Margaret Ruth “Margot” Kidder, born in Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories in October 1948, was Canadian and American, an actress and an activist. Kidder was a mainstay in the horror community as well, scoring roles in movies like The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Halloween II, and more.
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Kidder passed away yesterday at her home in Livingston, Montana.
It was in 1978 that Kidder got her big break in Richard Donner’s Superman.
Hit PLAY to make your Monday better.. Cocky, self-assured, and proud of her chain-smoking habit (and inability to spellcheck), she breathed some screwball humour into the film as well as an air of authentic newsroom brassiness.
She had reportedly been working on an autobiography for three years and her computer became infected with a virus – effectively erasing all her work up until that point. Since then, much like Carrie Fisher, Kidder had been outspoken about her healing process and learning to accept her diagnosis. The actress had a famously rough time coping with mental health problems, including paranoia and depression. Her career further came to a halt after she suffered a nervous breakdown in 1996.
The late actress rose to fame in 1978 for her portrayal of journalist and Superman’s love interest, Lois Lane, opposite Christopher Reeve.
“We’re sad”, said a clearly devastated Annie Kidder to Global News. She also appeared in the three sequels.
The actress, who leaves behind a daughter, was married and divorced thrice in her life.
Margot had previously been open about her battle with bipolar disorder, and later became an advocate for mental heath. Kidder would play the iconic Lois Lane in four films over the next decade, holding her own against Reeve and establishing Lois Lane as a modern-day hero in her own right. “There was a Frances Farmer quality about her”, wrote Biskind, “and she struck her friends as not altogether stable”. She began to get noticed after landing a lead role in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx in 1970.
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As news broke of Margot’s death tonight, her Lois Lane Superman co-star Teri Hatcher took to Twitter to pen a heartfelt message. “Off-screen she was one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring woman I’ve ever known”.
