movie ever.”
The Big Sick actor Kumail Nanjiani also took to Twitter after news emerged of Margot’s death. He said: “RIP Margot Kidder. One of my favorite movies of hers is the original Black Christmas. It introduced elements that are now genre tropes and she’s fantastic in it.”
Margot is survived by her daughter Maggie, the daughter she had with first husband, American novelist Thomas McGuane. Margot and McGuane divorced in 1976 after three years together.
She later married The Sopranos actor John Heard in 1979, a marriage which lasted six days. Her third marriage was to French director Philippe de Broca, from 1983-84. Born in Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Margot was inspired to become an actress after seeing a musical in the US. “We didn’t have movies in this little mining town,” she once said. “When I was 12, my mom took me to New York and I saw Bye Bye Birdie, with people singing and dancing, and that was it. I knew I had to go far away.” She became a US citizen in 2005 and engaged in American politics, supporting Bernie Sanders’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Margot’s first leading film role was in 1970 comedy Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx. She struggled with bipolar disorder and was diagnosed with the condition in 1996. She later used her public profile to raise awareness about the condition.