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Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was a Canadian and American actress and activist. She amassed several film and television credits in her career spanning five decades, including her widely known role as Lois Lane in the original Superman films (1978–1987). Her accolades included two Canadian Film Awards, an Emmy Award, a Genie Award, and a Saturn Award.
Born in Yellowknife to a Canadian mother and an American father, Kidder was raised in the Northwest Territories and several Canadian provinces. She began her acting career in the 1960s, appearing in low-budget Canadian productions and winning the Canadian Film Special Award in 1969. She first received attention for appearing in the comedy film Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), the horror films Sisters (1972), Black Christmas (1974), and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), and the drama films A Quiet Day in Belfast (1974) and The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).
Kidder's international breakthrough came with playing Lois Lane in Superman (1978) and Kathy Lutz in The Amityville Horror (1979), which were blockbuster films. For these roles, she was twice nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress, winning in 1978 for Superman. She reprised the role of Lois in three Superman sequels (1980–1987), and also played Rita Harris in the comedy film Heartaches (1981) and made her stage debut with the play Bus Stop (1982). After a stint of films and projects that were ambivalently received, Kidder sustained serious injuries in a car accident that left her temporarily paralyzed in 1990, and suffered from a highly publicized manic episode and nervous breakdown in 1996 stemming from bipolar disorder.
Kidder thereafter maintained steady work in independent films and television, notably appearing in the hockey film Chicks with Sticks (2004) and the horror picture Halloween II (2009), and playing a guest role on R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour (2015). She maintained dual citizenship and was an outspoken political, environmental and antiwar activist. Kidder died on May 13, 2018, of an alcohol and drug overdose, which was ruled a suicide.
Margaret Ruth Kidder, one of five children, was born on October 17, 1948, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, the daughter of Jocelyn Mary "Jill" (née Wilson), a history teacher from British Columbia, and Kendall Kidder, an American explosives expert and engineer originally from New Mexico. She was of Welsh and English descent.
Kidder was born in Yellowknife because of her father's employment, which required the family to live in remote locations. Her father subsequently served as the manager of the Yellowknife Telephone Company from 1948 to 1951. She had one sister, Annie, who is an actress and executive director of the People for Education charity, and three brothers: John, Michael, and Peter. Two of her siblings married notable Canadians: Annie married actor Eric Peterson and John married politician Elizabeth May. Kidder's niece Janet Kidder is also an actress.
Recalling her childhood in northern Canada, Kidder said: "We didn't have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12, my mom took me to New York [City] and I saw Bye Bye Birdie, with people singing and dancing, and that was it. I knew I had to go far away. I was clueless, but I [have done] okay." In addition to Yellowknife, she also spent some time growing up in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador. Kidder became interested in politics at a young age, which she credited to debates which her parents had over the dinner table; her mother had socialist leanings, while her father was a conservative Republican.
Kidder had mental health issues from a young age, which stemmed from undiagnosed bipolar disorder. "I knew I was different, had these mind flights that other people didn't seem to have," she recalled. At age 14, she attempted suicide. Kidder found an outlet in acting, as she felt she could "let my real self out ... and no one would know it was me." "Nobody ever encouraged me to be an actress," she recalled. "It was taken as a joke ... As a teenager, I envisioned myself in every book I read. I wanted to be Henry Miller and Thomas Wolfe. I wanted to eat everything on the world's platter, but my eyes were bigger than my stomach."
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Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was a Canadian and American actress and activist. She amassed several film and television credits in her career spanning five decades, including her widely known role as Lois Lane in the original Superman films (1978–1987). Her accolades included two Canadian Film Awards, an Emmy Award, a Genie Award, and a Saturn Award.
Born in Yellowknife to a Canadian mother and an American father, Kidder was raised in the Northwest Territories and several Canadian provinces. She began her acting career in the 1960s, appearing in low-budget Canadian productions and winning the Canadian Film Special Award in 1969. She first received attention for appearing in the comedy film Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), the horror films Sisters (1972), Black Christmas (1974), and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), and the drama films A Quiet Day in Belfast (1974) and The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).
Kidder's international breakthrough came with playing Lois Lane in Superman (1978) and Kathy Lutz in The Amityville Horror (1979), which were blockbuster films. For these roles, she was twice nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress, winning in 1978 for Superman. She reprised the role of Lois in three Superman sequels (1980–1987), and also played Rita Harris in the comedy film Heartaches (1981) and made her stage debut with the play Bus Stop (1982). After a stint of films and projects that were ambivalently received, Kidder sustained serious injuries in a car accident that left her temporarily paralyzed in 1990, and suffered from a highly publicized manic episode and nervous breakdown in 1996 stemming from bipolar disorder.
Kidder thereafter maintained steady work in independent films and television, notably appearing in the hockey film Chicks with Sticks (2004) and the horror picture Halloween II (2009), and playing a guest role on R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour (2015). She maintained dual citizenship and was an outspoken political, environmental and antiwar activist. Kidder died on May 13, 2018, of an alcohol and drug overdose, which was ruled a suicide.
Margaret Ruth Kidder, one of five children, was born on October 17, 1948, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, the daughter of Jocelyn Mary "Jill" (née Wilson), a history teacher from British Columbia, and Kendall Kidder, an American explosives expert and engineer originally from New Mexico. She was of Welsh and English descent.
Kidder was born in Yellowknife because of her father's employment, which required the family to live in remote locations. Her father subsequently served as the manager of the Yellowknife Telephone Company from 1948 to 1951. She had one sister, Annie, who is an actress and executive director of the People for Education charity, and three brothers: John, Michael, and Peter. Two of her siblings married notable Canadians: Annie married actor Eric Peterson and John married politician Elizabeth May. Kidder's niece Janet Kidder is also an actress.
Recalling her childhood in northern Canada, Kidder said: "We didn't have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12, my mom took me to New York [City] and I saw Bye Bye Birdie, with people singing and dancing, and that was it. I knew I had to go far away. I was clueless, but I [have done] okay." In addition to Yellowknife, she also spent some time growing up in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador. Kidder became interested in politics at a young age, which she credited to debates which her parents had over the dinner table; her mother had socialist leanings, while her father was a conservative Republican.
Kidder had mental health issues from a young age, which stemmed from undiagnosed bipolar disorder. "I knew I was different, had these mind flights that other people didn't seem to have," she recalled. At age 14, she attempted suicide. Kidder found an outlet in acting, as she felt she could "let my real self out ... and no one would know it was me." "Nobody ever encouraged me to be an actress," she recalled. "It was taken as a joke ... As a teenager, I envisioned myself in every book I read. I wanted to be Henry Miller and Thomas Wolfe. I wanted to eat everything on the world's platter, but my eyes were bigger than my stomach."