MARGOT KIDDER

'Margot Kidder' (born October 17, 1948) is a Canadian-American film and television actress who achieved fame playing Lois Lane in the ''Superman'' movies of the 1970s and 1980s.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Kidder was born 'Margaret Ruth Kidder' in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, one of five children of Jill, a history teacher,^[1] and Kendall Kidder, an explosives expert and mining engineer.^[2] She was born in Yellowknife because of her father's job, which required the family to live in remote locations.^[3] She has a sister, Annie, and three brothers, John, Michael and Peter. Kidder's niece, Janet Kidder, is also an actress.

Career

In the late 1960s, Kidder was based in Toronto, and appeared in a number of TV drama series for the CBC, including guest appearances on ''Wojeck'', ''Adventures in Rainbow Country'', and a semi-regular role as a young reporter on ''McQueen''. Later, she made an appearance as a barmaid in ''Nichols'', a short-lived James Garner vehicle made for American television. She also appeared in a number of low-budget Canadian movies in the early 1970s before going on to star in the Brian de Palma psychological thriller ''Sisters'' (1973) and the horror film ''Black Christmas'' (1974). A nude pictorial of Kidder, photographed by Douglas Kirkland, was published in the March 1975 issue of ''Playboy''. The accompanying article was written by her as a condition of appearing: Kidder said "I don't want someone writing 'Margot Kidder has more curves than the Pacific Coast Highway' under my picture."
Kidder is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the 1978 film '' and its sequels. Kidder brought more depth to the role than previous actresses, portraying Lane as an ambitious and headstrong, yet vulnerable and emotionally lonely woman trying to make it in a man's world. After she publicly expressed her disgust to the producers, Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind, over the firing of Richard Donner from 1980's ''Superman II'', her role in 1983's ''Superman III'' consisted of less than 5 minutes of footage. Her role in 1987's '' was more substantial.
In addition to the Superman movies, Kidder has starred in ''The Amityville Horror'', ''Willie and Phil'', ''Some Kind of Hero'' with Richard Pryor and ''The Great Waldo Pepper'' opposite Robert Redford. She has also made uncredited cameo appearances in ''Maverick'' and ''Delirious''.
In 1983, Kidder produced and starred as Eliza Doolittle in a TV version of ''Pygmalion'' with Peter O'Toole. In the late 1980s she appeared in introductions for the Discovery Channel's "Best of the BBC" series of repackaged documentaries, among them ''Making of a Continent''. She has also done extensive stage work, including ''The Vagina Monologues''.
In 1994, Kidder played the bartender at the "Broken Skull" tavern in ''Under a Killing Moon'', an IBM PC adventure game.
In 2004, Kidder briefly returned to the Superman franchise in two episodes of the television program ''Smallville'', as Dr. Bridgette Crosby, an emissary of Dr. Swann (played by her ''Superman'' co-star, Christopher Reeve). Also that year Kidder made an appearance on a Canadian sitcom, ''Robson Arms'', set in an apartment block in Vancouver's west end. She played a quirky neighbor of the main cast members.
In 2007, Kidder started appearing on the television series ''Brothers and Sisters'', playing Emily Craft.

Personal life

In the past, Kidder dated former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. She has been married and divorced three times: to American playwright Thomas McGuane (by whom she had her only child, daughter Maggie [now Maggie Kirn], in 1976); to actor John Heard; and to French film director Philippe de Broca. None of the marriages lasted longer than a year. Since her divorce from De Broca, she has said that she prefers the companionship of her dogs.
Kidder raised some hackles in the early 1990s during the first Gulf War, when she ridiculed the press and the military for not seeing the larger consequences of their actions.
Kidder was involved in a serious car crash back in 1990, after which she was unable to work for two years, causing her serious financial problems.
Kidder has bipolar disorder, which led to a widely publicized manic episode in 1996. Kidder was found by police in a distressed state. She was placed in psychiatric care.
Kidder became a United States citizen on August 17, 2005, in Butte, Montana; she lives in nearby Livingston. She said the reason for her decision to become an American citizen is to participate in the voting process, to continue her protests against U.S. intervention in Iraq, and at the same time to be free of worries about being deported.^[4]

References

1. http://www.supermancinema.co.uk/superman2/general/media/s2media_kidderfired_from3_peoplemag_Aug81.htm
2. http://www.filmreference.com/film/52/Margot-Kidder.html
3. Out of Its Mind: Psychiatry in Crisis, , John Allan, Hobson, Basic Books, , ISBN0738202517
4. Superman actress among 19 who gain U.S. citizenship in Butte

External links

★

★ Article: From paranoid delusions to orthomolecular medicine

★ Canadian Film Encyclopedia [A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group]