Margot Kidder, Canadian-American actress
Margaret Ruth Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018), known professionally as Margot Kidder, was a Canadian-American actress and activist whose career spanned five decades. Her accolades include three Canadian Screen Awards and one Daytime Emmy Award. Though she appeared in an array of film and television roles, Kidder is most widely known for her performance as Lois Lane in the Superman film series, appearing in the first four films.
Born in Yellowknife to a Canadian mother and an American father, Kidder was raised in the Northwest Territories as well as several Canadian provinces. She began her acting career in the 1960s, appearing in low-budget Canadian films and television series, before landing a lead role in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970). She then played twins in Brian De Palma's cult thriller Sisters (1973), a sorority student in the slasher film Black Christmas (1974) and the titular character's girlfriend in the drama The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), opposite Robert Redford. In 1977, she was cast as Lois Lane in Richard Donner's Superman (1978), a role that established her as a mainstream actress. Her performance as Kathy Lutz in the blockbuster horror film The Amityville Horror (1979) gained her further mainstream exposure, after which she went on to reprise her role as Lois Lane in Superman II, III, and IV (1980–1987).
The 1990s were marked by significant health problems for Kidder: In 1990 she sustained serious injuries in a car accident that left her temporarily paralyzed, and she later had a highly-publicized manic episode and nervous breakdown in 1996 stemming from bipolar disorder. By the 2000s she maintained steady work in independent films and television, with guest-starring roles in Smallville, Brothers & Sisters, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The L Word, and appeared in a 2002 Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues. In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in the children's television series R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour.
In 2005 Kidder became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She was an outspoken political, environmental and anti-war activist, and continued to participate in political and activist causes until her death. Kidder died on May 13, 2018, at her home in Livingston, Montana, aged 69, in what was later ruled a suicide by alcohol and drug overdose.
1948Oct, 17
Margot Kidder
Choose Another Date
Events on 1948
- 3Apr
Marshall Plan
United States President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. - 14May
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. - 15May
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. - 16Jul
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. - 3Aug
Alger Hiss
Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.