Neill featured in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs Superman (1950), as well as the 1950s’ television series Adventures of Superman as Lois Lane, but also had smaller roles in later Superman-related projects.
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Neill was already a veteran actress with some 40 movies to her credit when she got the role of Lois Lane who always suspected her coworker was really Superman, defender of Truth, Justice and the American Way. Larry Ward, her biographer, confirmed her passing to The New York Times. She also played Gertrude Vanderworth, the elderly wife of villain Lex Luthor, in the 2006 film Superman Returns. She played Lane for 5 seasons, until the show was cancelled in 1958 following Reeves death. She reprised the part alongside George Reeves in the TV series Adventures of Superman in 1952 (the show had debuted the previous year with Phyllis Coates in the role).
Ms. Neill was born in Minneapolis on November 25, 1920, and she initially said she hoped to follow her father, a newspaper editor, into a journalism career. Shortly after high school she traveled to California and found a job as a singer at a restaurant at the Del Mar racetrack. And she had been the baby sitter for their little girls No one thought of taking pictures, because for everyone but me, it was no big deal The Neill’s were common visitors to the Sathers. But she gave Lois something more than just a need to be rescued. I was married, we lived near the beach.
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The actress made cameo appearances in the 1978 Superman movie and the 1988 TV movie Superman: 50th Anniversary. In 2006, she had a quickie role in “Superman Returns”, as did Jack Larson, who had played Jimmy Olsen in the TV series. They both appeared in a 1991 episode of the “Superboy” show, and Larson died last September at 87. Neill, who was born to a journalist father, became the most famous reporter on screen in her portrayal of Lois Lane.
