Actress Margot Kidder Dies, Aged 69

Margot Kidder, who is still best known for playing Lois Lane in the 1970s and 80s Superman films, has died. She was 69.

Born in Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories in 1948, Margo Ruth Kidder, spent the early years of her life moving with her family because of her engineer father's career. After a trip to New York that included seeing a stage production of Bye, Bye Birdie, she first got the idea to try acting. She studied her craft at boarding school and continued her education at the University of British Columbia.

Following her graduation, she joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and started to find work on the small screen before moving to films with Gaily Gaily and Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx. After the negative critical reaction to her performance in the latter sent her back to New York to keep working on her craft, she paid the bills appearing in TV ads. Moving back to Los Angeles, she struggled until she landed a role in Brian De Palma's Sisters. From there, she kicked off a career that included movies such as The Gravy Train, Black Christmas, The Great Waldo Pepper and The Amityville Horror.

Yet it was winning the role of Lois Lane that cemented her position in pop culture. Appearing alongside Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent/Superman in Richard Donner's 1978 film, Kidder brought natural charm and smarts to the role, which she reprised in 1981's Superman II, but fell out with the producers over the replacement of Donner as director. The resulting feud saw her role in 1983's Superman III reduced to a contractual minimum, though that might have been a blessing considering the film, and its derided follow-up.

In her personal life, Kidder endured mental health issues, including a manic depression diagnoses and injuries from an on-set car accident that left her using a wheelchair for two years. Despite the challenges, she continued to work, cropping up on TV and appearing in a variety of shows and films including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Smallville, The L Word, H2, Brothers And Sisters and Touched By An Angel.

Kidder reportedly died at her home in Montana on Sunday.