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 other 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 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 paralysed, 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 through the end of her life.
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.
More information: Flash Back Files
Margaret Ruth Kidder, one of five children, was born on October 17, 1948, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Kidder was born in Yellowknife because of her father's employment, which required the family to live in remote locations.
Kidder made her film debut in a 49-minute film titled The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar (1968), a drama set in a Canadian logging community, which was produced by the Challenge for Change. Kidder's 1969 appearance in the episode Does Anybody Here Know Denny? on the Canadian drama series Corwin earned her a Canadian Film Award for outstanding new talent.
Kidder read for the character of Lois Lane in the 1978 superhero film Superman: The Movie, in the spring of 1977, only one month before principal photography was scheduled to begin.
Kidder was subsequently flown to England for screen-tests. Upon meeting with director Richard Donner, Kidder tripped while walking into the room. Donner recalled: I just fell in love with her. It was perfect, this clumsy [behaviour]. She was ultimately cast in the role, which would become her most iconic.
Kidder reprised her role as Lois Lane in Superman II (1980), though she publicly disagreed with the decision of producers Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind to replace Richard Donner as director.
It was reported that, as a result of Kidder's previous objection to Donner's directorial replacement for Superman II, her role in 1983's Superman III was notably small, consisting of 12 lines and less than five minutes of footage, though the producers have denied this in DVD commentaries.
Kidder subsequently reprised her Lois Lane role in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), which she filmed in 1986.
In December 1990, Kidder was seriously injured in a car accident on the set of the television series Nancy Drew and Daughter which left her partially paralysed as a result of spinal injury. Kidder's mental health was declining during this period; she had received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in 1988, which she rejected at the time, and refused the recommended lithium treatment.
Kidder was a vocal supporter of LGBT rights, and in 2003 hosted benefits at a gay and lesbian health centre in Boston, Massachusetts. Following her publicized nervous breakdown in 1996, she also spoke outwardly about her struggles with mental health and her bipolar disorder diagnosis.
In 2001, she was awarded the Courage in Mental Health Award from the California Women's Mental Health Policy Council for her public dialogue on mental illness.
Kidder died on May 13, 2018, at her house in Livingston, Montana, at the age of 69.
More information: Vulture Hound
and another with Superman.
I think that, as women,
we do that a lot when we fall in love.
Margot Kidder
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